Slashdot Mirror
China Secretly Clones Austrian Village
Hugh Pickens writes "A scenic mountain village in Austria called Hallstatt has been copied, down to the statues, by a Chinese developer. Residents of the original Hallstatt attended Saturday's opening in China for the high-end residential project, but were still miffed about how the company did it. 'They should have asked the owners of the hotel and the other buildings if we agree with the idea to rebuild Hallstatt in China, and they did not,' says hotel owner Monika Wenger. People in Hallstatt first learned a year ago of the plan when a Chinese guest at Wenger's hotel who was involved with the project inadvertently spilled the beans. Minmetals staff had been taking photos and gathering data while mingling with tourists, raising suspicions among villagers. The original village is a centuries-old village of 900 and a UNESCO heritage site that survives on tourism. The copycat is a $940 million housing estate that thrives on China's new rich. In a country famous for pirated products, the replica Hallstatt sets a new standard. 'The moment I stepped into here, I felt I was in Europe,' says 22-year-old Zhu Bin, a Huizhou resident. 'The security guards wear nice costumes. All the houses are built in European style.' This isn't the first time a Chinese firm has used a European place as inspiration. The Chinese city of Anting, some 30 kilometers from Shanghai, created a district designed to accommodate 20,000 residents called 'German Town Anting' and in 2005 Chengdu British Town was modeled on the English town of Dorchester."
the chinese will pirate anything.
Hallstatt (which loosely translates to "Salt City") is in the Austrian Alps near some (you guessed it) ancient salt mines. Very beautiful country with lots of lakes. Completely random facts: 1. The Celts lived there 4,000 years ago before they migrated to Ireland & Scotland; 2. One of the last US planes that was ever shot down in the European theater in WWII ended up almost perfectly preserved in a lake not too far from Hallstatt and was salvaged by divers a few years ago.
AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
They're just getting ready the European versions of our China Town for when they inevitably dominate the world. We'll find settling into America Town and Europe Town very comfortable.
Possibly the most-submitted vista to /r/VillagePorn - at least now we can diversify the subreddit to include this pirated version.
That isn't what secret means.
You'll begin to see what China, Russia, and the good ole USA have really been doing to topple one another. However. It would seem in the end, the rich and greed truly are the greatest wielded weapons.
Do it with Detroit.
Yeh and Disney made the magic castle from Neuschwanstein castle in Germany without asking Neuschwanstein.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuschwanstein_Castle
It's an homage to Austria and they should be happy and market it as "come see the REAL Austrian village" and get rich Chinese to go visit.
Since when did China start coping stuff !?! Tell the world this amazing news!
Ah, so that's why Asian tourists take so many photos.
Let's see if you can add 2 & 2: http://windowsphonethoughts.com/news/show/166705/positive-windows-phone-news-from-china.html
Soulskill, why do you have to put the word "secret" in the title of TFA?
As if the project was done by some secret agency of the Chinese Communist Party, or something like that
It's a real estate development project, for crying out loud
And it's not only China that they are doing that
You go to India, and you will find towns that looks so much like what you get in England, with English bangalows and everything
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
for all the foreigners.
Why?
If you can't beat them, clone them
Briefest rant ever.
Er... I think this article proves he is correct. I'm Chinese and proud, but the morals we have when it comes to counterfeiting and intellectual property are just shameful. (Well that and environmental / animal cruelty, utterly shameful.) Nothing racist about it.
This is a pretty cool idea, and I'd love to see themed housing developments in other places. It has nothing to do with piracy though -- it's not as though anyone is going to consider living in Austria, but then decide to live in some Chinese town instead because it's cheaper. The author probably just threw that in as a bit of flamebait to get more comments.
Hey Genius. Chinese is a nationality, not an ethnicity, culture, or religion. China has about 20 ethnic groups with populations over 1 million in China.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakov_Smirnoff#Russian_reversal
This is the poetry of history. During the Enlightenment, Europeans were trying to emulate Chinese architecture and city planning principles, as well as everything Chinese.
