Shanzhai: creative imitation of China in highland Myanmar

The Wa State of Myanmar is often called ‘shanzhai China’, that is, a lesser imitation of China. This essay unpacks the material and symbolic implications of creative imitation at the Chinese periphery, embodied in shanzhai practices. Literally ‘mountain fortresses’, shanzhai refers to creative and ironic brand imitation in contemporary China. Until the 1950s, the inhabitants of the Wa hills did indeed live in mountain fortresses – both a pragmatic necessity as well as a miniature repetition of Chinese imperial rule. The pragmatic limitations and creative potential of imitating China is shown for the cases of Maoism, authoritarian capitalism, and contemporary nationhood. Rather than an essentialised feature of Chinese cultural practice, the practices of shanzhai reveal that material and symbolic re-combination are essential to creative imitation.