Quote:
Originally Posted by ablium  I don't think that Chinese consider imitation as virtue. I think that they consider imitation as shortcut. |
Chinese and Western values still differ very much, and that's the main reason why our people don't understand each other, and never will.
Chinese will never understand the spirit of European Christmas, as example, nevertheless so many must try to copy and "celebrate" it in China. The same with the V-day, and it isn't the same issue when ABC is trying to copy a NBC show, or Wal-Mart is trying to overtake a strategy of 7eleven.
Calligraphy, the most important Chinese art, is based on imitation not only since the era of Wang Xizhi (born 330, who's only copies and no original works exist), and every "creative" writer would be despised in China for his "artistic" interpretation today.
BTW, there is an interesting book by Ralph Karchow, unfortunately in German, "Das Chinesische Urheberrecht", about the differences between Western (German) and Chinese "copyrights", with ancient historical backgrounds as main reasons for misunderstandings and mistakes in today's Chinese-German co-op.
Chinese want to make exact copies of Western products first, then, giving them some own attributes including Chinese specific ones, they want to improve "their products". These were also my experiences I made in China, but I don't think it's a bad strategy at all.
What the former German chancellor Schmidt said? "We have no right to criticize China".