Those who do not learn from commit history are doomed to regress it.
If you've ever seen the Venetian , now that is a tragedy.
Looking at the first picture in the article, I thought they did an amazing job - even the geography was a match to what I remembered. Then I realized that was just a stock photo of the real Hallstatt.
The other pictures tell the real story. It's about as authentic as their Loius Wuitton purses or iFone knockoffs. The scenery around the location is also a poor imitation of the original.
They could do worse than copying bits of European culture which are beautiful.
After being inspired by Marx and Engels, this is Much Better.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
While I'm sure saying it was secret makes the story more exciting.. let's try to stick with things that are true. Here's an article from a year ago. The Chinese real-estate developer arranged a partnership between the two cities. Halstatt's Mayor knew of the development. That's the opposite of a secret.
And if you think this is for some sinister purpose:
This isn't the first time a Chinese firm has used a European place as inspiration. The Chinese city of Anting, some 30 kilometers from Shanghai, created a district designed to accommodate 20,000 residents called "German Town Anting." Modelled after a typical mid-size German city by architecture firm Albert Speer & Partner, it includes Bauhaus style architecture and a fountain with statues of Goethe and Schiller.
In 2005 Chengdu British Town was modelled on the English town of Dorchester. One year later Thames Town was finished near Shanghai, complete with a 66-meter tall church that bears a striking resemblance to a cathedral in Bristol. Also near Shanghai are mini versions of Barcelona, Venice and the Scandinavian-inspired Nordic Town. The architectural plagiarisms are popular destinations among middle-class Chinese, even serving as backdrops for wedding photos.
That's right: it's for tourism.
What about Fucking, Austria?
shhhh. you're not supposed to notice that.
"They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
It looks like a crappy copy as usual.
Well, how is that different from half the hotel/casinos on the strip in Las Vegas ? Appart from the fact that's it's more realistic.
Off-site backups are _always_ worth the hassle
Recycle PCs and build a wireless community network www.hillsborough.org.nz
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I'm Chinese too and I don't find it shameful. Certainly not racist.
Environmental? Go do some research on history of industrialization in all the now "developed" nations, e.g., the Great Smog of 1952. Animal cruelty? You've obviously never watched some of the PETA videos showcasing the meat industry in America.
China is going through a phase like every other nation once did. Things WILL get better.
Emulation might be the sincerest form of flattery, but this is just creepy.
And when the concrete starts to crack and fall apart in three years what will the Chinese be copying then?
Eating dog is not worst then eating pig. What is a pet to one is food to someone else. Get off your high horse with that stupid animal cruelty rant.
inb4 any argument response; The same thing, or worst, is also done else where.
I love how some people are 'miffed' that a Chinese company has copied their city down to the finest details "without asking". What if they said no? Would the Chinese company have just shut down their project? Maybe as a courtesy, but why risk a 'no', when you fully intend to ignore it anyway.
And 'piracy' (as posted above) is the wrong term. These buildings and the landscape are so old that even if they ever existed under some sort of copyright or patent protection, they would no longer be covered now.
It's not even like the Chinese company isn't saying that it's a direct copy, so the original is still being credited as being the 'original'.
What this does show is that there are a whole bunch of people around that think that 'copyright' or 'intellectual property' are some sort of super-rights that preclude anyone from doing anything that the creators don't expressly allow; whether or not any reasonable period of protection has elapsed. And sadly, many others think it's justified, while ignoring the consequences, where pretty much anything created would end up infringing on something somewhere at some time in the past.
Only making fun of Blacks and J*ws is racist. Clearly you are in need of more tolerance education.
no, "Chinese" is more like a civilization and an ethnicity, as the people describe themselves. it goes beyond china, and plenty of groups in china do not consider themselves "chinese" in that sense
Somehow I doubt you would make this kind of comment if someone had used the word "Nigger" and had been called racist.
In Germany there is this town which has the long tradition of turning into Chinese during the week of carnival:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/bavaria-s-chinese-carnival-long-live-the-emperor-of-dietfurt-a-677961.html
Why on earth would the Chinesse need permission from the original?
