Featured Chinese Counterfeit Products Dominate the World's Fakes-One Answer

How many times has one of us come hurrying to Our Forum wondering (hoping) that $10 Murano Vase is the real thing ? Frequently the answer is -'Sorry,Made In China'.
Here's an interesting article I found online,basically the writer's opinion is-because Chinese citizens want their 'bling',real or not.
Here's a snippet-
"Chinese Counterfeit Products Dominate the World' Fakes-
Middle-class shoppers who value brand prestige make up a large segment of the non-deceptive Chinese counterfeit market. These aspirational Chinese shoppers purchase fake goods to appear more high class, impress peers, and enhance social status."

 

The Chinese have a different understanding of copy vs original:

"The Chinese have two different concepts of a copy. Fangzhipin (仿製品) are imitations where the difference from the original is obvious. These are small models or copies that can be purchased in a museum shop, for example. The second concept for a copy is fuzhipin (複製品). They are exact reproductions of the original, which, for the Chinese, are of equal value to the original. It has absolutely no negative connotations. The discrepancy with regard to the understanding of what a copy is has often led to misunderstandings and arguments between China and Western museums. The Chinese often send copies abroad instead of originals, in the firm belief that they are not essentially different from the originals. The rejection that then comes from the Western museums is perceived by the Chinese as an insult."
https://aeon.co/essays/why-in-china-and-japan-a-copy-is-just-as-good-as-an-original

 

So a perfect 'Copy' is equal to what we in the West call an 'Original'. Whereas a 'Knock-off' or 'Counterfeit' is a totally different thing.
One's an homage (Copy),the other's a marketing/sales object.

 

That's a new winkle, for me. At some level I can understand that viewpoint, intellectually...but emotionally every fiber of my being cries out foul! The original...th' Real McCoy if you will...has lived through its time...bearing the scars of the slings an' arrows outrageous fortune has bestowed upon it, which enhance its appeal to me.
The identical copy (hats off to those Chinese capable of such imitation) bears none of the attraction, for myriad reasons.
Am I alone in this unseemly rejection? I seriously doubt that...this amounts to an object lesson in the vast an' impenetrable gulf between eastern an' western thought. It's either old...or it ain't. Can we get a consensus?

 

I'm with you for that sentiment for antiques bearing scars of their life!!!

 

Not sure if this applies in this conversation. I became friends with a Japanese woman that came to the US to learn English in order to return to Japan to teach English. She once painted a magnolia on a velvet pillow with her finger tips that was an exact match of the photo she was copying. I remarked on her skill. She said in Japan , I am considered mediocre. I envy you in America because you know how to create we only are taught to copy and creating is really not allowed. We copy everything and often make it smaller but not a new creation. Even in schools she said it is all memorizing. She ultimately chose not to go back to Japan because she told me she wanted to be free to create. Now that is one woman's thoughts on copies. I assume she was accurate but having never lived in Japan I could not say.

 

Enlightening. Very. And rather sad. I hope this was a good while ago...

 

Between 2008 & 2010, 70% of all counterfeits seized globally came from China.
Here's an item I found on the BBC Site-I haven't investigated this piece in depth-so take it with a grain of salt.If true,this is one deep & extraordinary fake !

An American blogger has discovered 3 fake Apple stores operating in Kunming City, China.

Pictures of the stores, their staff and a description of a stroll around them was posted on the BirdAbroad blog.

In the article, she writes about conversations with staff, many of whom were convinced that they were employed by the US electronics firm.

Apple has said it has no comment to make on the discovery of the counterfeit shops.

On her blog, BirdAbroad described the stores as a "beautiful ripoff - a brilliant one - the best ripoff store we had ever seen".

She describes how convincing the shop was at first glance because so much trouble had been taken to copy key elements of a real Apple store.


For instance, it has a winding staircase, upstairs seating area and employees wearing blue T-shirts and chunky ID lanyards.
*A further check revealed that none of the three stores she found are mentioned on Apple's list of official resellers known to be trading in Kunming.

 

In Asian cultures in general, copying is regarded differently from the way we see it.

Back in the 70s a few of my schoolmates were Japanese. They told me that the Japanese school system nips all creativity, including creative thinking, in the bud. On the upside they had no homework. (Maybe the Japanese system didn't want children to work on their own?)
I have heard that today the system is pretty much the same. As is the high suicide rate among children, adults too.
The situation in Communist China is different of course, stifling in another way.

