Comment

Imitation leads to innovation

By Luke Holden (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-02-04 10:15

Shanzhai
culture will power China forward with fresh ideas and innovative thinking.

This is not a statement you will hear very often. Instead, the general feeling is the complete opposite, that shanzhai products kill creativity and are little more than brainless copies of existing ideas.

So let's be clear here - my phone is shanzhai and definitely not innovative. As a dodgy replica of a decent touch-screen model, it becomes so excited by movement inside my pocket that it will randomly dial out to share its mood, or more curiously, record the rustling sounds for later.

I bought it because it was cheap and I feel no shame. Aside from appeasing my tight budget, I am also indirectly promoting competition in a marketplace and this has one dramatic effect: innovation.

Take the media industry for example. When a new paper enters the market with a similar structure to existing brands, the older publications are forced to reinvent themselves or die. Maintaining the status quo would be the end for a newspaper, and this can be said of all industries.

The CCTV Spring Festival Gala is the big TV event of the year, locking the eyeballs of millions of viewers across the country - at least that is what they want you to believe.

Instead, the format has become so excessively predictable that the nation is hopping to other channels in search of movies. This loss of interest is not because the public doesn't care about the variety show genre, but because we haven't seen an original idea during the last 10 years.

Which opens the door for a shanzhai version to steal the show. The very fact that there is now a second version will naturally interest the public. Whether it's different or not will not really matter but it will be different - performances will be from amateur entertainers.

Imitation leads to innovation

The idea of "amateur" involvement is cropping up in other industries. Imagine how difficult it would be in the technology market to establish a company capable of rivaling Panasonic or Sony, and the level of investment needed.

Now think about a copycat, a relatively amateur company that makes virtually identical products. They pump out cheaper versions with startling similarity, meaning that Panasonic and Sony are forced to answer consumers' questions as to why they have such sizable price tags. For them there is only one choice, to innovate.

This inspires the whole industry. We see cheaper technology like budget laptops and 3G phones under 2,000 yuan, and shanzhai companies earn a chunk just like everyone else. They grow, but as they grow they specialize in new areas.

Japan did exactly this in the 1980s. It got hold of existing technology, copied it and produced its own shanzhai editions. They analyzed the technology, learned what made everything work and revised it to create more advanced systems.

I'm not even saying that China needs to take on Japan, because shanzhai culture has the potential to improve all industries.

Take music for example. I refuse to believe there is a single foreigner who says the Chinese mainstream music industry is innovative. Instead, most drown it out with creative songs from musicians that know their instruments and can sing.

Shanzhai culture accounts for a push towards independent music, as young bands realize the demand for other genres and try to copy them.

So I ask you not to ridicule shanzhai culture and instead look at it as the essence of competition. Run a race alone and you feel empty, compete against others and you are forced to try harder. That's real shanzhai culture.