Faked in China is a critical account of the cultural challenge faced by China following its accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001. It traces the interactions between nation branding and counterfeit culture, two manifestations of the globalizing Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) regime that give rise to competing visions for the nation. Nation branding is a state-sanctioned policy, captured by the slogan "From Made in China to Created in China," which aims to transform China from a manufacturer of foreign goods into a nation that creates its own IPR-eligible brands. Counterfeit culture is the transnational making, selling, and buying of unauthorized products. This cultural dilemma of the postsocialist state demonstrates the unequal relations of power that persist in contemporary globalization.
"Yang offers a 'best set of practices' for cultural studies of global processes and artifacts. Here, particular case studies, examples, and contexts of nation-branding and counterfeit culture are closely and carefully described and then expertly analyzed and critiqued."
Stephanie DeBoer, Indiana University, author of Coproducing Asia
"[A]n original, interdisciplinary, superbly well researched analysis of the PRC under the gun of the global, modern, and Eurocentric 'IPR regime.'... [O]ffers an alternative and to me very compelling way to do cultural studies, bringing the question of culture into relation with the state and nation under globalization."
Daniel Vukovich, author of China and Orientalism: Western Knowledge Production and the PRC
