Why Do the Chinese Copy So Much?

By DIDI KIRSTEN TATLOW

 JULY 25, 2012 July 25, 2012 5:57 pm

An imitation of the medieval square of Halstatt, Austria, erected in Guangong province, China. (With authentic Austrian brass band, mayor and family.)

HALLSTATT, Austria — Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery — but it can be creepy too, as the residents of Hallstatt, a picturesque Austrian town, discovered last year when a Chinese property developer built a copy of their home in southern China.

PAGE TWO

Posts written by the IHT’s Page Two columnists.

As news spread in Austria and around the world that a copy of the medieval town’s market square, a church and other important buildings had been erected in Boluo, Guangdong province (part of a bigger development designed to attract wealthy buyers to expensive villas built by Minmetals Land), a debate began in media and in private conversations: Was it OK for the Chinese to do this? And why do they copy so much, anyway?

As I report in my latest Page Two column, the Chinese didn’t ask permission: five Chinese architects walked around incognito, photographing the town, then returned to Boluo where the town square was copied at high speed.

And it’s not just a question of architecture and iPads.

In China, academic journals are riddled with plagiarism. A professor in China tells National Public Radio that about 30 percent of submissions to the Journal of Zhejiang University-Science was drawn from heavily plagiarized research.

In China, rip-offs of all sorts are common. But the practice has a dangerous side: unlicensed or fake medicines — for example — or foods and chemicals, can, and do, kill.

Yet copying, whether a painting or a literary work, has a long tradition in China. It was a way of learning, of showing admiration and respect, as this report about from Taiwan’s National Palace Museum shows.

Perhaps the language is a reason why: you cannot learn Chinese unless you spend years memorizing thousands of characters needed to achieve literacy, unless you copy, single-mindedly, unquestioningly. Some linguists and cultural historians believe so much mental energy and brain space is taken up by rote learning of the language, that little is left over for innovative thinking.

In an article in Austria’s Der Standard newspaper last week (in German), readers weighed in with their opinions about the Halstatt imitation.

The title of the article, “All Soul is Missing” said much. But some readers adopted a more relative perspective.

“Oh well, our parliament is also a fake version of Greek culture,” wrote benutzerstandard.

KomaPoster wrote: “What are Austrians proud of? Schönbrunn,” their palace in Vienna. “A copy of fancy French buildings!”

Zinsenfeger thought that comparison was too crude: “Study the subtle differences between something that is an example (as a source of inspiration) and a copy.”

Cristoph Smaul had a bit of fun: “So? We’ll build a copy of the Great Wall.”

Imax wrote: “China is adopting the achievements of Western civilization, at least as far as information and technology go. They are learning like crazy and you learn through imitation, too.”

Gilgamesh wrote: “Red China has been copying foreign achievements for decades.” He continued, “What they are absolutely incompetent at, however, as far as copying goes, is democracy and human rights.”

That may be a crucial difference in this case.

According to Hallstatt’s mayor, Alexander Scheutz, it was thanks to Austria’s post-war democratic system and an independent citizens movement that Hallstatt was preserved at all for China to copy over 50 years later.

Citizens challenged and stopped a government planned demolition.

China does not permit civil society movements of the kind that once saved Hallstatt from the wrecking ball, a fate that has befallen thousands of picturesque towns in China.

In 1959, a proposal was made by state officials to drive a broad road through Hallstatt along the lake, to enable vehicular traffic.

“Many houses would have had to be knocked down for the road,” Mr. Scheutz wrote in an email.

Hallstätters said, “No.”

“There was an ‘uprising’ and a citizens movement,” wrote Mr. Scheutz.

“There was a citizens’ vote, many negotiations and talks, and a decision was taken to build a tunnel,” which today runs through the mountain at the back of town, a decision Mr. Scheutz described as “better, but much more expensive.”