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It's a knock-off! China's copycat culture

China is already renowned for copying Western goods from trainers to champagne.
Now it is building a replica reputation in the world of architecture, with miniature versions Mount Rushmore, the Egyptian pyramids and the Manhattan skyline - to name a few - springing up all over the country.
The reproduced structures — also dubbed 'duplitecture' — can appear bizarre to outsiders but make sense to many in the country.
'I think it's a good thing. I can see things from places that I’ve never been,' said a man surnamed Fu, 32, sitting in a Chongqing park scattered with sculptures including Michelangelo's David, Rodin’s Thinker and the gigantic heads of four American presidents.     
                                         

Fabricating the Pharaohs: People walk past a copy of one of the Pyramids of Giza at a theme park in the Chinese city of Chongqing

And here's the real thing: The Sphinx is seen in front of the Pyramid of Chephren in Giza, Cairo, iconic landmarks which have inspired architecture in China

Elsewhere in the southwestern city, a set of curved white buildings under construction have sparked controversy for their striking resemblance to a Beijing development by star British architect Zaha Hadid.      
Copying was 'something China does', a retired judge said as she walked past the site, adding: 'I think it’s a good thing — we can learn from the experience of others.'
The director of Hadid's Beijing project was less positive, reportedly calling the property company 'pirates'.

 The company has denied copying, telling news agency AFP that it had reached an agreement with the original developer, which declined to comment

The 'duplitecture' trend developed alongside China’s real estate boom in recent decades, especially for creations conveying prestige and success, said Bianca Bosker, the New York-based author of Original Copies: Architectural Mimicry in Contemporary China.

A slice of the Big Apple: A theme park in Chongqing features a condensed version of the famous New York skyline as China builds a reputation for replicas

The real Manhattan skyline: A 27-year-old woman surnamed Huang, who walked past the fake New York in Chongqing, said her compatriots should embrace their own heritage

Among the most eye-popping examples are a copy of the Austrian alpine village and Unesco World Heritage Site of Hallstatt in the southern province of Guangdong, which even the official news agency Xinhua called 'a bold example of China’s knock-off culture'.
An assemblage of Parisian monuments including the Eiffel Tower and a fountain from Versailles stand in Hangzhou, as does a French village.
Hebei province has an imitation Sphinx, while outside Shanghai sits Thames Town, an English-themed suburb featuring a statue of Winston Churchill, a church from Bristol and lookalikes of guards at Buckingham Palace.
The imitations are open to mockery, but Bosker says that such replicas provide an easy way to convey prestige on a huge scale.

Cut down to size: A replica of Mount Rushmore featuring U.S. presidents (l-r) George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln in Chongqing

Towering landmark: The original features 60ft heads carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore in Keystone, South Dakota, in the United States

'In the U.S., we see people who copy as unimaginative thieves. In China copiers have been viewed with more nuance — copying can be a sign of skill and it can also just be a really practical solution to a problem,' she told AFP.
'Developers wanted a way to brand their developments and the home owners wanted a way to brand their lifestyle and their economic success.
'And one of the easiest solutions to that was to copy architecture that was most emblematic of a kind of aristocratic and 'sophisticated'-seeming lifestyle,' she said, citing Versailles, Venice and the White House as popular models.
That pragmatic streak also drives the mass production of knockoffs including Italian handbags, Swiss watches, French wine, Hollywood films and iPhones, while the southwestern city of Kunming once even hosted a fake Apple store.
In Dafen, part of the boom town of Shenzhen next to Hong Kong, an army of artists duplicate masterpieces ranging from Vincent van Gogh to Jackson Pollock.

Great Small of China: A woman walks along a replica of the Chinese landmark at a park in Chongqing. The reproduced structures are known by some as 'duplitecture'

As far as the eye can see: The original Great Wall of China is a series of fortifications that stretch for some 21,000km across the country

The fakes allow Chinese to enjoy what they could not otherwise afford, said a young man strolling at an amusement park in Chongqing featuring a miniature New York, Venice-like canals and Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer statue rotating atop a ride.
'In terms of respecting others’ creativity, it’s not okay. But for a China that’s still developing, for a certain time there’s a use for it,' he said.
'When China’s economy becomes developed enough, then there won’t be a market for copied goods.'
Even so, the rampant imitation raises questions of national pride in a country boasting a rich history and now regaining global clout.
In March, Renmin University president Chen Yulu urged his countrymen to 'refrain from copying European architectural styles and work harder to promote local culture', Xinhua paraphrased him as saying, while itself warning of an 'eerie copycat architectural landscape'.