If you look at historic Japan, they were masters at perfecting the arts and techniques that were introduced from Korea and China. Antique Japanese items tend to be utter perfection, whereas antique Chinese items feel more free, and can even show the personality of the maker.

 

The linked article by Byung-Chul Han (above) provides a fascinating insight into this completely different view of material stuff. I encourage folks to read the whole thing. We who are raised in the western tradition of individuality and creativity, (not to mention the "sacredness" of the "original", even if fragmentary), may disagree but it is a view to be aware of. It certainly explains all of the anachronistic dynasty marks on Chinese ceramics, for example.

If you produce/reproduce the same thing for 1000 years, you can get really good at it -

"The Ise Grand Shrine, the supreme Shinto sanctuary located on Honshu island, is 1,300 years old for the millions of Japanese people who go there on pilgrimage every year. But in reality this temple complex is completely rebuilt from scratch every 20 years.
This religious practice is so alien to Western art historians that, after heated debates, UNESCO removed this Shinto temple from the list of World Heritage sites. For the experts at UNESCO, the shrine is 20 years old at most. In this case, which is the original and which the copy?
In a culture where continual reproduction represents a technique for conservation and preservation, replicas are anything but mere copies
This is a total inversion of the relationship between original and copy. Or the difference between original and copy vanishes altogether. Instead of a difference between original and copy, there appears a difference between old and new. We could even say that the copy is more original than the original, or the copy is closer to the original than the original, for the older the building becomes, the further it is from its original state. A reproduction would restore it, as it were, to its ‘original state’, especially since it is not linked to a particular artist."

 

When we were in Hongkong in the early 70s, new gilded carvings in the style of gilded furniture and house panels were much more expensive than the antique ones. Antique ones were regarded as damaged and discarded junk.

Same with Javanese house panels, which were also renewed every 3-5 decades. In the 1920s and 30s 'crazy' Dutch collectors bought many of those old panels, of which I have a few.

 

In 19th Century Europe student artists were taught by the Academies to slavishly copy plaster cast statues from antiquity.After decades of this oppressive system the Impressionists,Post-Impressionists,Cubists & Moderns didn't look back nostalgically at the old Academy state sanctioned-art.
Today some in our culture gaze back reverentially at a pair of 5 year old Nike Sneakers as if they came from some 'golden age'.

 

2ManyBks-That's a great point ! I'd guess none of our ancient European Cathedrals,Greek,Roman,Mycenaean or Minoan Temples are 100% original-you'd have a pile of rubble.Same w/ most Mayan,Aztec,etc structures.

 

Exactly. Our Gothic cathedrals have very few original Gothic period carvings, and restoration/reconstruction work is a regular thing.

Unesco is very finnicky about their list. They don't seem to accept that their heritage list consists of many evolving landscapes and townscapes.
The Dresden-Elbe cultural region was struck off the list because the Waldschlösschen Bridge was constructed over the Elbe to alleviate traffic congestion in the monumental city of Dresden.
I think the design of the bridge is a delicate design, taking the landscape and view of the city into consideration. But Unesco decided Dresden with its countless monuments and museums was no longer Unesco-worthy, they would rather have traffic jams between the monuments and exhaust fumes damaging the historic buildings.
The Elbe with the Waldschlösschen bridge, in the background naughty, non-compliant Dresden:



And then there is the mind-boggling story of Georgia's 11th century Bagrati Cathedral, also struck off the Unesco list. I guess they'd rather see a pile of rubble:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagrati_Cathedral

 

That bridge is beautiful modern design.Poor Dresden,firebombed to ash,then meticulously rebuilt/restored-then dumped by Unesco !

 

You have to remember that Dresden, and other European cities, were largely destroyed in WWII, and rebuilt to recreate the old city appearance. A lot of what looks ancient in those cities is, in fact, post WWII.

 

less than 20 years ago. I found the same was true with the large Hmong community attending our schools. We had a hard time convincing the parents that reading was just not memorizing words. They would have the Kinder and 1st grade students read the books over and over until they had them memorized. In the after school program the young Hmong students would crowd around the High School Hmong students and watch them draw manga characters and then go and draw them identically on their own. I observed this over and over. Very different from the large Hispanic population .

 

I hesitate before asking...but for one, I would be grateful if you would post a few representative pics of those Javanese panels. I'm, of course, totally unfamiliar with them...an' the concept of such renewal after 30-50 years is also completely foreign.
Perhaps you've shown them here previously, so just a link would suffice, AJ. Thanks for considering my request!

 

I'll take some pics. Hopefully tomorrow.

 

Thank you!