Faked in China by Yang Fan;

Author:Yang, Fan;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 2016-05-19T16:00:00+00:00

4.1. The new Silk Street plaza.

4.2. Neon sign on display in the parking lot of the new Silk Street plaza.

It was not easy to change the face of the market from a bazaar for illegal fakes to a shopping paradise for the Olympics. Back in 2003, not long after the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games released its logo design, 134 unauthorized clothing items bearing the emblem were found at Silk Street. Numerous legal struggles with global brands over the years have reinforced the Silk Street administration’s determination to transform the market into a more legitimate tourist destination. A central figure behind this process was the general manager for Haosen, Wang Zili, who also served as Silk Street’s chief public relations spokesman.60 Wang devised a two-pronged strategy for Silk Street’s turnaround: on the one hand, the market was to become “an element of Chinese culture” by “using Chinese flavor” and “Chinese elements” to attract “outside guests”; on the other, by introducing discount stores for international brands and turning the market’s unofficial outlets into legit ones, its “fashion atmosphere” would be enhanced to attract “domestic guests” to the officially licensed brand-name stores. In other words, the future of Silk Street would rely on a combination of “Chinese culture” and “foreign fashion” – “full of Chinese flavor outwardly, and full of foreign flavor inwardly.”61

In 2006, Wang began to launch the first prong of the turnaround plan by inviting the so-called time-honored brands of Beijing (Beijing laozihao) to set up branches at the market. Meanwhile, he increased the percentage of stalls specializing in “folk commodities” such as silk, china, and tea so as to change the orientation of the market from “fake” to “folk.” A rental discount of 20 percent or more was offered to these “old” brands, and only one of each goods category would be chosen to be included in the market. Wang also announced plans to expand the Silk Street operation overseas. The idea was to adopt a “tourism commerce” model, which would allow Silk Street to bring its affiliated “time-honored” brands to foreign locales. Considering that many old brands were facing operational and developmental difficulties despite their “rich historical and cultural” heritage, international showcasing opportunities of this kind had proven quite attractive.62

Along with the cultivation of the market as a destination for “folk” brands, there was an effort to crack down on counterfeits and promote licensed sales of real brands. In March 2007, over one hundred stalls selling unlicensed branded items were reportedly eliminated. According to Wang, traders who obtained license agreements from international brands could benefit from a year of free rent, and those developing their own brands would get a 10–30 percent reduction in their rent. Not only did the administration put forth a development strategy for intellectual property protection, it also set up an RMB30 million ($4.5million) IPR protection fund to help traders adapt to selling “national,” “licensed,” and “time-honored” brands.63 As a result of these efforts, by June 2007 a total of ninety traders were persuaded to convert their stalls from fake to folk.

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