We all know that if you want something you will probably find it in China. Fake or not, it’s there. No matter if it’s a fake drink or fake Paris, they can come up with almost everything. They even produce fake paper bags from Chanel, Hermes etc. for people who cannot afford original item but want to ‘show off’ so they just get the paper bag and pretend it’s a leftover from ‘casual shopping in Milan’. They fake luxury products, they fake casual everyday use products, fake instant noodles, fake restaurants. Literally my mother in law went with my sister in law to MFC – some kind of weird combination of McDonald’s and KFC. They even said it’s quite good!
Some of their fake products are really bad, almost falling apart and probably might give you a cancer when you get older but some of them are really, really good. I’m not only talking about the quality but how similar it can be with the original. Even my husband said he would get tricked. If he could get tricked imagine someone who doesn’t speak nor read Chinese, goes to a chinese grocery store and wonder what to buy – everyone who has been to China knows that a lot of their products’ names are actually a sound translations of original product with some meaning connected to it. But how in the world can you know if it’s THAT product? With help of www.aboluowang.com and my husband we came up with most popular and sometimes just rediculous examples of fake Chinese goods and how to tell they are fake.
Washing powders and beauty products
雕牌 – brand of cleaning products with eagle in it’s name. Promise to clean your clothes, same as fake product cleaning your pocket. It’s really tricky because it’s made not from one sign but… from two, just separated. Instead of 雕 there’s 周住. I know those tiny signs can be really hard to read on the PC but don’t worry, there’s also ‘Zhouzhu’ written on the side. Just in case.
白貓 – White cat, another cleaning product popular in China. It also has ‘almost twin brother’ named… 日貓 Sunny cat. How you know it’s fake? Of course by a tiny stroke above the ‘ladder’ and because the cat looks little bit sick. Maybe it’s like Thor and his brother.
Tids – I think there’s nothing much to say, only someone not familiar with the brand ‘Tide’ can get tricked. Seriously, I read it to my husband out loud and he was like ‘Tits?!’. Close enough.
Rejoice – I must honestly say that they have really nice shampoos so I’m not really surprised even they got copied. For me I wouldn’t get tricked with this one but as my husband says ‘We don’t look at English signs, it’s like with a menu in Chinese restaurant in America, we only look in Chinese part of it’. Same here – main target to trick are local people. Original Chinese name is 飘柔 and a fake one is 漂. Flying soft vs. Bleach soft. Seriously, is there anyone who would buy a hair product called BLEACH SOFT. Soft as bleach. I’m just stunned.
Olay is the ONLY OKAY product on the list. That’s a really lame joke but those pictures are worth more than thousand words.
Drinks and food
Mongolian cow – a brand of milk written as 蒙牛. But if you are really thirsty you can also drink some Real cow 真牛, Mongolian Milk 蒙奶 or even a Luxury cow. I can imagine myself going to a store and asking a lady ‘And one Luxury cow, please. I’m tired of that casual non luxury mongolian one‘
Kang master – they producte drinks, cup noodles and their name is a base of many wicked fake products. The first picture made my husband really confused, he said he would have trouble looking on the signs, they are very similar but one of them is a ‘Kang master’ or ‘Kang shifu’ 康师傅 the other one changed his family name to… ‘Liam master/shifu’ 廉师傅. Beside that you can find a water named ‘Kang brother’ 康师弟 and to make it more funny there are cup noodles called ‘Kang handsome knowledgeable’ and ‘Kang handsome master’. I’m pretty sure Mr. Kang would be happy to know how people see him. Check the strokes in each word to see how tricky it can be.
Union 统一 – the design of the bottle, colors and half of the name is almost a rip off. From Union it changed it’s name to 中国统一集团 – China Union corporation. Just in case someone accused them of stealing.
Tsingtao beer 青島啤酒- name is connected to Qingdao city. And there’s also another beer ‘Qingdao city’ 青岛市 beer. Just like you had a ‘New York’ and ‘New York city’ beer. And I think every guy would be so upset if it tours out that their delicious beer is actually fake!
Let’s head to more popular products for Wester world. Everyone probably had a sip of Sprite in their life. Original name is Chinese is ‘Snow Clear’ 雪碧 because of the way it looks. You can also try a Cloud Clear 雲碧 – first signs look really similar. In shops you can also find a Snow Dew 雪露 and Snow Lord 雪霸. Because normal snow is not enough.
If you don’t like sprite there’s also ‘Can be tasty, can be happy’ 可口可乐 also known as sound translation of Coca Cola. You can also try some ‘Can be sunshine, can be happy’. Just add a stroke in the middle and you get. Not to mention ‘forgotten sister’Cacacala 卡卡卡拉. I couldn’t stop laughing. Cacacala.
No energy? Don’t worry, on a shopping shelf there are also energy drinks! But not any energy drinks, it’s a ‘Pulse movement’ 脉动. If that’s not enough you can get close to ‘Pulse danger’ 脉劫, It comes with different entertainment packages like ‘Singing movement’ 咏动 or ‘Swimming movement’ 泳动, all customized for a client.
