Imitation and Innovation in the Early Twentieth-Century North China Weaving Industry

Linda Grove ()
Additional contact information
Linda Grove: Sophia University

Chapter Chapter 7 in Imitation, Counterfeiting and the Quality of Goods in Modern Asian History, 2017, pp 123-136 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract This chapter focuses on the question of authenticityAuthenticity of goods , the aspect of product quality related to whether products are what they claim to be. Based on a case study of copying of the technology of the iron gear loomIron gear loom in the North China textile industry in the early twentieth century, it draws connections with the well-known work of Maxine BergBerg, Maxine on imitationImitation and innovationInnovation in eighteenth-century European markets for products designed to substitute for Asian imports. The paper uses Dikötter, Frank Frank Dikötter’s notion of “copy culture,”Copy culture which Dikötter developed to describe the activities of Chinese manufacturers who made copies of foreign daily-use items for the domestic market. While Dikötter’s work focused on the consumption of what he termed “exotic goods,” looking at the creation of segmented marketsSegmented market for “authentic” imports and domestic copies, this chapter looks at the mechanisms of production and the role of foreign import merchantsMerchants in the commissioning of copies. Small Chinese firms then built on the technologies they had learned to establish production bases for independent indigenous production. The chapter draws connections between indigenous “imitationsImitation ” and the contemporary production of both authentic products and “fakes.”Fake Finally the chapter considers the role of economic nationalismEconomic nationalism and the role of the state in the flourishing of copy cultureCopy culture .

Keywords: Imitation; Innovation; Copy culture; Technology transfer; Weaving industry (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:stechp:978-981-10-3752-8_7

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9789811037528

DOI: 10.1007/978-981-10-3752-8_7

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Studies in Economic History from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().