'Pirates': These curved buildings in Chongqing have sparked controversy for their striking resemblance to a Beijing development by star British architect Zaha Hadid

Design theft: The director of Hadid's Beijing project (above) reportedly described the property company building a similar version in Chongqinq as 'pirates'

As China rises in stature and wealth, it will increasingly seek inspiration from within, said Bosker, adding that already 'there seems to be a new confidence and interest in their own indigenous styles'.
At the park with the Mount Rushmore replica, a man in his 20s surnamed Mao argued that China's neighbours mimicked its culture when it held greater sway in the past, and would do so again as the country reclaims the stage.
'If people have something good then we will copy it,' he said. 'This is something every country, every society does, not only China.'
But a 27-year-old woman surnamed Huang, walking past the fake Manhattan with a friend, said her compatriots should embrace their own heritage.
'It seems like Chinese people have this view that anything foreign is good, that anything with English writing, whether or not they can read it, is good,' she said.
'China is not inferior to anyone, but nobody really cares a lot about China’s ancient past.'

The bulls fight back!

'Bullfighting is not a sport. It was never supposed to be. It is a tragedy ... The tragedy is the death of the bull.'

So wrote Ernest Hemingway after he witnessed his first bullfight as a reporter in Spain. But three bulls yesterday turned the tables on their killers.

They challenged their own ritual slaughter - and won.  

Olé! David Mora is floored by an El Ventorrillo fighting bull during a bullfight at Las Ventas bullring in Madrid

Beast versus man: The matador is tossed backwards by the huge bull, which is primed for the kill

Floored: Mora was downed by his first bull, before he was even able to plant any banderillos into its body

Head over heels: Mora is flicked around the bullring like a ragdoll by the enraged bull he intended to kill

Gored: Mora was pierced through his femoral artery by the bull, and needed immediate emergency surgery

The goring is seen here from another angle. Mora was still in intensive care today but was said to be recovering

Disaster: Mora's fellow matadors run to his aide, capes flapping, as he is repeatedly gored by the raging bull

Occupational hazard: Assistants help a grimacing Mora from the bullring after he was badly wounded in the fight yesterday

A right bulls up: The injured matador is carried away as his blood drips down the elaborate outfit of one of his assistants

Bulls 3 - Matadors 0. If bullfights had a score line that would have been the one at the Las Ventas ring in Madrid, Spain, on Tuesday evening.

All three matadors were gored, one of them severely, and the rest of the bloody spectacle was cancelled because there was nobody left standing to fight. 

It happened at the 12th corrida in the Spanish capital, less than half-way through the Fiesta of San Isidro, the biggest single event in the official season.

Described by Hemingway as the 'World Series of bullfighting', it lasts for nearly a month with a fight every day.

Antonio Nazare is gored in his leg by a Los Chospes ranch fighting bull after killing the one that took out Mora

Nazare falls to the ground bleeding after his clash with the bull. Fighting bulls usually weigh about half a ton

Tragedy: Nazare's cape drops to reveal the bull's bloodied back, as it makes sure he is unable to get back up

Death in the afternoon: The bull which beat Nazare spews blood after it is killed by Jimenez Fortes, top second left, in the traditional manner - but without the flair and flamboyance which bullfight audiences come for

Victory: Fortes salutes the spectators as the Los Chospes ranch fighting bull dies at his feet

First to lose was David Mora. Brought down by his first bull of the afternoon, he was gored in three places as he was tossed around the ring like a rag doll.

After Mora was carried-off and rushed to the infirmary for emergency surgery, Antonio Nazare followed tradition and dispatched the bull using cape and sword.

But he did so as swiftly as possible, with none of the flair audiences expect.

Then it was Nazare's turn to fight his own first bull of the afternoon. Within minutes he followed Mora to the infirmary with a single goring.

Flair: After dispatching Nazare's beast, Fortes swings his cape as he fights his own bull

Ouch: But he was soon also stuck beneath the merciless charge of the bull he had intended to kill

Fortes's sword flies from his hand as the bull does its best to survive the mortal combat it has been forced into

The bullfighter is tossed into the air by a flick of the bull's neck, as both are stained red with blood

There was little the matador could do on the day to fight back against the half-tonne of pure muscle and rage he was matched up against

Not getting up: With no one left to fight the remaining bulls, there was no alternative than to cancel the rest of the corrida - the first time in 35 years that a bullfight has been stopped during the Fiesta de San Isidro

The one remaining matador, Jimenez Fortes, stepped into the ring and killed the animal, again swiftly and without flamboyance.

Then his own first bull sent him flying through the air, catching him on its horns three times.

After Fortes was taken to the infirmary the bull was enticed back into its stall alongside the pens of the other three who had also escaped their scheduled deaths in the afternoon.