Oreo lover? Watch out! Olio, something that even my husband doesn’t know how to call and… ocola. It all waits for you if you cannot recognize which one is original (奧利奧), which one is fake.
Golden cough medicine 金嗓子 – original comes with an OTC sign and English name with Chinese signs in the middle of the package. Fake ones are either a Chinese version of ‘Golden’ written in pin yin – Jin Sang Zi or even as ‘New Jin Sang Zi’ – Xin Jin Sang Zi. It (probably) won’t kill you but I wouldn’t buy it!
I could continue like that for a whole day. It really makes me amazed how some people can be… creative. Yes, that’s the word. Creative.
Have you ever seen a really fake product or place, restaurant, anything? Or maybe you got tricked? Share your experience!
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Very entertaining! Thanks for sharing..
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Great list… I have been fooled many times, usually after I bought something and after tasting it was ver disappointed.
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There’s even fake eggs! How much profit can one make off fake eggs? But still, kudos to the unscrupulous geniuses! 😄
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In my country(Thailand), we have heard of news about fake eggs, dried squid and lion (or tiger) in China. The last one was so intriguing.
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Oh my… This is crazzzy!
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Yes! I have seen this! 😀 It made me laugh as I saw one for Kit Kats and it was basically the same font, the same design, the same everything but the name was only slightly different – Plus, it tasted exactly the same too, aha 😀
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this is hilarious! 🙂
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The amount of fakes is unbelievable. Sometimes I would genuinely buy the brands that I am familar with. I personally think it is down to the consumers to risk the product or not due to the price difference.
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My mom bought a fake verison of Yuen Kut Lam’s Kam Wo Char. The fake one look s just like the original except on the back there are no labels. The real one has the proper labels and is manufactured in Hong Kong. So, watch out for fake chinese herbs. I like to use the herb for curing headaches, fever, and yeet hey (Hot air), but it is very bitter. The fake version is more expensive than the real one ( $0.75 difference)..
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Wow, that’s stunning. I’ve always known about this, but I had no idea the deception went soooo deeeeep ….
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You nailed a ton of them. Good list. Another one that one of my friend’s got tricked with was Chinese Red Bull. Apparently, it’s big business.
http://www.businessinsider.com/china-cracks-down-on-fake-red-bull-2013-9
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These are ‘Shanzhai Ban’ aka bandit version of the original. Darlie has a girlfriend name ‘Hei Mei’ aka black sister
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Great post!!! There are a ton of them in Taiwan too. Instead of KFC, there is KLG!!
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photo and review please! 🙂
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Eh,, just come to London and there is no shortage of KFC ripoffs. See for example http://londonfried.wordpress.com/
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Guangdong, Fujian, and Wenzhou produce the vast majority of fake goods in China.
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I’d still go for the fake Oreos 🙂
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You should come to Karama one day !
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I have buy Kit Kats at the Nort Point store near the market, its ceeper than usual, and when I taste it, is really bad.
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Great post!! 😀
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That’s amazing! Hadn’t thought it was such a widespread problem in China!
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This is terrible! Thank you for teaching to me.
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Generally you’ll find these knockoffs at the lower-end stores, whereas the middle to higher-end stores are pretty good with stocking only the legit stuff. I think the average Chinese consumer in big cities have gotten smarter in telling which ones are fake and which ones are real, but there is such a huge market for the cheaper stuff that I can see why there is so much of it. Then again, sometimes the price difference is so negligible that you just think “what’s the point?”
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Reblogged this on China From Afar and commented:
This is pretty hilarious, and very comprehensive. Take a look, and next time you’ll be more careful when shopping in China!
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I’m not too surprised about the fake sodas. Just about every supermarket chain in the US has its own fake versions of Coke, Sprite, Mountain Dew, and Dr. Pepper.
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I’ve been away from wordpress for a long time and the first post I read when I get back is this hilariously entertaining post hahaha!
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Oh hey, want to add a link to my fried chicken-specific post? (http://buildingmybento.com/2012/05/10/fried-chicken/) We’ve got MFCs, BFCs, UFCs…
Didn’t know about the fake Sprites. Oh, I’ll have to get back to China soon.
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honestly I was wondering should I write to you because I saw that googling MFC as a first thing haha 🙂 if you don’t mind if I make another post about fake goods I will add it with a link 🙂 or in other post if I can think of haha 🙂
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没问题! Sure, add a link in your current MFC post (it’ll be more relevant there). I will probably write about more fakes in China at some point, so I’ll link back to yours too!
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Pretty funny stuff. Thanks for sharing 🙂
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i live in the philippines where we also get a lot of the fake stuff, but this still made me laugh. :p thanks for following my blog! =)
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Engineers I’ve known have used the term “Chinese copy” to refer to any cheaper, generic item that supplies usually lesser quality and may or may not masquerade as an original.
These seem to exist mostly when the original is overpriced, creating an economic opportunity that is often foreclosed by government policy in many places. I suspect Chin’s refusal to enforce patents, copyrights etc. has contributed no little to its economic growth…
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