From someone who lived in China for four years, I can confidently say that this is something that is not going away anytime soon. There are many reasons for this, and some are culturally deep-seated: In China, "copyright" is truly a foreign concept. Walk around any large city, or any smaller city for that matter and you will see vendors -
everywhere - hawking their pirated cd's and dvd's - for 1 - 3 dollars each (90% of digital intellectual property in China is controlled by the black market). Every once in a while, the goverment will "crack down" - for a week or so - then it's back to business as usual. (This summer they will no doubt clear the streets of the hawkers - and the homeless - for the Olympics). In department stores you will see cheap, Chinese made knock-offs of everything from "Nike" footware to fake "Coca-Cola." When I lived in Beijing there was a
real MacDonald's restaurant on the corner of WangfuJing Avenue (there are now hundreds), near Tiananmen Square.
Across the street was a Chinese "McDonald's" restaurant - same colors - red and gold - same clown (sort of) and even the golden arches - only it was upside down and looked loke a "W." It's gone now but it was there for several years.
For six months I co-hosted an English language music show on Beijing TV with a friend of mine. My friend Tim created the show from scratch, the name, concept, graphics, everything. We were the first - and last - foreigners to host a television program in China. We were on the air for six months, getting quite popular - then the government suddenly pulled the plug. But the show continued - they just dumped the two of us, and installed two Chinese hosts. Everything else remained. Bottom line: in China, business contracts are...subject to re-interpretation.
Also, as an English teacher, I found that there seems to be no stigma whatsoever attached to plagiarism. Students would routinely turn in writing samples that they had just copied - perfect English. I taught a class for the other Chinese professors at a college in Xi'an - more than half of the
professors plagiarized.
Regarding art - in traditional Chinese art education there is a long and respected tradition of copying the work of past (Chinese) masters. The Chinese take this to an extreme so that all of the art students I saw - all they did was copy. And though I was visiting an "art school" - all of the student work, when it was finished, was out on the sidewalk to sell to tourists. I realize now that all these students are now probably painting full-time...in the painting sweatshops in Dafen.
And this brings me to what I think is the real engine for this kind of enterprise: in China it is all about money. Money, money, money. The aspirations of most of my students was to "get rich." People back home would ask me what it was like to live in a communist country, and I would have to reply that China is most definitely
not a communist country. In name only, maybe. China is the furthest thing from communist. It is capitalism run-amok. It's the wild west, only it's in the east.
And I love China - truly I do.
I find that scene in Dafen mind-boggling, but I wonder if we are over-reacting to it's significance. First of all, for artists doing portraits, does it in any way impact our getting real commissions? And if you are showing your work in any respectable gallery, is that gallery's clientele going to opt for a cheap Chinese knock-off, instead of buying original art? The broader public (in this country, anyway) has always been largely uneducated about fine art. The audience for our work has always been narrow - a thin segment of the population that may be said to have...taste. Has that changed?
When I was growing up, I remember seeing velvet paintings of Jesus, JFK, and Elvis (with a tear rolling down his cheek) all over the place, at gas stations, in malls...people were buying them. And as an artist, I never thought that I was in any way competing with these velvet masters, or that our markets were the same. I kind of see this as the same - although the scale of this Chinese industry is noteworthy. It's just entrepeneurs taking advantage of a largely art-ignorant public that has a little extra money to spend.
Marvin, I have a question for you: Are you livid, incensed - or even mildly irritated - at strangers stealing your images and making a few yuan off them? Or are you merely amused (or honored, humbled...
) at your recent elevation to the status of "Old Master?"
David