The Imitation Paradox

Name: The Imitation Paradox
ISBN: 9783110757477

Release Date:: 4 May 2026
Status:: Check Availability
ISBN:: 9783110757477

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Description

How did China transform from technological copycat to global innovator? The Imitation Paradox challenges Western narratives of "theft" and "imitation," and reframes imitation as a creative force in China's technological rise. Drawing on 40 years of fieldwork - spanning telecoms, shanzhai culture, and pandemic apps - Xiaobai Shen reveals how imitation shapes innovation, participation, and governance in the digital age. Shen argues that China and the West operate within "two moral universes:" In the Chinese framework, shaped by Confucian traditions, ethical concepts like privacy, freedom, and collective good are relational and context-dependent rather than universal. These values support a distinctive digital governance rooted in civic cultivation and mass participation.

ISBN 9783110757477