Are the houses copyrighted?
The Chinese like to 'copy' our western stuff but they are just too ignorant to understand what they copy which means that I, as a westerner in Shanghai, am laughing my ass off at their half-assed attempts because it is absolute garbage they churn out.
Or at least big improvements on what they copy: Just look at how efficiently they do censorship and internet blockades. Most Western "democracies" can only dream of the shit the Chinese "democracy" can get away with.
you are correct, But a simply heads up like "hey, we really like your town, we like it so much in fact we are going to replicate it in our country" would have been good enough. I personally dont care or have any issue with it, a builder can build what it wants, where it wants, but a heads up would be nice is all im saying
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
Kind of like jewish, Its both a ethnicity and a religion (or so my jewish friends tell me when we debate the subject)
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
I suppose now, like a typical Western European, he can raise a placard that says "Free Tibet" and not get arrested by the police or roughed-up by plainclothes thugs? Maybe it's part of China's grand pland to recreate Disney World, capitalism without the chaos of Western-style democracy or rights (even if those selfsame rights are being diminished by the minute).
Hoping it was more nefarious like for military tests?
At first I thought the town had their DNA swiped covertly, and then were found to be cloned in China.
Now that'd be creepy
Sometimes it really is sad watching one of the oldest countries in the world, once rich and deep with its own unique culture...be reduced to a Xerox machine.
The epitome of capitalism.
In the end they will all "steal" from each other that which they had no hand in actually producing themselves.
And everyone else will suffer because those in power will "own" it all and require us to fulfill their desires, as twisted and unrealistic as they may be.
Why improve anything? Just buy out or steal from the guy down the street and crush the copycats.
We will not last long on this planet with this kind of thinking.
I toured through Washington State in December/January (after battling through US border security ...don't get me started) and I swear there's a whole Austrian township in there.
We also saw some lumbering gorilla-type figures, and I took some blurry photos.
"The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes" - Winston Churchill
Because they wanted to be paid of course.
This sounds a lot like Huis Ten Bosch in Japan near Nagasaki. A surprisingly complete (and well maintained) replica of a Dutch town. I don't know how it stays in business as it was pretty much a ghost town when I was there, but all of the gardens and buildings are well maintained, even the hotels that are closed due to lack of business have well maintained exteriors.
Though I guess the difference is that the Japanese built it in cooperation with the Dutch government.
Did they also recreated the salt mines?
AccountKiller
Imitation is the sincerest form of lack of inventiveness.
I kind of think that the copyright on this centuries-old village has probably expired.
This space available.
So they copied a town, and people actually expect they have to be asked for permission to do such a thing? Ridiculous. Anyone can copy a town's layout, a building's architecture etc etc. Why are people getting their knickers in a twist over such shenanigans?
I'm with you. It seems some sort of Anti-China posts are a daily event (choose between piracy or censorship).
I find it interesting how when China copies something its "piracy", but what about others?
For example, Paris Las Vegas complete with Eiffel Tower (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Las_Vegas)
Did they have all the proper approvals?
"First world" country copies foreign country for tourism = GOOD, developing country copies another country = BAD?
that CHICOMs are lying thieves who should not be trusted?
Like Stonehenge, the pyramids, the Mori, or some Aztec stuff. A freaking hotel? Might as well make the world's largest toilet paper roll.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
Did they clone the inhabitants too?
The problem with your environmental examples is that those things are all in the past. We humans are supposed to be smart enough to learn not only from our own mistakes, but the mistakes of others too, and not repeat them stupidly. Notice how in many developing countries, everyone has a cellphone these days, but there's very little landline infrastructure. Why didn't they copy us by putting in landlines (with leased phones, no less), and suffer with those and later answering machines? Because that'd be stupid; they just adopted our new cellular technology and leapfrogged over the whole landline bit. That's what developing countries should be doing with environmentalism too; not that they should be going extremist and not doing any development at all, but the technology and techniques are available to avoid a lot of the worst pollution problems.
