I Love China

Chinese car manufacturer Geely has recently launched the Geely GE, which looks remarkably similar to the Rolls Royce Phantom which costs around 250,000 pounds. It’s been reported in various media like The Telegraph, but I have to take my hat off to Ride Lust who get WoAi’s prestigeous prize for most hilarious headline caption!

The funniest thing about the car though is that unlike the genuine Rolls Royce Phantom, the designers (I use the term loosely) of the Geely GE decided to put just one throne-like, centre-mounted seat in the rear, so it’s a bizarre 2 + 1 arrangement. Any miniscule incling I might have had for this car just went out the window. I like to ride in the back with at least 2 of my honeyz, with Tommy riding up front. I’m not going to buy a car where I have to sit back there alone.

If you’re interested in more, The Telegraph did a photo gallery from the Shanghai 2009 Auto Show of several Chinese knock off cars and a very amusing Bentley logo ripoff. Enjoy!

The ability for the Chinese to copy stuff is truly impressive. Everyone knows about the fake Rolex watches and the fake Gucci and LV handbags, but here are a couple of more interesting examples I have come across recently.

I’ve just ordered a pair of Wii controllers from Taobao. They cost a fortune in the UK and even here the genuine ones cost around 200 rmb, but I picked up an identical copy plus the Wii Nunchuck for about 140 rmb. I’ve tried them. They look identical but more importantly, they work perfectly!

Separated at birth!

Most people will be familiar with the ubiquitous WD40. It has hundreds of uses and probably every household in the UK will have a can lying around somewhere. It prevents rust (by displacing moisture, the WD stands for “Water Displacement”), eliminates squeaks on doors, loosens bolts that are screwed on too tight etc etc.  So I was amused to spot a Chinese version, AD50 at a friend’s apartment the other day. I am not sure what the AD stands for but the 50 clearly gives the user the perception that it’s a significant improvement on “40″.

Well I’ve been a bit slow getting around to seeing the hottest movie of the moment, but last night I finally got down to the cinema to see the new Star Trek movie. As expected from director JJ Abrams, it’s high octane stuff all the way, but with a bit of raunchiness thrown in for good measure. I’m not sure if there was supposed to be more steamy raunchiness, but it did seem that quite a few scenes were clumsily cut out from the movie to protect the innocence of the Chinese viewers. So I may have to get the bootleg DVD to compare.

It’s a fun ride with a good mix of humour, action and romance that goes back to the days before the original 1966 tv series began, to show how the original crew came together.

One thing that struck me was how alike the new young Mr Spock (Zachary Quinto) and the older original one looks. It’s hard to believe they’re not related. Oh, and guys, look out for Uhura in the lovely revamped Starfleet mini dress and boots – niiiiice!

Oh and while we’re on the subject of Star Trek, there’s been a lot of fuss this week about how the Chinese National Space Administration (China’s NASA) seems to have created its logo using various logos from Star Trek. The logo does appear to be “inspired” by the United Federation of Planets crest and the arrow shaped communicator that the Starfleet people wear on their tops. Those lazy graphic designers didn’t even bother looking at other space TV shows like Battlestar Galactica or perhaps Star Wars!

I’m flying to London on 21st December and because I find it hard sleeping on planes, the 12 hour flight always goes so much quicker if I have movies to watch.  Unfortunately, my year old 16gb iPod Touch gets used every single day on my 25 minute journey to work, so the battery is pretty much on its last legs and I’ve decided to use my Sony PSP instead for 2 reasons:

1) It has removable batteries so I can just bring more batteries.

2) It has removable memory (memory stick pro duo) so I can bring more movies and TV shows to watch.

A special prize to anyone who correctly identifies the genuine Sony memory stick.

An 8gb memory stick pro duo costs about 36 pounds in England, so imagine my delight to find them for around 135 rmb (14 pounds) in Shanghai (obviously fake, but work perfectly).  I can get around 20 hours of movies or TV shows on one stick, so 2 or 3 sticks will give me enough for the return journey, of course assuming none of the in flight movies are worth watching.

I guess it’s memory sticks for the whole family this year.  Rich, if you read this, please try to act surprised and pleased when you open your present on Christmas Day and remember, it’s the thought that counts!

Some of you may not have heard about Mad Men, an American tv drama now in its second season on cable TV channel AMC.  It’s main theme is the advertising industry in the early 1960s on New York City’s Madison Avenue, where many of the top agencies are still located.  But what makes it so good is the way it captures that special era in recent American history with stunning attention to detail, down to the classic suits and the cigarette brands that people smoked.  It also provides an insight into male / female relationships at the time and the chauvinistic attitudes in both the workplace and at home that are rare these days.

It won six Emmys in its first season including outstanding drama series and has been slowly gaining in popularity among discerning viewers.  So much so in fact that fashion designer Michael Kors’ Autumn 2008 collection was inspired by Mad Men and many New York girls dressed up as one of the main female characters, Joan Holloway this Halloween.  The Simpsons did a parody of the opening credits of Mad Men for its Halloween special this year (you know you’ve made it when The Simpsons start taking notice), and a DVD of the first season was even spotted next to Barack Obama on his campaign plane recently.

What has all this got to do with China?  Well, the season two finale aired in the US on October 26th 2008, which according to my calendar, was last Sunday.  The season 2 DVD of course has not yet been released.  (In England, the second season hasn’t even started and it will be shown next year on BBC4.)  But less than a week after the final episode aired on TV in the US, I found the boxed set of the complete season two in a DVD store in Shanghai.

