Shanzhai Culture Should Not Be Encouraged

"Shanzhai" first became a name for fakes after Shanzhai cell phones' popularity in the market. Now it has been given a broader meaning of fake, uNPRofessional or homemade, and a slang for anything that steals ideas or styles from already well-known stuff. Some believe that "Shanzhai" has become a culture of its own and it represents non-mainstream ideas and innovations. However, from my point of view, it's not a healthy culture but piracy.

山寨手機在市場上流行后，”山寨“就開始成為假貨的代名詞。如今，它已經被賦予了更廣泛的意義，如假貨，不專業或自制的，以及用于盜竊已經出名的東西的創意或風格的俚語。有的人認為”山寨“已經形成了自己的文化，而且它代表著一種非主流想法和創新。然而，在我看來，它不是一種健康的文化而是一種盜版。

"Shanzhai" comes from copying and plagiarizing and often infringes on intellectual property rights. For example, imitated electronics, including cell phones, MP3s and even laptops, are the most common "shanzhai" products. Despite the possible infringement of IP rights, they are much liked by many people as a good way to spend less. However, consumers' interests should not be at the expense of legitimate IP right holders. IP right laws are there to protect the interests of patent, copyright and trademark holders for a limited period of time. They are devised not only to reward innovators, but also to encourage further creativity. If illegal "shanzhai" is not held accountable, society is rewarding copycats while punishing innovators. The result could be disastrous. Everyone will choose to copy others. The market will be flooded with the same kind of poorly-designed and badly-made products that have short lives and lack after-sale services.

”山寨“來源于復制和抄襲，通常侵犯了知識產權。比如，仿冒電子產品，包括手機、MP3甚至是手提電腦，是最普遍的山寨產品。盡管可能侵犯了知識產權，它們還是被人們所喜愛，他們把這看做是一個省錢的好辦法。然而，消費者的興趣不應該以侵犯知識產權為代價。知識產權法是用來保護專利、版權和商標持有者有限時間內的利益的。它們不僅僅是用來獎勵創新者，也是用來鼓勵進一步創造的。如果非法山寨不追究責任的話，社會就是在獎勵模仿者同時懲罰原創者。這一后果會很嚴重。每個人都會選擇抄襲別人。市場將充斥著設計拙劣、制造粗糙、壽命短且缺少售后服務的產品。

From the above discussion, we can see clearly that "shanzhai" culture is not a healthy one. It violates IP rights and undermines market competition order under the disguise of grassroots culture.

從以上討論我們可以清楚看到山寨文化是一種不健康的文化。在草根文化的偽裝下，它違背了知識產權，破壞了市場競爭秩序。