However, I agree about flattery. I'm American and I think it's pretty funny, and I wish they'd do something more like that over here, instead of building everything with the same boring, ugly-ass architecture everything currently has here.
They're jealous because the American rip-offs are scaled-down and incomplete, whereas the Chinese rip-offs are perfectly to scale and complete in every detail.
100+ comments and nobody has asked when they'll be copying Potemkin villages?
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Don't be ashamed. There is NO SUCH THING as 'Intellectual Property'. It's an artificial construct.
If I go to the town square, and pronounce "blue, blue, blue; blue, purple, blue; purple purple... green!" then I have just published a poem and this will as such be under copyright until 50 years after my death. You are not allowed to call out those colours in the same order, under penalty of copyright infringement. Crazy? Absolutely.
If I want to keep something to myself, i.e. want to own it, I should not shout it out in the middle of a busy square, for everyone to hear. But I can. Because of 'Intellectual Property'. But what "Property" exists? None. It's just some form of agreement, that was of course agreed to by other parties than yourself, if for nothing else than that the basis was laid when your father's father was not even born yet or in his diapers.
I think it's absolutely cool to copy an entire city/town 1:1 and have it sit on another continent. By all means, copy more, and maybe one day I'll come and visit - especially if the hotels offer their "local" cuisine: around the world in 8 days. I can see that work... and "copyright" be damned.
After all, that *is* what Hallstatt is really known for.. Salt Mines with neolithic remains in them, among other things.
Well, it's also near where they built V2 parts. Maybe the Chinese will duplicate that part too?
Well, it's not as if it's the first time that a nouveau riche culture has copied from its respected betters who have fallen upon hard times. Guess where all the columns and plinths come from in our "classical" buildings?
Succulent dog is more tasty than greasy pig.
I love succulunt dog.
Ironically China was a mature society around 900 BC, being one of the world's earliest cultures. As a tourist, and if I had the means, I would rather be visiting Beijing and its surroundings than a medieval town that is probably similar to the rest of Europe.
Sounds like China is running out of ideas on how to spend their money.
Hallstatt residents can go visit this town in China to see what it would be like if they littered, spit on the sidewalks, and never cleaned their buildings.
Then there's drivers cutting off ambulances, people eating with their mouths open and unfettered air pollution.
that, or there will be armed officials patrolling to keep the people from doing all of the above.
either way... I'm sure it'll be just like home.
Austria should recreate Tiananmen Square.
Also, old news... guy commented the same thing almost a whole year ago in the story about the fake Apple store.
http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2339338&cid=36825968
In this case the dead give away was all the kangaroos.
The reason those countries copied the cell infrastructure and not the landline one is that it's cheaper. For all the talk of "New Energy", fossil fuels are still by far the cheapest form of energy available, and will continue to be so for quite a while. If wind, solar, or nuclear energy were more economical (financially and politically), they would ignore the fossil fuel infrastructure and build those instead, same as mobile phones.
Let me see, china copied the castle, that disney copied from germany...
http://www.japanprobe.com/2007/05/02/disneyland-in-china/
I guess now they just decided to just bypass the middle man... ;^)
The irony being that despite this, the Chinese pollute like mad despite having repeated examples worldwide of what happens when you allow industry to dump shit just anywhere they want. They can look at the history of virtually every major country from the US to Japan, the UK, etc.
Sadly, the people of China feel the brunt of its effects but cannot complain. The CCP will reap what they have allowed industry to sew.
It might make you feel better to know that the USA was built on the back of counterfeiting and intellectual property theft of designs from Europe.
What, the residents have had cosmetic surgery? And eat sauerkraut and schnitzel for dinner every day? That sure is dedication...
But design patents and copyright do not last hundreds of years.
The Chinese developer has every right to do this. For fucks' sake, Disney's castle rips off castles from all over Europe and nobody says a peep.