I love China!

PS If you still haven’t seen Mad Men, go stand in the corner and don’t come back to this blog until you’ve finished at least season one.  I’ll be asking questions to make sure you’ve seen it so don’t bother pretending either!

To wrap up intellectual property theft week here at WoAiZhongGuo, I’m moving to the automotive industry (that’s cars to you guys).  Have a look at this, and if you’ve not seen it before, it’ll blow your mind!

I strongly suggest you read some of the comments at the end because apart from the first commenter, who is clearly an ignorant American fool (”replicating all our icons”), I was frankly very surprised and impressed at some of the reactions to what is clearly an outrageous breach of trademark.

Only a few days ago I wrote about how some clever Chinese programmers had launched an almost perfect clone of Facebook in Chinese, so I thought it would be good to continue the theme of intellectual property theft, this time focusing on the technology sector. So if I may, I’d like to introduce you all to the latest in hi tech gadgetry, ladies and gentlemen, I give you – the Chinese made, state of the art, 4G ready HiPhone (if you’re not sure how to pronounce it, the “H” is silent!). I bet those sneaky bastards at Apple will be copying this baby in no time, or maybe they already have!

There’s a YouTube video clip here for those of you who’d like to see it in action.

UPDATE : Thanks to Seraph for providing the website which is very well done I must say. The phone itself looks like a piece of junk but after seeing the website, I almost want one! The Apple-esque imagery is hilarious, or is it a tomato. Come to think of it, it could be a lychee which would be ironic!

Xiao Nei (校内) is a popular Chinese online networking website.  Users can find old college buddies, chat online and see what their friends are up to.  You can write on people’s walls, send them messages, join various networks and there are even fun applications you can install.

Sadly, Xiaonei.com is only available in Chinese but don’t worry if Chinese isn’t your forte.  One bright Harvard University student, Mark Zuckerberg, has copied this idea into English and called it Facebook.

It was initially only available to Harvard University students, but it is now available to everyone.  You probably haven’t heard of Facebook yet, but WoAi predicts that it will become very popular one day!

I’ve been living in Shanghai for close to 3 years (okay 2 and a half) and I’ve only just discovered a gem of a street, Da Gu Lu, cunningly hidden away between Yan An Lu and Wei Hai Lu. The purpose of the visit was to seek out what my Indian friend described as the best Indian restaurant in Shanghai, Masala Art, but the street seems to offer quite a lot more than just great food from the former jewel in the crown of the British Empire (oh those were the days). It’s also home to an entire strip of very upscale legitimate (non-happy ending) type massage or “SPA” type establishments, a few other cafes and restaurants, as well as the most famous (thanks to iSpyShanghai) couple of DVD stores in China: Movie World and (directly across the street) Even Better Than Movie World dvd store.

(Photo blatantly stolen from iSpyShanghai with no intention whatsoever of seeking permission.)

Of course, why bother even crossing the road to Movie World when there’s Even Better Than Movie World right there and my instincts proved justified. The store was jam packed with movies, concert dvds, boxed sets of every TV series you’ve heard of and quite a few you probably haven’t. For the more serious film buff, they even had packaged box sets of Kurosawa, Woody Allen and Francois Truffaut collections.

As a law abiding citizen, I of course do not indulge in purchases of illegal bootleg dvds, but if I were, I probably would have bought the 44 disc boxed set of the entire works of Woody Allen, Boston Legal season one (highly recommended to me), 30 Rock season one, the entire collection of Black Adder (seasons one to five), Beyonce’s latest DVD to compensate for missing her Shanghai concert earlier this month, the latest Michelle Pfeiffer movie, Stardust, plus filling a few gaps in my classic archive collection including Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon (pop quiz: how many movies have Michelle and Al made together and name them) and the phenomenal Billy Elliot.

Oh and here’s a photo of what I would have bought, and what would have cost the equivalent of 70 US dollars for around 70 discs.

I’m wondering how long before we see a new addition to Da Gu Lu: Even Better Than Masala Art. But I tell you, it’ll be very hard to live up to that name!

I’m currently in Venice, Italy but there’s no escaping references to China. The city is swarming with teams of African guys selling fake designer handbags on the narrow streets, often right outside shops they are ripping off, such as Gucci and Louis Vuitton. But rumour has it that it is illegal to purchase counterfeit products in Italy (or at least in Venice) and there are signs outside big name stores like Gucci warning tourists and locals alike that they risk harsh penalties should they be tempted to buy a fake bag for a fraction of the cost of the original.

I was wondering if perhaps, by some small chance, these signs were the handywork of some of the designer shops, peeved that their not insignificant margins are being threatened by cheap imitations. That was until I saw THIS sign:

Now the first sign could have been a friendly warning to ignorant tourists who were unaware of the local laws on purchasing counterfeit goods, but this second sign is just a blatant and pathetic attempt to use guilt to discourage people to buy the fake products.

Yes, China is a major source of fake products, but I’d have to say that I doubt they are made by underaged slave labour – or at least, no more so than the legitimate products!

Shame on you Gucci / Prada / LV etc.  If you didn’t make about 5000% margin on your products, perhaps more people would consider buying them instead of the cheaper versions.