You raise a great point Tony, bur forget about copyright for a moment. I think an emerging “cultural tag” that could be a bigger issue for China is with respect to legal copyright items that are cheaply produced/manufactured.

Increasingly we are hearing of recalls around potential health risks with goods coming out of China. Lead paint in Thomas the Train and Fisher Price toys, potential toxins in toothpaste etc seem to be increasing in frequency.

Quality brands are taking reputational and revenue-based hits as standards fall from bad to worse – in my book this is a far more serious situation than copyright for the economy of China if it continues down the same path.

A great eye-opener of a film on some related issues is “Manufactured Landscapes” by Ed Burtynsky.

First of all we’re talking about intellectual property, not ownership of private property. Second of all the ‘transition’ period has been going on for at least ten years, so pleading ignorance is hardly going to cut it. The issue is that there is theft — knowing theft — of intellectual property that is going on in such a pervasive manner, it makes you ask questions about a culture in general.

Nav,

Your arguments make sense in an ivory-tower-ish sort of way.

Here are my thoughts.

If what your suggesting is true, then why haven’t we seen the same large-scale extent of copyright violations anywhere else in the world? What is it that’s unique about China that allows this kind of phenomenon to exist? I’m no China scholar, so that’s why I’m throwing this one out there. It might have a complex societal/political/cultural answer.

On the hand, let’s bring things down, right down to the ground, for a second, because there is a much easier litmus test.

Ask the average person in China whether or not buying non-original copied music, software, or movies is wrong.

We can debate the finer details of what “right” and “wrong” are within a larger judaeo-christian context versus that of a confucian ethos — but I think we both know that the answer is that almost NO ONE would think that its wrong.

Rather, that there is nothing “wrong” with doing it because no one is going to catch them.

And that’s exactly my point, because its not an issue of being Americano-centric (if you want to use that neologism) or pro-democratic/capitalistic in these beliefs about intellectual property rights.

Communism is a mere blip on the map in terms of Chinese history and culture. Its been around for less than 100 years, and really only influenced perhaps two or three generations of Chinese, tops.

Capitalism existed long before Communism, even in the forms you mention (mercantilism, for example), but if you want to bring it way, way, way, back, you don`t need sophisticated explanations to explain or understand the fundamental kernel of truth here.

If I created something and I`m trying to sell it, copying it and trying to sell it without my permission isn`t right. Or claiming that its your own, even when you know I’ve created it.

I don’t think those ideas are necessarily unique to any culture at any time period.

Finally, if you want to get really nitty and gritty about “not understanding” another culture, let’s get right down to it. I am Chinese. My parents are Chinese. My wife is Chinese. I have Chinese friends. My in-laws are Chinese. I know people from China.

Everyone, without exception, knows that the violation of intellectual property issues is wrong. Everyone understands this, although they might not use the same terms. But no one can tell me why, en masse, why its okay for “everyone” to be doing it, either explictly, implicitly, or being complicit with the whole thing to the point where its affected how the many people view an entire country.