Fake Sphinx In China

In May, 2014, a fake Sphinx was built in China by a Chinese company. Sphinx is one of the Egypt’s world heritages and so Egypt’s government made a complaint about it. The Chinese company explained the reason why they built the fake Sphinx. And they said they were going to break down the Sphinx soon after they made a film.
Details
Since February, 2013, an amusement company in China has been building a fake Sphinx in Hebei, one of the districts in China. The real Sphinx was built very long time ago and now it is an Egypt’s world heritage. It is the creature which has its face like a human and its body like a lion, written down in the Egypt’s myth. On the other hand, the fake Sphinx was built recently. It was eighty meters wide and thirty meters high. Although it was built by using steel frame and cement, it was so similar to the Sphinx, which was built mainly by sand. In May, 2014, Chinese media opened the picture of the fake Sphinx to the public. That’s when people in Egypt got anger and forced their government to take actions to preserve their own Sphinx, so Egypt’s government made a complaint about it to UNESCO, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. It accused China of violating the treaty, Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. People concerned with the Chinese company explained why they built the Sphinx. According to Xinhua News Agency (2014), they said that they built the Sphinx so that they could use it as a movie set. And they also said that they didn’t have an aim to use it as an attraction and they were going to break down the Sphinx immediately after they made a film.
Other imitations
Other than the sphinx, many stores or products are imitated in China. For example, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Capitol in United States of America, and also the city of Manhattan. Like this, Chinese copy many worldwide buildings or monuments. Once upon a time, a building in Beijing designed by Zaha Hadid was imitated and was going to be built in Chongqing, which was the beginning of imitations of not only CDs or products of major brands, but also buildings. So the attitude toward intellectual properties of Chinese are regarded as a problem today. But in fact, there is no related law that technically protect buildings or artistic design, so now many elaborate copies of famous buildings all over the world are existed in China. According to an archaeologist, the history of building imitation in China is very long, and Shibasen wrote that the Qin, which is the first united dynasty copied the palaces of the countries they conquered in Xianyang.
Compared to building imitations, the number of copy products of famous brands is very large and rapidly increasing. In China, various brands of electrical appliances, cars, apparels, and many other products are copied and the products are widely sold in many stores. For example, SQNY (Sony), KFG (KFC), Goojje (Google), UN!PRO (UNIQLO), and so on. Beishi ga erabu “chugoku no pakuri shouhin besuto10” (2010, November 3) Searchina. Famous and popular brands have a big power to make consumers buy the products, so many copies appeared in the market. But these imitations have caused many problems between fake brands and the original brands. Chinese prefer cheap copied goods to expensive brand goods. Also, many consumers are confused by many imitations. So some trials have been done and many Chinese companies have been warned. But the number of imitations in China is increasing and increasing. Many Japanese companies are tired of them and have a serious problem today.
Chinese history of imitation
Before 1978, Chinese government controlled its citizens by deciding how much they should produce and sell products so that products could circulate fairly in the society. The people did not have motivations to work because however hard they worked, they would get money as much as those who did not work hard. Toushouhei abolished this rule in 1978, so the Chinese economy has rapidly grown. Therefore, it could not regulate counterfeit goods properly.
Related pages
* Intellectual property in China
* Intellectual property
* counterfeit consumer goods

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