山寨

What does 山寨 mean?

山寨 started as a word for mountain strongholds and ended up describing half the electronics in China. In daily use it means counterfeit or imitation with a wink: a 山寨 phone is a knockoff, a 山寨 version of a show is a fan-made parody, and a 山寨 business can run out of a spare room. The word carries neither pure contempt nor pure approval, which is why it stuck. It can warn that an item will fall apart within a week, or it can celebrate that someone built something scrappy and beloved. Context decides whether you are delivering an insult or a compliment.

Where does 山寨 come from?

The term came out of Guangdong, where 山寨厂 named the fly-by-night workshops that assembled electronics. The 山寨机 boom of 2007 and 2008, concentrated in Shenzhen's Huaqiangbei electronics markets, put cheap handsets with wild features into millions of pockets, made possible by MediaTek's turnkey chips that turned building a phone into a plug-and-play business. From there the word jumped to culture: 山寨 stars, 山寨 products, even a grassroots 山寨 Spring Festival Gala announced for 2009. State media debated whether the phenomenon was grassroots creativity or piracy, and the word simply stayed in the language.

How to use 山寨

• 他买了双山寨球鞋，穿了三天鞋底就开胶了。
  Tā mǎi le shuāng shānzhài qiúxié, chuān le sān tiān xiédǐ jiù kāi jiāo le.
  He bought a pair of knockoff sneakers and the soles came unglued after three days.
• 村里办的晚会被大家叫作山寨春晚，节目全是村民自己攒的。
  Cūn lǐ bàn de wǎnhuì bèi dàjiā jiào zuò shānzhài chūnwǎn, jiémù quán shì cūnmín zìjǐ zǎn de.
  The village New Year show is nicknamed the knockoff Spring Festival Gala; every act was put together by the villagers themselves.