The Austrians should be happy it's just a developer copying it and not the Chinese military, who have copied a section of a Kashmir (Aksai Chin) for military training purposes, specifically, tank training.
http://pruned.blogspot.com/2006/07/huangyangtan-or-tactical-geoannexation.html
--
BMO
As far as I know there was never a Austrian presence in either Rome or Greece. Well, okay, the Holy Roman Empire, but that was German right? Anyway, take a trip around Vienna and you will see wall to wall neo-classical architecture.
It's called culture. When people see something somewhere else that they like, they either steal it (if it isn't nailed down) or go home and copy it.
And I'll point you at the Clean Air Act (1956). Because, you know, we realized things were wrong and did something about it.
Yeah, I had a sig once; I got bored of it.
If this village produces a manic young man who wants to paint - let him in to art school.
i thought japanese were documenting every corner of the world to do it.
you are correct, But a simply heads up like "hey, we really like your town, we like it so much in fact we are going to replicate it in our country" would have been good enough. I personally dont care or have any issue with it, a builder can build what it wants, where it wants, but a heads up would be nice is all im saying
Although that might be a reasonable sentiment, who do you give this "heads up" to? It's not like you call up the mayor and say we want to copy your town (as if any good would come of that). I'm sure the Open Office didn't call up Bill Gates and give him a "head-up" they were building an office suite that was compatible with msft-office files. Uhm, that might have been nice (hard to say that with a straight face)... Look what happened to Google when they mentioned to Sun that they might want to license Java (if the terms were right)...
Kind of like jewish, Its both a ethnicity and a religion (or so my jewish friends tell me when we debate the subject)
Next time this subject comes up, ask them what the genetic difference is between a big nosed brown skinned Jew from the middle east and a big nosed brown skinned Arab from the middle east.
Let's hope the Chinese don't clone Hitler too.
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
Aside from all that, "Chinatown" would have to be the most replicated town on the planet.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
How the hell did this get back into the news?
In Communist China, European getaway comes to YOU!
They found a way to invite the citizens to the opening, so obviously they managed to contact them fine. Only too late, I agree with gangadude, the developer would have shown some social grace to ask or at least inform these Austrians first.
But then again, this is not a specific Chinese thing, lack of social grace. And there are also examples of doing it right, like Gaoqiao New Town where they built a new section in Dutch style with cooperation of a dutch architectural bureau.
---
"The chances of a demonic possession spreading are remote -- relax."
You might be disappointed:
The Chinese have an incredibly rich tousands of years old culture. I seriously don't get why they don't draw their inspiration from there?
.: Max Romantschuk
The Communist Party officially recognizes 55 ethnic minority groups in China. In many autonomous regions, the local indigenous language is taught and used in an official capacity. They're also exempt from the One Child Policy.
There are a huge number of yeast infections in this county. Probably because we're downriver from the bread factory.
That's a good point. They happily tear down Beijing hutongs built back in the 1600s, chisel Starbucks stores into the Great Wall's bricks, but will build these gaudy imitations of other people's "old stuff".
At least they learned soon enough to not dump their litter into the summer palace lakes of Hangzhou and Suzhou. Of course the serene view is now obstructed by the skyscrapers nearby.
There are a huge number of yeast infections in this county. Probably because we're downriver from the bread factory.
Ironically China was a mature society around 900 BC, being one of the world's earliest cultures. As a tourist, and if I had the means, I would rather be visiting Beijing and its surroundings than a medieval town that is probably similar to the rest of Europe.
Sounds like China is running out of ideas on how to spend their money.
You'd better visit something else, then. Xi'an would be a good start.
They found a way to invite the citizens to the opening, so obviously they managed to contact them fine. Only too late
That's why I think surprise parties are a bad idea most of the time.
Set your phasers on "funky"!
Why is that bad? It's what all the european rulers did in the 18th century with chinese towns, when Asia was a big thing to have, and everyone had to have something chinese. Europeans even copied china (the material), first as fayence, later one with a similar recipe as porcelain. Europeans copied the fireworks, the drinking of tea, and about every larger park had a chinese style pagode. The U.S. copied the chinese sauces in the 19th century, calling them "ketchup", and went on to reinvent chinese food a.k.a. chop suey. Did we hear the Chinese complain how Europeans and the U.S. were stealing chinese intellectual property then?
