Nation of Imitators

THE SOURCE: “Copycat China” by Yu Hua, in Prospect, Sept. 2012.

President Barack Obama has endorsed a Chinese knockoff cell phone. Or so a manufacturer named “Harvard Communications” seems to claim. “This is my Blackberry,” reads a Chinese advertisement bearing the American president’s smiling face, “the Blockberry Whirlwind 9500!”

If a “Blockberry”—or a Nokir, Suny Ericcsun, or Samsing—fails to make you feel like Obama, you can always commission a Chinese architect to build you an imitation White House. Some wealthy Chinese businessmen swear by them: work in the Oval Office and sleep in the Lincoln Bedroom.

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