With no one left to fight them, there was no alternative than to cancel the rest of the corrida.

It was the first time that had happened during San Isidro since 1979, and only the third time in the fiesta's history.

A real balancing act! The bizarre and fragile cargo of motorbikes

Dutch photographer Hans Kemp first visited Vietnam in 1991 and was immediately struck by the sheer amount of motorbikes on the road - the preferred transportation for locals.

'I couldn’t believe my eyes. There was an incessant stream of motorbikes on the road in front of me. There were entire families on a bike, guys in suits, girls dolled up,' Kemp recalled to Slate.

Kemp eventually moved to Ho Chi Minh city from Hong Kong in 1995, and in 2000 one of his commercial clients commissioned him to take pictures of the local motorbikes.

What started off as an assignment turned into a passion project and for two years Kemp spent his free time taking pictures of motorbikes across the country.

Wheels: Dutch photographer Hans Kemp spent two years on the roads of Vietnam, photographing motorbikes for his book 'Bikes of Burden'

Beginnings: Kemp started the project in 2000, when he was hired to photograph motorbikes for a client. But the project became so much more

No wasted space: Kemp first visited Vietnam in 1991, when he was living in Hong Kong. He was immediately struck by the locals unique way of transport

To capture the bikes in motion, Kemp would ride in the back of a Honda Super Cub to scout for bikes with interesting loands.

Once something caught his eye, he would have the driver pull a U-turn and then photograph the bikes parallel, from high-speed.

In 2005, Kemp published Bikes of Burden, which quickly became a popular photography book and he recently visited Vietnam again to take more pictures for a revised version.

'Seeing this unique species alive and kicking and swirling through Vietnam’s traffic, still vigorous and proud after so many years made me realize that they could very well be there to stay,' he said. 

Looking: To capture the images, Kemp would go out scouting on the back of a Honda Super Cub

Race: When he would spot a particularly interesting bike, he would have the driver turn around and then capture the bike from high-speed while driving parallel

Bestseller: Kemp originally published Bikes of Burden in 2005, and it quickly became a popular photography book

Updated: Kemp recently revisited Vietnam to take new pictures for a revised edition of Bikes of Burden

Alive and well: Revisiting the country, and seeing how many people still use motorbikes gave Kemp hope that this mode of transportation will last

The day's catch: A curious fish is stashed on the back of this motorbike

Concentration: A woman balances purchases as she sits on the back of her motorbike

Fossilized bones of huge 100 TON dinosaur

Move over T-rex, see you later Stegosaurus, adios Argentinosaurus. Scientists have announced that the bones of a new, even larger dinosaur have been found.
Argentinosaurus currently holds the record for being both the heaviest land animal ever, and the longest, but the fossilized bones of the biggest dinosaur ever discovered have been found in Argentina.
Scientists believe the species of titanosaur weighed in at 170,000 pounds, as heavy as 14 African elephants.

 

The Thigh bones' connected to the...: A technician next to the femur of a dinosaur -- likely to be the largest ever to roam the earth

Boney: One of the paleontologists lies next to the femur of sauropod

What it was like: The newly identified South American dinosaur uses its whip-like tail to fend off predators in this 2014 illustration

Discovery: Paleontologists Jose Luis Carballido (L) and Ruben Cuneo pose next to the bones of a dinosaur at a farm in La Flecha, west of the Argentina's Patagonian city of Trelew

Quite the find: According to paleontologists from the renowned Egidio Feruglio Museum, Jose Luis Carballido and Ruben Cuneo, the fossils are that of a sauropod and preliminary tests dates the fossils at some 90 million years old

How it compares: Size comparison between Argentinosaurus (shown in purple) and a human

Huge discovery: The fossilized bones of the biggest dinosaur ever discovered have been found in Argentina

Tremendous: Its gigantic bones were found by a local farm worker in a desert in Patagonia, the southern Argentine region that has yielded many important dinosaur discoveries

Garguantuan: Its calculated 77-ton weight would have made it as heavy as 14 African elephants, beating the previous record holder, Argentinosaurus, by some seven tons

Argentine paleontologists unearth remains of massive dinosaur

 

The fossils were then excavated by a team of palaeontologists from the Museum of Palaeontology Egidio Feruglio, led by Dr Jose Luis Carballido and Dr Diego Pol.