I wouldn't worry about the copy staying similar to the original for too long.
The wealthy chinese soon will grow tired of the "common looking" of the houses, and will want to "improve" them. Preferably with lots of red and golden colors. And some neon lights.
I wouldn't make fun of Jaws either, he'll eat you. Either the guy or the shark...
It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for being subtle.
Would anyone happen to have a magnet link to this village?
All you need is lurv.
Some people eat high horse, too.
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
Oh, they already had that years ago. His name was Mao Zedong.
"TMAWHs all have the same layout. When creating a new Burbclave, TMAWH Development Corporation will chop down any mountain ranges and divert the course of any mighty rivers that threaten to interrupt this street plan -- ergonomically designed to encourage driving safety. A Deliverator can go into a Mews at Windsor Heights anywhere from Fairbanks to Yaroslavl to the Shenzhen special economic zone and find his way around."
There's a difference between copying a certain style (be it architecture, food, porcelain, etc.) and making a 1-on-1 copy. Of a whole village. I mean sure, they should be allowed to build a Austria-style village, why not? If not anything else, it's just creepy. (I would like to meet evil Chinese counterpart, though)
OTOH they should totally party together!!! Free Apfelstrudel and Peking Duck for everyone!
Is there a copyright on towns and villages?
www.holzstich.blogspot.de
I used to work in a university, and one day we had a visit from a chinese delegation (who wanted to start a similar university course back home). They asked a tonne of question, and spent most of the time measuring things. Fast forwards twelve months, and some of the lecturers went to visit the new course. When they got there they found everything had been copied, from the course structure, even down to the spacing of the desks in the cramped windowless rooms (that we considered to be unfit for purpose).
Don't be ashamed. There is NO SUCH THING as 'Intellectual Property'. It's an artificial construct.
If I go to the town square, and pronounce "blue, blue, blue; blue, purple, blue; purple purple... green!" then I have just published a poem and this will as such be under copyright until 50 years after my death. You are not allowed to call out those colours in the same order, under penalty of copyright infringement. Crazy? Absolutely.
If I want to keep something to myself, i.e. want to own it, I should not shout it out in the middle of a busy square, for everyone to hear. But I can. Because of 'Intellectual Property'. But what "Property" exists? None. It's just some form of agreement, that was of course agreed to by other parties than yourself, if for nothing else than that the basis was laid when your father's father was not even born yet or in his diapers.
I think it's absolutely cool to copy an entire city/town 1:1 and have it sit on another continent. By all means, copy more, and maybe one day I'll come and visit - especially if the hotels offer their "local" cuisine: around the world in 8 days. I can see that work... and "copyright" be damned.
You sure memorized those talking points didn't you? Who came up with this argument first? Because it certainly wasn't you.
smarten up the clothes (baliwood style). We'll see
No they cosplay with kigurumi masks and eat kaiserschmarrn.
Representatives from the Alpine village's historic church are also concerned. Copying a house of God for use as a tourist attraction is problematic, Catholic priest Richard Czurylo told daily Die Presse, adding that at the very least, the new church must be declared a place of prayer.
This made me smile... Also another part where major is stunned but he thinks it is good for business. 'nuff said :).
But priest seeing an opportunity to spread faith... This is top one :)
http://opencm3.net, http://www.nongnu.org/gm2/
Americans have done it before in Las Vegas. Hilarious experience experience for people to visit if they are coming from the original places to find tourist copies of their home landmarks etc.
Heck, in America there are re-enactment societies going the whole way and dressing up like folk from European middle ages etc.
I am surprised some US lawyer isn't sueing the Chinese for prior art ;-)
Really - is it news that some place has built replica sites for the tourists closer to home? Impressive if they've built a whole village but I reckon the original folks back home will just find it funny, and be mildly impressed that somebody is so keen to offer an experience of their town for tourists that can't afford to visit the original.
