Word: mainlanders
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...about babies. So as the Year of the Horse gives way to the Year of the Sheep, a popular resolution seems to be: suspend all efforts to procreate. Chinese tradition holds that kids born in sheep years are doomed to a life of baaaahd luck. And since most mainland couples can legally have only one child, they're not taking any chances; as Jan. 31, Chinese New Year's Eve, draws nigh, maternity wards are reporting deliveries in record numbers, with some seeing increases of up to 40%. The phenomenon is partly due to nesting pairs checking their calendars about...
...record labels have complained for years about the damage that CD pirates do to their business in China. By some estimates, more than 90% of the CDs sold on the mainland are illegal copies. Intellec-tual-property theft is just part of a global music-piracy problem that combined with rampant tune trafficking over the Internet is cramping sales. After a drop in 2001 of 5% in terms of value and 6.5% in units, global music sales plunged a further 9.2% and 11.2% respectively in the first half...
...Abundant supply has fostered a cottage industry on the mainland. Inside a cluster of about 15 music shops at a popular Guangzhou mall, thousands of dakou albums are on offer. New shipments come in twice a week. "Competition is fierce, so we have to specialize," says a middle-aged shopkeeper dealing mainly in techno. A national subculture has sprouted, dubbed the Saw-Gash Generation. Dakou has its own fan and e-commerce websites, message boards and magazines-which review albums only available on the mainland as saw gash and even print helpful Chinese translations of lyrics and liner notes...
...gray-market albums started showing up in major mainland cities, according to Giouw. The IFPI, which lobbies globally against piracy and copyright violations, traced the CDs to a single recycling company in northeast China and notified record companies. But, Giouw says, "at the time, none of the majors were concerned that it would have an impact on their business." Piracy was a much bigger issue. "This was the lesser evil," he explains. "Do you want these cutouts, or do you want pirates...
...declined to be named. Michael Jackson's 2001 Invincible album, for example, was imported to China through official channels, after Sony Music removed several tracks with explicit lyrics to appease the Ministry of Culture. After the album flopped, large quantities of unsold European copies turned up on the mainland-uncensored and selling for a fraction of the price of official versions still on store shelves...