Background

I never heard of Shanzhai before today. I’m not claiming to be an expert.

I was trying to catch up with some of my back issues of 2600 (Winter 2023/2024) and ran into what appears to be part 4 of a series by gr3ase evangelizing the idea of Shanzhai culture being adopted specifically in America.

I wasn’t familiar with the term. I found Wikipedia’s got [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanzhai](a page on Shanzhai). And also ChatGPT is ready to talk about it.

After giving it a thought, I don’t think a direct translation of Shanzhai could take root in America. Indeed, the “copycat/ripoff” aspect of it might run against our cultural DNA. But maybe I’m wrong?

But we do have a fierce independent streak in our cultural DNA, and there’s probably something to build off of there.

What are some of the core underpinnings of Shanzhai in China?

  • counterfeiting & knock-offs
  • grassroots innovation
  • flexible/rapid small-scale manufacturing
  • subversion of corporate & government control
  • it’s not just electronics. Any big consumer brands are fair game.

The “grassroots innovation” bit is definitely compatible with American culture. We’ve also got a Maker culture here, and an entrepreneurial spirit. I think we could make something of small-scale, local manufacturing for local consumers.

What aspects of American hacker culture would dovetail well with a homegrown knock-off of Chinese knock-off culture?

  • Open Source - We’ve lost our way a bit here, but it wasn’t that long ago that we really had a strong Open Source culture that wasn’t yet corrupted and entirely enshittified by corporate interests. In fact, using Open Source was the epitome of subversive culture 30 years ago.
  • Maker Culture - We love our 3D printers, desktop CNC machines, soldering & electronics projects, arduinos, ESP32’s, Raspberry Pi’s, pulling off a cool hack for street cred, etc. If we had our shit together better, many American makers could make a tidy side hustle off of manufacturing bespoke yet cheap/accessible consumer electronics.
  • tech fashion trends - I think this same culture could have a lot of fun trying to not just keep up with and imitate major luxury brands like Apple, but doing so ironically as a jab to them.
  • And if we get good at the above, it opens a whole channel for entrepreneurs to run repair & upgrade businesses.
  • grassroots AI models that make decent enough LLM available for anyone to run on their locally made laptop or mobile device.
  • re-birth of garage startups - A micro manufacturing plant could very easily fit into the typical American garage.
  • getting serious about homegrown communications networks like neighborhood WiFi co-ops, something like Meshtastic, etc. Bonus points if they work really well with those locally manufactured devices.
  • Design & manufacturing co-operatives