Probably been happening since the beginning of history. Check out architecture, for millenia people wanting a taste of a more exotic or to their minds more impressive culture have been copying other countries' architecture and building grand places in foreign styles. Where do you think the ideas for the columns on the White House originated from? A few ancient Greeks might recognise the style...
We sold our house to a Chinese family once. They wanted all the furnishings too, but we declined. Anyway, during one of their pre-sale viewings they took videos of all the rooms.
After they had moved in, they invited us for a visit. We were flabbergasted at the fact that they had replicas of all our old furniture! Here's the kicker: everything was scaled down by about 20%!
Set your phasers on "funky"!
Er... I think this article proves he is correct. I'm Chinese and proud, but the morals we have when it comes to counterfeiting and intellectual property are just shameful. (Well that and environmental / animal cruelty, utterly shameful.) Nothing racist about it.
Exactly what are you proud of? (You only listed negative qualities in your post.)
Why do Austrian scenic mountain villages have security guards?
Why can't you open something called Luxor in New York? There's been a Luxor in Egypt for over 4000 years. Or will Las Vegas sue the Egyptians for prior art?
Would folk in Las Vegas sue a businessman in Luxor if he opened a casino in Luxor called the Luxor casino?
Yes I live in the USA but for the most part how is it a copy and/or counterfeiting when your but an extension of the society you migrated from? A large portion of the building and such that occurred in the USA can be explained away by pointing to the migrants wanting it to feel like home.
The Chinese example here is none of that. A simple copy for business purposes. This wasn't about extending ones heritage to a new home, it was about copying the heritage of another instead of reveling in their own.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Is this The Prisoner setup?.
This is exactly what Feynman warned about in his Cargo Cult speech. This is a cargo cult. They think that by copying the appearances, they can get the same results. They don't understand what the course is really about, what teaching strategies should be used, etc. It's sad, really.
A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
You are so right! It is a cargo cult!!! :)
But they seem to be doing okay on the results part too. And they are very, VERY, good at copying. It's a copy cult
"Chinatown" would have to be the most replicated town on the planet.
Except that chinatowns generally "copy" only the general style. In this case, they were aiming for a true copy of a specific earlier town.
As someone else observed, there are lots of towns (or districts) scattered around the world that were built to look stylistically like something in a different part of the world. This has often been done by immigrants, to produce a "back home" feeling. America has lots of towns like this. They are never actually replicas, though; they were just built by people in a style that was familiar. Typically they aren't "pure", but also contain structures in the local style. This happens because someone wants a cheap building, so they hire some local builders who only know the local style.
This Chinese example was clearly built as a showcase, presumably for commercial (tourism, vacationing) reasons. In this case, a charge of "infringement" isn't entirely silly. But it's unlikely that any court cases will result. It's sorta like that duplicate of a famous European castle in Disneyland, or all the scale-model copies of famous landmarks in downtown Las Vegas.
What I'd wonder is how good a job they did on small details. Did they get the cracks in the sidewalks right? How about the bird droppings on the light poles? ;-)
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
The natural form of Intellectual property is called a secret.
Keeping things secret is worse then allowing them to be patented or copyrighted (for a limited term). The problem is that the term has been allowed to grow far too long for copyrights.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
That was 3.0. Stalin was 2.0
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
They should hire some fake foreigners to make the copy look more realistic.
I agree with you it's not racist. But as for shame...
Speaking as an American, I have to admit that many of the practices of the meat industry in America are indeed quite shameful. The treatment of animals, the treatment of workers, and the manipulation of the political and regulatory systems in the USA by the meat packing industry are all horrible and bring shame on the entire nation and all its people.
But as you say, if we acknowledge this and work to CHANGE it, things WILL get better. We have to accept that it's shameful, though, and not pretend that just because some other country is doing bad things it's OK for us to do bad things. BE the change you want to see in the world, whether you are American or Chinese.
Damn!
They copied a European village! Shame on them!
This is a good example why "Intellectual Property" has nothing to do with actual property.
