ponderings of the pococurante

These are not my observations, just some points culled from various essays that i found on shanzhaixiehui.cn (China Imitated Association)

Since there’s a growing interest among non-CHinese people about the phenomenon, these points might help clarify the issue somewhat:

1. Shanzhai is a reaction against various forms of monopoly, both economic and cultural.
Example: CCTV has a monopoly on the spring festival galas. One of reasons why there was going to be a shanzhai version (it was canceled) was to challenge that monopoly, to create an alternative choice for the viewer.

HEre is what the director of the failed shanzhai gala said

山寨春晚”的总导演老孟接受采访时说：“这台节目的本意是靠平民的智慧和力量展现草根文化的精华。”由此可见，中国人如何看山寨文化。

“山寨”是中国改革开放30年来“吸引外国技术和中国政府的默认”所带来的“另类现象”。最近还与中华民族主义相结合，成为了一种中国特有的文化现象 。

Two points in there: one is that shanzhai is closer to being grassroots (cao gen) and therefore closer to what the people want. And secondly, that the shanzhai movement or culture has widespread support, and is one of the first non-mainstream type movements or concepts to gain that kind of traction in China since the beginning of the reform period.

2. Shanzhai is the eye of the beholder:

QQ、肯德基、百事都是山寨企业发家的——有好的模式干嘛不学?

So all these competitors were once “shanzhai” versions of something else. QQ to msoft, KFC to mcdonalds, and Pepsi to Coke. Baidu is also mentioned as being shanzhai to Google. What’s the point here: the scrappy competitor learns from the successful business model, tries to emulate it, and will somehow mature into its own, come out of the mountain village and down to the city, where it becomes somehow normalized, a bona fide and respectable business with the kind of scope and clout that the originals had. Therefore, in this meaning of the word, shanzhai is transitional, a temporary state.

3. Why does shanzhai work?
山寨启示一：觉察、填补市场空白

a. because it fills in certain blanks in the market–it caters to certain niches that are overlooked by the major players.

　山寨企业启示二：争夺、开拓市场空间

b. because it creates and expands the market.

　山寨企业启示三：企业不一定一开始就做第一

c. because you don’t have to be #1 from the start: start out shanzhai, and build your capital and market share, and then, when the time comes, worry about elevating brand image and influence.

4. When a celebrity attending the political conferences being held now in Beijing called for a banning of shanzhai, it caused bit an uproar on the internet. This is no doubt because not everyone seems to be clear on the difference between piracy and shanzhai. Shanzhai doesn’t infringe on IPR. It means imitating something closely enough so that it looks like the real thing but you can’t get sued for it . If you look at this shanzhai netbook you will find that sure, it looks like any other 10″ netbook from ASUS, or Acer, or HP, but its shanzhai, and therefore has no brand name, and probably yes, cuts a lot of corners that the biggies dont. On the other hand, their production cycles are quite different than the biggies, which allows them to make and put their products on the market much faster. This is an aspect of shanzhai electronics that doesn’t get talked about much.

Or take the following two cars:

The top car is from Sichuan CEO brand and the bottom one is from BMW. The former is less than half the price of the cheapest model of the latter.

And that, of course, is the bottom line when it comes to the popularity or at least persistence of the shanzhai phenomenon.

And just for fun, here’s the shanzhai Jackie Chan

From what i’ve heard, it seems that the sentiments being expressed have 1. desire to break the monopoly and create more choices for the consumers, by offering them something more grassroots, something less controlled (ie not under govt control or supervision), and mostly, offering this thing to them at a price point suited to the average Chinese consumer. Why buy an iPhone in CHina for 4600 rmb when you can get a HIphone for 2600, and which has a nice UI (maybe not nice as Apples) and has many of the same functions? I mean if you can’t afford the extra 2000, like me, what does it matter if its really Apple or not? If it uses Windows Mobile, that’s ok with me, so long as all the functions work and don’t have any major bugs or flaws in them.

By doing so, they are tapping into a market that the biggies don’t tap in–and that means that they have a positive effect on the economy as well. With the financial crisis, everyone is talking about layoffs and social stability as well as the mounting pressures faced by young people, especially uni grads fresh off their studies–well, shanzhai industries and enterprises just might be able to contribute something in these difficult economic times.

And that’s why it’s become so popular around China. There’s a slightly nationalistic tenor to all of this. Nothing bad in the anti-French or Japanese type way–just a pride in homegrown products, in the sense of achievement you get in reverse engineering something and building it again, maybe a bit different, maybe even a bit better. Even as the financial system reels, shanzhai is still a celebration of capitalism and competition.

