Over at The Diplomat I’ve a post on the innovative ways in which local Suzhou DVD shop owners are honoring China’s national pledges to protect Intellectual and Creative Property Rights.

The sale of domestic DVDs is lightly regulated in mainland China, so illicit copies of films by Zhou Ren Fa (Chow Yun Fat), Anthony Tse, Zhao Wei and the two Bing Bings (Li and Fang) are de rigueur in such shops. So are Japanese and South Korean films, and especially South Korean soap operas, which are hugely popular in China (rich boy meets not-as-rich-girl, tries to catch girl, who demurs for many episodes, eventually feeling great affection for the young man whereupon the girl announces she’s going to die—which she does, slowly and painfully and to a flood of tears. Not mine, of course). Chinese local governments don’t much mind if their neighbours’ stuff gets ripped off.

Read the article here. Always a revelation around nearly every corner!

Image credit: France24.com