Mapping Media in China by Wanning Sun Jenny Chio

Author:Wanning Sun, Jenny Chio [Wanning Sun, Jenny Chio]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138857469
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2015-03-04T00:00:00+00:00

they will be quickly identified and isolated in the closely networked shanzhaiji production system centred in Shenzhen. All the major players know each other, and they do business with each other regularly through cash transactions. It is therefore not surprising at all that spatially they need to cluster together in and around the SEZ.

Networked identities

The innovation model of shanzhaiji just described differs from the traditional top-down industrial systems fostered by Beijing through such national programs as the 863 Plan (Feigenbaum 2003). It starts from the local scale and moves from the bottom up to form a network structure that is much more open than the brand-name manufacturers constrained by corporate secrecy and exclusive deals with telecom operators. In a quite counter-intuitive way, there is much information sharing among shanzhaiji producers, for instance through the website 52RD.com that proclaims ‘Wo ai yan fa wang’ (‘I love research and development’).

As of March 2009, 52RD.com had more than 130,000 members and close to 800,000 postings. It has an impressive collection of IT industry news, research articles and job vacancy information. Most important is its R&D BBS, which has 40 discussion boards divided into five categories: (1) Overall R&D; (2) Hardware R&D; (3) Mobile phone R&D; (4) Exchange Arena; and (5) Netizen DIY. The great majority of content on this website has to do with mobile phone R&D, especially as this relates to shanzhaiji.

In addition to 52RD.com, PDA.cn is another important platform of information exchange among smart-phone shanzhaiji developers. There is also a series of websites targeting customers such as shanzhaiji.com, zhaizhu.net and shanzhaiji.cn, a customer-oriented website that emphasizes ‘the promotion of powerful phones produced domestically and the exchange of shanzhaiji culture’ (‘tuijie guochan qiangji, jiaoliu shanzhai shouji wenhua’), in an obviously nationalistic tone. It is this networked R&D and marketing structure that enables shanzhaiji to emerge on such a phenomenal scale and compete head to head with the global brand-name phones.

The important bottom-up creativity of shanzhaiji innovation networks should, however, be recognized with several important caveats. First, these network structures are manifestations of flexible capitalism as much as the large global IT enterprises are. There is a basic spatial pattern wherein relatively high-end R&D and marketing companies to cluster within high-rent areas of the Shenzhen SEZ such as Futian, whereas less profitable shanzhaiji businesses, for example, manufacturers of phone cases, batteries and accessories, tend to spread out in Bao’an and Longgang districts right adjacent to the SEZ. In these more remote districts, the minimum wage is 900 yuan per month as compared to the level of 1,000 per month within the SEZ. Work conditions there are usually much worse with significantly fewer benefits given by the factories. Work injuries, often involving fingers lost in the processes of moulding and metal cutting, are a serious problem in the smaller shanzhaiji parts factories, and the victims are often poorly treated and receive less than legal compensation.

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