This is from a paper I found on the web, on subjectivity and mathematics education, perhaps prompted by my recent return to teaching calculus, however briefly, which has reawakened my interest in the subject. Especially now, when I realize that i am not really, passionately interested in most of what happens in the world, in the things that people take interest in. The stuff we talk about: music, movies, sports, politics, tech, food–you see all of that in our conversations everyday, and yet what i think about is what is NOT included on the list. I mean most of what we talk about has its root in mass culture, as opposed to elite artistic or intellectual culture. There’s nothing wrong with that, but sometimes i step back at this and think “you know what, i just dont want to be a part of this anymore. And then, inevitably, i think of being atop a hill, with a glimpse, from between the hills, of the Mediterranean. and i think about a simple life, and i think about a life free from working for the Man, that is, i think of what life could be like if i didn’t have to sell my soul to corporate capitalism or pay attention to its creations and cultural artifacts. Because capitalism’s greatest achievement is not the particular objects but how it’s won hearts and minds, molded us in the shape of the consumers that they dream of seeing, turning us into the market that will make them rich. In any case, this creeping sense of alienation has made me think more and more about what it is that constitutes the self, the sense of who you are, the feeling of belongingness or estrangement from one’s cultural world. and so i read this passage and thought it was interesting:

Self has often been understood as the biological entity held together by a cognitive
unity, but as Lemke (1995, p. 82) argues, from a “post-modern view this was a massive
sleight of hand. Even within the natural sciences there is no guarantee that physical, chemical and biological definitions of an organism coincide for all purposes”. Subjectivity is constituted discursively, defined by participations in a multitude of discursive practices. As such subjects identify with something outside of their selves. They identify with and partake in social discourses and through these identifications craft their subjectivity. Although possessiveness of one’s subjectivity is also in question since subjects are acting out aspects of previously formed languages, trying them out for size, but never quite fitting (Althusser, 1971). As such subjects are “alienated” from their discourse.

apple store beijing one to one training

During the Olympics I got to visit the new and only Apple Store in China, a true temple of Apple dedicated to the pantheon of Cupertino immortals. The only thing that sucked about it is that I already have a fancy Macbook and can’t afford to get anything else. On the second floor there is the Genius Bar, and I thought to myself, half-jokingly, how great it would be for me to work there. Well, after clicking on some Chinese iPhoto ads, I got to the Apple China home page and I guess they are, like the other Apple Stores around the world, offering training classes for Apple products and software, which brought the whole idea back into my mind. That is so my dream job. Why don’t they have one in Shanghai?!

Lenovo’s Olympic ads – BusinessWeek

I think they use completely different ads here in China. The sumo wrestler/Xpad 300 ad is this one:

Here’s even more bleeding edge avant-garde one for the Z60:

And here’s a Chinese one featuring Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi from way back when:

This Xpad 300 one is rather tepid by comparison:

Here’s another Chinese one that is snazzy but not quite as avant-garde as the newest ones:

Here’s yet another dated, sports-related one from China:

You can tell the Chinese ones and the US ones are quite different in style. I suppose that reflects a change in their marketing strategy, maturation of the brand, and perhaps change in commercial production personnel…anyway, Business Week thinks that these are perhaps too edgy for the Olympics and are better suited for the Superbowl…

which is supposed to be open on July 19th, in time for the Olympics. The article is a bit skeptical about the chances of it opening given the shape that the place is in right now…still excited about it, at least that gives me something to do next time I’m in Beijing.

MacNN | Early photos of Beijing Apple Store emerge via kwout

A new, very heads-on MacBook Air rebuttal type ad from Lenovo. The ThinkPad X300 seems like a decent computer, solid state drive and all — but it just costs a lot more, even though we know that if the Macbook were to be fitted with a similar solid state drive the price would end up being higher than what you pay for the Thinkpad. The best thing to do would be to fork over the money for the ThinkPad and then make it a hackintosh!

Technorati Tags: lenovo, macbookair, mac, osx, windows, xp, ultraportable, computers,

THis is google’s valentines day image.

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THis is google’s valentines day image.

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The list is all right, but unfortunately, ecto and marsedit both cost money.

14 Essential Mac OS X Applications for Bloggers via kwout

Technorati Tags: marsedit, ecto, blogging, apps, mac, apple, blogs, internet, tech, productivity

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The list is all right, but unfortunately, ecto and marsedit both cost money.

14 Essential Mac OS X Applications for Bloggers via kwout

Technorati Tags: marsedit, ecto, blogging, apps, mac, apple, blogs, internet, tech, productivity

Powered by ScribeFire.