Harry Potter Titles to Surprise JK Rowling

A few weeks ago I wrote about Chinese counterfeiters having a field day with Harry Potter, not just pirating copies of JK Rowling's books, but even writing their own stories of the boy wizard's adventures.

ADDITIONAL HP titles in China, include these:

• Harry Potter and the Leopard-Walk- Up-to-Dragon


• Harry Potter and the Chinese Porcelain Doll


• Harry Potter and the Waterproof Pearl


• Harry Potter and the Half-Blooded Relative Prince


• Harry Potter and the Big Funnel


• Harry Potter and Platform Nine and Three-Quarters


• Harry Potter and the Chinese Overseas Students at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

The plots are hilarious. This is the gist of Harry Potter and the Chinese Porcelain Doll:

Harry Potter learns that Mysterious Man (Voldemort) is going to China to persuade his rival Yandomort to attack Harry as well as the Western magic world. Harry decides to find Chinese Porcelain Doll, who could beat Yandomort in China. On a passenger steamer, Harry makes friends with Long Long and Xing Xing, who are part of a Chinese circus. It turns out that Naughty Bubble, the boy who usually bullied Xing Xing at the circus, was Yandomort. After Voldemort killed Naughty Bubble’s mother, Big Spinach, he took Naughty Bubble as his disciple, and taught him black magic to make him become Yandomort.

in Harry Potter and the Leopard-Walk- Up-to-Dragon, Harry becomes a fat, hairy dwarf after being caught in a “sour and sweet rain”; he loses all his magic and can get it back only by obtaining the magic ring. After he does, Harry becomes a dragon that fights evil. Voldemort has an even more powerful brother who makes trouble for Harry.

Excerpt:

"Harry doesn’t know how long it will take to wash the sticky cake off his face. For a civilized young man, it is disgusting to have dirt on any part of his body. He lies in the elegant bathtub, keeps wiping his face, and thinks about Dudley’s face, which is as fat as Aunt Petunia’s bottom."

Any ideas for more Harry Potter stories? Submit a title and synopsis in the comments!

This could be a lot of fun.

As for the titles above, read all the plot summaries and some excerpts in this New York Times op-ed article, Memo to the Dept. of Magical Copyright Enforcement.

[Disclosure: I'm not a HP fan, not in the least. Tried my best to read the books but failed, and slept through the movies (had to take the kids!). Many have told me I'm missing out on a great story. For now, I'll just have to suffer this terrible, self-inflicted deprivation.]

China's Counterfeiters Take on Harry Potter

In China, copyright pirates are racing to get out their version of the latest Harry Potter film before the real one makes it to theatres; and fake books are in the works too with no resemblance of the real thing.

NPR's Louisa Lim reports fake Harry Potter movies and books become a cottage industry in China, and sales of the knockoffs could be higher than the real thing! (Ouch. JK Rowling must be steamed.)

Here are links to my previous posts on counterfeiting in China:

More Counterfeiting Tales from China

Tip Your (Knockoff) Hat to Imitations and Counterfeits!

Counterfeit Blood Protein Revealed in China

And more!

Counterfeit Blood Protein Revealed in China

Does counterfeiting know no bounds?

From the BBC:

"Chinese investigators say nearly 60 hospitals and pharmacies in north-eastern China have been using fake blood protein in patients' drips.

"Albumin, or plasma protein, is used to treat patients suffering from shock and burns and during open-heart surgery.

"Experts suggest that the fake product could be life-threatening for those already in a serious condition.

"The scandal is the latest to expose weaknesses in China's regulation of food and drug standards.

"The food and drug administration in the north-eastern state of Jilin found 18 hospitals and more than 30 pharmacies sold or were selling false batches of the albumin.

"'There was no element of protein, so it could not perform its intended function,' said the administration's deputy director, Xu Fei.

"'These were out-and-out fakes,' he added.

"Officials did not say whether anyone had died or fallen ill through using the false protein, though one Chinese newspaper said it had led to one death.

"China Central Television cited an official saying those making the false albumin were making a 300% profit, assisted by shortages of the genuine product.

"The administration said its investigations had 'effectively cleaned up the market'.

You can read the whole article on the BBC website.

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Here are links to my earlier blog entries on the subject of China's counterfeit practices in food and medical products:

Is ANYTHING safe from China these days?

Food Safety: So Much More Than E. coli

Another Tale of Food Safety Challenges in China

Deadly Industrial Chemicals from China Landing Up Cough Syrup and Other Products

Trail to Chinese Food Producers Turns Cold

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Just a few more pics of imitations.

Why counterfeit a few purses when you can try and copy the whole store?


All four pictures on this post are on www.hemmy.net, which shows more Chinese fakes. The store above is in China. I imagine that if most of the population is not accustomed to reading English often, they could mistake the store name for the real Prada.

Same principles at work in the next few examples:






I've had a lot of fun looking up counterfeits on the web!

Tip Your (Knockoff) Hat to Imitations and Counterfeits!

