Shanzhai - Shanzhai Culture

Shanzhai Culture

The frequent reference to shanzhai cell phones on internet and in traditional media made people start labeling low-cost imitation cultural activities as shanzhai as well. Some of the most well-known events include the Shanzhai National Spring Gala ("山寨春节联欢晚会"), Shanzhai Lecture Room ("山寨百家讲坛"), Shanzhai Olympic Torch Relay ("山寨奥运火炬传递"), and Shanzhai Nobel Prize ("山寨诺贝尔奖"). One thing these events have in common is that they all imitate high-end, popular yet authoritative events in which grass-roots power usually has no participating role.

While the purpose of the above-mentioned shanzhai events is arguably just for the participants to have fun and to experience being the authority, other shanzhai cultural phenomena, like the shanzhai products, are profit-oriented. For example, some low-end performing agencies will hire people who look like pop stars to perform in rural areas, where people cannot afford to watch the the actual stars. Thus shanzhai Jay Chou ("山寨周杰伦"), shanzhai Andy Lau ("山寨刘德华") and shanzhai Faye Wong ("山寨王菲") appear in many underdeveloped places in China.

Shanzhai movies are another profit-driven shanzhai phenomenon. These movies usually have low budgets, yet achieve commercial success by parodying, making fun of or borrowing elements from high-end Hollywood blockbuster movies. One of the first shanzhai movies is Ning Hao’s (宁浩) Crazy Stone (疯狂的石头). It imitates the multi-angle shooting, rapid cutting and stunts that are usually used in Hollywood action movies, yet it retains the grass-roots Chinese set up. With a 3 million Hong Kong dollar budget, Crazy Stone achieved 22 million-box-office revenue. Following its success, shanzhai movies like "the Big Movie" series ("大电影"系列") and No.2 in the World ("天下第二") were made. Some also argue that Hollywood parody movies like Scary Movie are the true inspirational force behind shanzhai movies.

However, similar counterfeiting subcultures are not confined to China. YouTube memes that pose as coming feature film trailers, but are in fact a montage of past films could come from any part of the world, and would fit squarely into the definition of shanzhai.