Europeans stole tombs, temples, villages, cities, and even a couple hundred meters of a mountains height (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potosí ) from Africa, América, Asia. That _is_ theft, but it's called "civilization".
Then, the Chinese copy the looks of a city, steal nothing tangible, and they are "pirates".
That's the difference between "Intellectual property" and real property. Depending on whether you detent the dominant culture, one can be a great thing, and the other shameful.
Europe has been patting "lesser" cultures on the head for centuries. It's about time someone viewed them as cute and quaint.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
It's not just anti-China. It's anti-Black, anti-religion, and probably anti-[a lot of other things]. This is why Slashdot could never compete with a real social network. It's inherently anti-social. And if they want to argue that it's a technology blog rather than a social network, they'd do well to focus on the technological achievement of replicating a city rather than focus on Chinese copying of a design.
Come again? The counterfeiting and attitude towards intellectual property is the most enlightened thing that China does by far. If only we had something more like that in the West.
In other areas China has some real problems but they are improving in a lot of areas very rapidly. Quality of life for citizens is likely to be an issue for quite some time though.
Perhaps the worst thing I know about China is the censorship.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Indeed! Just ask the Japanese, whose whole culture started off as a knock-off of Chinese culture.
With the first link, the chain is forged.
A town's look and layout is not "IP". IMO, you can not like this, but I don't think there is any basis to say it is wrong.
But how many of those 20 are copied from somewhere else?
I'd feel good if they copied my town. In a few years, hordes of rich Chinese tourists may decide to visit the real thing.
They waste a lot of resources on copying what's not needed, then. Good for us, I think. I don't think they do okay on the results part. If they did, they'd realize the appearances in this case were not only unimportant -- they were negative in and of themselves.
A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
In the case of the village I don't really know if they did really copy what was important. Did the buildings merely have same exterior and interior dimensions and decorations, or were they actually built using similar materials? Alpine building is usually stone, masonry or concrete lower floor(s) with wooden upper floors. The lower floor(s) survive avalanches and fires, and are very pleasant in the summer due to the thermal mass of the thick walls. Upper floors are admittedly a fire hazard in the summer, because the wood is bone dry, but at least the dryness makes it easier in the heat: perspiration does cool you down. Having such construction in a high-moisture area (say in Florida) would not be any good. Faux chalets that are unlivable in summer without air conditioning are just sad.
A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
And I'll point you at the Clean Air Act (1956). Because, you know, we realized things were wrong and did something about it.
And subsequent generations forgot that lesson, and are going to re-learn it the hard way. Silly asses.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
What if some other company/country copied something that is Chinese? Would the Chinese company (or person or whoever) get upset or look at it as a positive thing? Or would that Chinese entity sue the crap out of the offending entity?
the religion, genetically semite people includes many arabs
Must not have been a Disney town. Those copyrights never expire!
...except for an original idea.
About half an inch.
Oh, genetic difference. Never mind.
Hey Genius. Chinese is a nationality, not an ethnicity, culture, or religion. China has about 20 ethnic groups with populations over 1 million in China.
"Chinese" is not merely a nationality, like American or Canadian. I wasn't born in China, I have cultural but no emotional ties to it. My parents and immediate relatives, being from Hong Kong, were not Chinese nationals either, but are still Chinese, not Hongkongers or Cantonese.
If you go to Beijing, you can see at one of the parks that were reserved for the emperor there is a spot called "Suzhou City" where they make a mini copy of Suzhou to keep the Emperor's consort's entertained. Think this dates to the late 1800's.
Well, I think the word that applies is "tacky", not "wrong". ;-)
It's a value judgement, not a legal judgement.
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
Perhaps a nice pair of mittens?
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven
Except, you know, actual *Chinese* immigrants built those Chinatowns, so not quite the same thing.
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven
Plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery. If a culture as old as the Chinese has to resort to copying others then it doesn't say much about them, does it? As for me, being closer to China will inevitably ensure that I don't have to spend my holidays in a far-off (for me) expensive European country anymore.