"They stole our logo"

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Unedited English Versition of an artilce published in Guangzhou News Express 8/22/2012



是谁黑鸦？

China’s Fast Food reflects a long tradition of counterfeit culture

One of my favorite streets is shipai dong lu, its equally flashy and dirty, everything that makes Guangzhou a fun place.

One of my favorite snack places is a hei ya黑鸦 (black duck) shop under the land bridge. For the longest time I thought it was a 周黑鸦franchise. When waiting in line I looked up and noticed the sighn, Muo Hei ya, with a young girl named muo, instead of Zhou I’ve passed by several times and never noticed. I had always assumed it was franchise of the Wuhan fast food company Zhouhei ya. The people who work there already know me.

"Is this Zhou Hei Ya?" I asked.

"No this is Mo Hei Ya, different flavor。"

"This is also Wuhan style"？

"No were from Sichuan."

It’s not fake food, it’s actual duck and it’s delicious, but it’s presented to make you believe it’s the signature Zhou Hei Ya 周黑鸦. This is great! A Chinese brand is ripped off instead of a foreign brand. Just like Beijing’s OFC , which is pathetically racist.

China’s top fast food giants are still the big three American giants KFC, McDonalds, and Pizza Hut. These three chains have been ripped off across the country, and now Chinese fast food chains like Dicos and Kugfu Chicken and Zhou Hei Ya are catching up, and having their logos stolen as a mark of success.

Fast food is no longer foreign culture, it’s been a part of Chinese culture since the early 1980s. The big difference is that in China’s fast food is healthy and sophisticated, it’s considered unhealthy and low class.

China’s love of foreign brands is a huge challenge for Chinese companies like Huawei telecommunications, Lenovo electronics, Cherry autos, and Haier appliances. China’s obsession with copying foreign brands comes with an automatic distrust of Chinese companies. Stealing a Chinese logo might change the rules.

Many intellectuals wonder how is it that the culture which invented paper, the compass, and gunpowder so creatively challenged in modern times? This might sound funny, but copyright infringement is a Chinese tradition. Copying and cheating is traditional culture.

In the novel Romance of the Three Kingdom’s Emperor Cao Cao was accused by Zhang Song of stealing verses of poetry. At the Palace Museum in Taipei one of Qian Long’s Jade favorite jade cups was exposed as a fake, carved in the Ming style passed off as original. The Hong Kong History museum has traced a tradition of cheating on the imperial examination, which is very similar to the Gao Kao. During the Cultural Revolution having an idea could get you killed.

When we look at copyright infringement cases like Michael Jordan’s case against Qiaodan, or numerous cases of University professors stealing papers from their own students, we have to look at traditional culture to understand why.

This also gives us insight into other social problems. If we want to know why college graduates are receive low salaries? The reason is that high salaries go to people with ideas. And foreigners have ideas.

Having an idea is always taking a risk, and kids learn that it’s safer to steal and idea than to have one.

Later I was walked further south on Shipai Dong lu and found Zhou Hei Ya rip off. The same picture. this time called Han Wei Hei Ya. I decided to get a bag of tofu skin and asked the girl behind the counter.

Is this Zhou Hei Ya, from Wuhan?

Same, she said. We’re Han Wei Hei Ya, same thing.

On the way back home I passed by my friends at Mo Hei Ya and told them about the competition up the street.

They already knew.

"Han Wei Hei Ya, they copied us. They stole our logo!"

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