Yesterday, I sent our ayi (“ayi” is the local term for domestic helper) to the store to buy three boxes of baking soda for an experiment I was doing with my daughter’s class. I gave her a box of Arm & Hammer that I had in the cupboard to use as a sample, given her English and my Chinese are far from perfect. It wasn’t until I was at school this morning that I noticed the label on the boxes she purchased, “Arm & Hatchet.” A pound of Arm & Hatchet costs slightly more than 8 ounces of the real thing.
While living in Hong Kong, we came to understand that certain neighborhoods were known for pirated goods – Mongkok, located deep in the heart of Kowloon, comes to mind. Nevertheless, the central business district always offered a readily available supply of genuine products. So while one could find knock off DVDs, CDs and handbags if he wanted, it was easy to buy genuine, which we made a point to do, for the obvious the reasons. Not so in China.
Upon arriving in Beijing, I searched – in vain – for genuine DVD movies. In the eight months I have been here, I have yet to find a shop that offers non pirated discs. Even the large western grocery chain, Jennie Lou’s, unabashedly boasts a pirated DVD section in each store, where one may purchase a variety of new and old releases for about US$2 each. These shops pride themselves on their customer service, allowing one to exchange defective items.
In Hong Kong, I was able to maintain some optimism regarding western companies’ abilities to secure their intellectual property rights; living in China, I now understand exactly how tough this fight is.