User Comments - changye

Posted on: 山寨

Hi miantiao,

Honestly, I still don't understand the subtle difference among 山寨货，仿制货，and 假冒货. To me, they all seem to be the same. It looks like there are several variants in the concept of Chinese copycat products. Would you please enlighten me? Thank you in advance.

说实话，我还不明白山寨货，仿制货，假冒货等之间的区别在哪儿。看样子在中国“仿制”这个概念有几个档次或者是层次。 但是在我眼里，这些“有中国特色的”时尚货品都一样，我怎么也看不出到底有什么不同。中国俗话也说，“秃子笑和尚，五十步笑百步”。请你多多指教， 谢谢！

Posted on: Insurance Insanity

life insurance = 人寿保险 (ren2 shou4 bao3 xian3)

P/S. 长寿 = lengevity, 寿命 = lifespan

Posted on: 山寨

Hi miantiao

Let me show you a typical example of Chinese copyism. The article below says that, incredibly, there are about 6,000 drug firms in China, but more than 97% of their products are copy drugs, i.e. so called “generic drugs”. And Chinese pharmaceutical companies are very reluctant to invest money in developing new drugs because copying is much easier, less risky and less time-consuming.

I guess there is another reason for their reluctance. Even if you succeed in developing a breakthrough product, it's highly likely that you can’t make sufficient money from selling them because a lot of drug companies also soon start selling copy products (legal or illegal) of yours, which consequently further discourages research and development. Maybe the situation is more or less the same in other industries.

制药企业多是仿制药，中国新药何以难产？

http://www.xywy.com/news/news-focus/20070626/142690.html

P/S. I suspect there are also a lot of illegal copy drugs in the “97%”.

Posted on: 山寨

The copycat culture in China is not necessarily a bad thing for other countries. As long as Chinese companies are busy copying foreign products, they don't have much time inventing their original products or innovating technologies.

Actually, rampant copyism is a major reason that Chinese companies generally don't invest much time and money into developing new technologies. Copying is much easier than developing from scratch. Just let them copy your old products while you are innovating. Forbidden fruit is sweet.

Posted on: The Powerless Phones

Yeah, it's just a hard world.

Posted on: The Powerless Phones

There was a guy in Japan who was arrested because he used an electric outlet at a convenience store to recharge his cell-phone. In short, he stole electricity.

Posted on: The Powerless Phones

I fully agree with wjefferys. There are always a lot of questions about "了" here in forums, and how to use "了" properly is a never-ending issue in learning Chinese. Chinesepod should have spared 30 seconds for explaining the grammatical meaning of "了" in this case.

Posted on: Instant Noodles

Hi wchan,

What a shame it's very difficult to get "出前一丁" here in northeast China. I've seen them before at supermarkets here, but they don't sell the instant noodle anymore. The most popular brand in China may be "康师傅", a Taiwan manufacturer.

Posted on: 张爱玲经典名句

Tks for the useful link. I will use it when I deal with an ignorant patriot next time、haha.

Posted on: Always in Chinese: 总是 (zǒngshì) and 老是 (lǎoshi)

Hi light487l,

Newbie and elementary learners don't need to spend too much time studying measure words. I recommend you get a good Chinese dictionary that shows you a proper measure word for nouns.