The problem of counterfeit goods has been turned into a fashion statement by the Dutch/Brazilian designer Bea Correa. She first drew attention for her knockoff Louis Vuitton purses with the word 'FAKE' stenciled across them. Correa said she was surprised at the enthusiastic public response - even people who already owned the real thing wanted one. (Source)). If you want one of these hot items, you'll have to make a fake, as they're no longer available. (Just buy a knockoff LV and stencil "FAKE" on it!)

Correa's next big statement was a line of T-shirts called Fakewear.



Then again - it's not entirely clear WHAT exactly, is being declared as fake!



Want to see more imitations? You're in luck. People are more interested in this than I realized!

Germany has the Museum Plagiarius in the city of Solingen. (be sure to check out the slideshow). Proves it's not just the Chinese who pull imitations.

In fact, a 1992 article in the International Herald Tribune about the Museo del falso in Salerno, Italy, makes it clear that all the Chinese practices we've heard about in recent times may have originated in Europe!

Is this the ultimate irony - Chinese imitating European imitations?

Thailand is home to the Tilleke and Gibbins Museum of Counterfeit Goods established in 1989. Some of the pictures of the fakes are incredible!

And in Paris, visit the Museum of the Counterfeit.

And finally, make sure you check out a photolog tracing a fried chicken fakery gone wild in New York City: Satan's Laundromat. It's unreal! (Sorry. I couldn't resist it.) When you're done with that, go to another post on the same photolog for Colonel Sanders wannabes.

It's not just China faking stuff.

Seen in Irbil, Iraq (Source):



And this was in Siem Reap, Cambodia (Source):

More Counterfeiting Tales from China

Y'all know those fake Prada and Fendi goods are from China, right? Those Louis Vuitton and Gucci bags and purses, those Rolexes sold off street tables in many big cities - all from the Middle Kingdom, no?

Counterfeiting is big business there. But designer goods are just the tip of the iceberg. Think pirated DVDs and CD - all the way up to laptops and cellphones.

In these cases, manufacturers and those who hold the patents are the main losers. But Chinese counterfeiting has expanded into areas that cause harm, and even death. Fake brake pads that fail in an emergency. Fake formula with barely any protein - babies fed this stuff were seriously malnourished, and some died. (See this earlier post) Cheap diethylene glycol sold under the guise of glycerin syrup for use in cough syrup, fever medication, injectable drugs - these caused permanent damage to some people and killed others. (Read this earlier post).

At the heart of this massive problem is this question: why are these fraudulent practices so widespread in China, and why aren't their authorities getting it under control?

The New York Times tackles that issue in the article, When Fakery Turns Fatal.

According to the story, "cutting corners or producing fake goods is not just a legacy of China’s initial rush toward the free market three decades ago but still woven into the fabric of the nation’s thriving industrial economy. It is driven by entrepreneurs who are taking advantage of a weak legal system, lax regulations and a business culture where bribery and corruption are rampant."

After living in deprivation under decades of Communism, are some Chinese willing to go to any lengths to turn a bigger profit? Seems that way, doesn't it?

"For decades," writes David Barboza, "small entrepreneurs have started out counterfeiting in emerging industries in China, seeking an early advantage and their first pot of gold.

"Often, they try to get around regulations, or simply believe small-time cheating that involves adding cheap substitutes or low-grade ingredients will not cause much harm.

Barboza notes:

"Dozens of Chinese cities have risen to prominence over the last two decades by first specializing in fake goods, like Wenzhou, which was once known for selling counterfeit Procter & Gamble products, and Kaihua in Zhejiang province, which specialized in fake Philips light bulbs."

One of those counterfeiting capitals is Wudi, home of the company that sold melamine-contaminated wheat gluten to American pet food manufacturers. Some pets fed with those products were sickened, and some died.

Did the buyers of the contaminated wheat gluten and other products visit the manufacturing plant to observe production practices and note their standards? No - and if they had tried, they might have found ramshackle outbuildings or shuttered facilities instead of the modern factories pictured on these companies' websites.

As Barboza says, corruption - at many levels of Chinese government - only serves to make the deception easier.

The wheat gluten company, Binzhou Futian, "shared a building with the county government’s cereal and grains bureau, an indication of its close ties to the government. "Futian didn’t have any actual factory here,” said a guard who works at the Binzhou headquarters. “They hung a banner here because they wanted to look good in front of visitors. They had countless suppliers from the countryside.”

Wow.

Just how far can this fraud go?

"Last year....pirates were caught faking an entire company, setting up a “branch” of the NEC Corporation of Japan, including 18 factories and warehouses in China and Taiwan."

It's a scary thought. These guys could easily fake a "Made in the USA" label if they wish, if they haven't done it already.

Here again, is the NY Times story.

NPR's Louisa Lim reported last year that Chinese authorities tried to crack down on counterfeiter, but that failed to stem the tide of knockoffs.

Read my post, Is ANYTHING from China Safe These Days? (And how do we know what's from China, anyway?)

Want to flaunt a purse with a Coach logo at a fraction of the price? Here's a story on the hidden costs of buying counterfeit goods.