How (not) to steal a book? The social history of the Chinese publishing industry

Abstract

This paper reviews Fei-Hsien Wang's Pirates and Publishers - A Social History of Copyright in Modern China book, and concludes that the monograph thoroughly introduces the socio-cultural and economic roots of modern Chinese copyright law. It necessitates readers (and researchers of this field) to look beyond statutory law, and makes it easier to understand the relevance of the “shanzai” culture of modern China. The book similarly helps to understand from where did the Chinese depart from on their long way to merge their copyright regime with (but never succumbed to) the Western intellectual property standards.