Fakes: Fraud, Value-Anxiety, and the Politics of Sincerity

Abstract

In 2001, on a trip to Shanghai I visited the city’s well-known Xiangyang market—famous for its quality replica of Western designer clothes and bags that were hugely popular with locals and Westerners alike. Burberry scarves and umbrellas, Versace sunglasses, Gucci bags, as well as the newest Hollywood blockbusters on DVD were all on offer; and young and chic Shanghainese roamed the stalls in search of the latest fashion statement. Xiangyang market was different from other forms of selling “fakes” in China in that every customer who came here, with maybe the exception of the most naïve foreigners, knew that he or she was buying not an original but a replica, and valued the accessibility also for those with a small budget to one of the most important forms of cultural capital in post-Maoist China— the ownership of mingpai (famous brand commodities). Although the goods on offer were of a strikingly high quality, what made the sale of replica “honest” to everyone were not only the low prices, but also the setting that stood in such contrast to a designer outlet that no one could possibly be duped: a vast flat of mud, covered with small stalls and stands sheltered by plastic covers, and with women and men who were clearly of working class or peasant background selling the goods. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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