China’s Pirated Village Opens
- Categories: International, News
- Date: Jun 6, 2012 13:04 JST
- Tags: Austria, Bizarre, China, Copyright, Guandong, Made in China, Plagiarism, Tourism
China’s billion dollar “pirated” copy of the Austrian village of Hallstatt has finally opened, much to the annoyance of the inhabitants of the original, who still complain the Chinese copied their village in secret and never bothered to ask for permission.
The Austrian original, a centuries-old Alpine village designated a World Heritage site by UNESCO and a major draw for tourists, was secretly scouted and measured by agents of the property development arm of China Minmetals Corp.
The original:
The made in China version:
The developers planned the village, situated in Guandong province, in the hopes it would prove popular with both wealthy Chinese home buyers and tourists not interested in actually travelling to Europe, and report they spent some ¥940 million on the project.
Halstatt only found out their village was to be copied from the ground up when a Chinese “tourist” accidentally let slip details of the project.
The initial response was less than positive, but, perhaps sensing there is nothing he can do about it anyway, the mayor now talks up the prospect of Chinese tourism to the original and attended the recent opening of the copy, agreeing to institute cultural ties between the original and its clone:
“It was not so controversial. We were only surprised that a small village in Austria was built, and now we are very proud that it happened.”
Local tourism officials are also hoping the knock-off will encourage Chinese to visit the original:
“First we were a bit insecure. Why did it come to replicate Hallstatt, and then we became lucky and proud.”
Actual residents of the original do not seem convinced:
“I don’t think that it is a good idea. Hallstatt is just unique with its culture and traditions. You cannot copy that. I saw a report and the photos, and the copy seems different. In my opinion it is unacceptable.”
The Chinese reaction to the village’s opening seems equally mixed, although it seems likely the perilous state of China’s property market will be of rather more concern to developers and potential buyers than mere intellectual property concerns.
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Oh China, is there ANYTHING you can't copy and make significantly shittier?
They would do ANYTHING for a buck!
Your are correct! They also cloned your mom's black ass and made managed to make it shittier!
Wow... China's version look horrible... just because you can possibly try to recreate the buildings/layout doesn't mean you can recreate the epic scenery/water..
That water looks poisonous.
Wait until the scenery explodes.
No kidding! The water looks pretty rank. And the mountains just look dead.
EXPLOSIONS INDEED..
Watch it explode. Then you know it's Authentically Chinese.
authentic? china and the word authentic is nowhere near each other.
Don't worry, it'll surely explode and be buried "to safeguard national secrets" soon enough.
I am sure they will all explode like all the rest of stuff made by china.
That's unfair. Not everything made in China explodes. Most of it just fizzles and stops working.
Those who live here have no sense of shame or just zombies. Those who have a brain won't buy their house in this kind of village. Because, they don't know how many percent this town were copy (At the very least, not 100%) When shit happen, I will rofl.
Although i am inclined to NOT leave my room unless i really need to, for ex. daily exercise, food and *sigh* my job.
If i had to go somewhere between the two, Austria is the clear winner by far, and NOT because its the "real" one...But i'm quite biased i'd say.
Still, why would anyone want check out China's "fake" town anyway? I mean, if you want to go to China then you'd most likely want to experience "China".
Whatever that is...
It's not for external tourist, it's for chinese who can't afford travel to Europe. China have population of Europe and America combined, you know.
i wonder what next would be pirated by China..
Maybe they'll pirate some pirates.
they already did that by making a one piece theme park
The world.
Just needs a bit of photoshopping.
Soon enough in the far future, China will pirate a version of Earth, and thus "Earth Two" is born.
The Two Earth.
By Ashirogi Muto.
and then one of the earth will explode as the one with made in china stuff
Luckily, a Chinese Earth Two scientist and his wife will be able to evacuate their son off of the planet right before it explodes, via a tiny spaceship that will get him safely to Earth. Unfortunately for him, the faulty Chinese engineering of the spacecraft will cause him to land not in the middle of Sichuan province as intended, but instead in Kansas, where he is promptly arrested for copyright infringement on behalf of DC Comics.
pirated or blueprint copy or something...
but that china own money build?!?
What the bullshit!?!
Slip somebody in Hallstatt some Rohypnol....fly him over to China while he's knocked out....let him wake wake up alone in the clone. Add some hidden cameras and you've got a nice little prank.
I'd pay $5 to see that movie.
when's the earthquake that would rip china o little pieces? oh wait.. when is the explosion?
they even translated sign...
until it explodes.
Or sinks, then explodes.
Next headline. "China's Pirated Villages Explodes!"
After all the buildings fall over, revealing they were made out of garbage.
The buildings that aren't stolen, that is.
you mean the buildings will explode right ?
Damn you beat me to it!
More like caved in, perhaps?
"China's Menaced by Exploding Austrian Villages"
I'll give it 3 weeks
Hitler was originally Austrian so he would be pissed off to see the Chinese pirating a "white man's village" and will caused it to spontaneously explode.
was thinking the exact same thing
Don't forget "The building topple over because the building plans didn't call for longer underground support."
Interesting how the Chinese tore down their real mountains just to put up some fake ones. :P
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but still...
I don't know why everyone is complaining. The Mr. Chung's Chinese Buffet near my house is a total clone of a Shanghai garbage dump. And don't forget that GolfLand with the hole that's a copy of the Beijing Hidden City.
Honestly, this is a pretty cool idea. Also we have plenty of these theme parks in the US as well, other than they are not to be complete clone of the original in such scale. I mean look at Vagas and those Jesus towns and crap.
yeah did Las Vegas ask paris if they could copy the Eiffel tower?
did Egypt get mad because there's a pyramid in Vegas?
i don't see the big deal with that chinese village :p
Vegas is a parody. It's a mish-mash of hokey bullshit, and that's their entire gimmick. They were never trying to directly copy an entire area.
But you're missing the point. Copy pasta-ing location or monument is still copy pasta. The thing that people are avoiding is the fact that this was done for the main purpose of "tourism". Instead are focusing on the fact that it's a copy/imitation and nothing more. Which basically means cherry picking faults for the sake of bias criticism. Another words "haters gonna hate".
I find things like these pretty cool and I'm going to admit that stuff like these inspire me to go visit the originals...when I have the money.
"In other words", not "another words"... (-_-)
I get the feeling we wouldn't react the same way if it was a Western country, because it's a White country. Not saying we would do a 1:1 scale village or the sort, but if we did I guarantee more praise than ridicule. Especially on this site. Power of double standards.
Your comment make perfect sense, but I think you'll find irony in the fact that the owner of the village is an American White man.
Your comment make perfect sense, but I think you'll find irony in the fact that the owner of the village is an Indonesian man.
your comment make perfect sense, but i think you'll find irony in the fact that the owner of the village is an half white, half Indonesian American man.
Bullshit. Whites get criticized more than anyone; no exceptions.