W T oh-oh

See this? Yeah, those smashing new trainers are pseudo-Nike. Real, authentic fakes as only the Chinese can produce. I paid a small amount of money for them at a remote store that had my shoe size. (In China, men’s shoes are boy’s shoes.)

Most interesting is that the Chinese don’t stop at foreign brands. I’ve seen knock-offs of Chinese brands and not just shoes but other products as well. Surely, the Chinese can be the most unoriginal of original people, but then don’t forget the people like me that actually generate the demand for these phony products. There’s always a crowd around the street hawker selling DVDs. (I hear Hong Kong copy quality is the best.)
I read that the Chinese consider copying the environment around them as a way of complimenting that environment. I wonder if this is true. Even in America we say “imitation is the ultimate form of flattery.” I understand the legal issues, but why does this behavior irk everyone so much? What’s the psychology behind it? If you had a younger sibling, maybe he or she mimicked you to the point that it drove you crazy. I wonder why that is. It’s not like your younger sibling was making money by stealing your trademark.