Wednesday, August 03, 2011

A new term of art

(Pun intended.) The CNBC story China Theme Park Opens New Front in Copyright Wars contains the following new-to-me word: “shanzhai,” which is "fakery, but with value added, such as taking a virtual world, and recreating it in the Chinese countryside. The head of the China National Copyright Administration, Liu Binjie, says 'shanzhai shows the cultural creativity of the common people. It fits a market need, and people like it.'"

2 comments:

Jeremy said...

Isn't the appropriate English translation of this word "derivative work"?

Rebecca Tushnet said...

Well, we have a variety of different words with different shades of meaning for remixes/mashups/recreations and so on, so I'm not sure. If lack of authorization is part of the definition, as with doujinshi or fanvids, then maybe not!