They unearthed the partial skeletons of seven individuals - about 150 bones in total - all in 'remarkable condition'.
According to the measurements of its gigantic thigh bones, the herbivore would have been 40m (130ft) long and 20m (65ft) tall.
Palaeontologists think it is a new species of titanosaur – part of a diverse group of sauropod dinosaurs that were characterised by their long necks and tails and small heads – dating from the Cretaceous period.
The mega dino would have weighed in at 77 tons, making it seven tons heavier than the previous record holder Argentinosaurus.
The creature, which lived in the forests of Patagonia between 95 and 100 million years ago, was yet to be named.
“It will be named describing its magnificence and in honour to both the region and the farm owners who alerted us about the discovery,” the researchers said.

Residents and technicians gather around the bones of a dinosaur at a farm. They say it is the largest set of remains of a dinosaur ever found to date

Vast: The palaeontologists say the find is thought to be a new species of titanosaur ¿ a huge herbivore of the long-necked sauropod group that lived in the Late Cretaceous period

Stupendous: The bones were initially discovered a year ago in the desert near La Flecha, about 135 miles west of the Patagonian town of Trelew

Dusty work: The fossils were then excavated by a team of palaeontologists from the Museum of Palaeontology Egidio Feruglio, led by Dr Jose Luis Carballido and Dr Diego Pol (pictured left)

Colossal: Scientists believe the species of titanosaur weighed in at 170,000 pounds, as heavy as 14 African elephants

Long nect: Paleontologists in Argentina's remote Patagonia region have discovered fossils of a creature is believed to be a new species of Titanosaur, a long-necked, long-tailed sauropod that walked on four legs and lived some 95 million years ago in the Cretaceous Period

The discovery came in the same week scientists confirmed the Argentinosaurus to be the biggest of them all.
That plant-eating dinosaur weighed a earth-shaking 90 tons when it lived about 90 million years ago in Argentina, although the record has been broken by this new find.
Oxford University palaeontologist Dr Roger Benson, who led the study, says the dinosaur weigh-in included species ranging from small bird-like dinosaurs to well-known carnivores such as the Tyrannosaurus rex.
The Tyrannosaurus rex, which weighed 7 tons, was the largest meat-eating dinosaur in the study, but it is small in comparison to the Argentinosaurus.

Immense: The museum has retrieved some 150 bones said to come from seven individuals, all in remarkable condition

Massive: Given the size of these bones, which surpass any of the previously known giant animals, the new dinosaur is the largest animal known to have walked on Earth

A sparrow-sized bird called Qiliania, which lived about 120 million years ago in China, earned the distinction of being the smallest dinosaur, weighing a mere 15 grams.
Dr Benson said Argentinosaurus, which roamed around South America, was about 6 million times the weight of Qiliania and that both still fit within the dinosaur family. 'That seems amazing to me,' he said.
The largest meat-eating dinosaur was Tyrannosaurus rex, which weighed 7 tons and is also the largest known land predator of all time.
The T. rex edged out another super predator that some scientists had once figured was bigger based on the length of its skull, Giganotosaurus, which lived alongside Argentinosaurus in ancient South America.
The study estimated Giganotosaurus at about 6 tons, pretty darned big, but just a bit shy of dethroning T. rex.

Remote location: Argentinosaurus also from Patagonia and discovered in 1987 was originally estimated at 100 tons but its weight was later revised downwards to around 70

Puzzle: One problem with assessing the weight of both Argentinosaurus and this new discovery is that they¿re both based on very fragmentary specimens ¿ no complete skeleton is known, which means the animal¿s proportions and overall shape are conjectural

Introducing: Paleontologist Pablo Gallina speaks to the press about a newly discovered dinosaur discovered in Argentina in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Scenic: The fossils, found in Patagonia, provide the first evidence that the whip-tailed diplodocid sauropods survived well beyond the Jurassic period, when they were thought to have been made extinct

Teamwork: The fossils were then excavated by a team of palaeontologists from the Museum of Palaeontology Egidio Feruglio, led by Dr Jose Luis Carballido and Dr Diego Pol

Dinosaurs had a remarkable run on Earth. They first appeared about 228 million years ago during the Triassic period, achieved stunning dimensions during the ensuing Jurassic Period and then disappeared at the end of the Cretaceous Period about 65 million years ago. All but the birds, that is.
The mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous, caused by an asteroid that hit Mexico, doomed most creatures but some birds survived.
Benson said this study underscores the reasons that birds made it while their bigger dinosaur brethren did not.
Other groups of dinosaurs such as long-necked sauropods like Argentinosaurus, the tank-like ankylosaurs, the duck-billed hadrosaurs, the spike-tailed stegosaurs and the meat-eating tyrannosaurs were essentially locked into a certain ecological niche. But birds filled all kinds of ecological niches with their widely diverse body sizes and 'occupations'.
Flying birds lived in all kinds of different habitats, both inland and coastal, and came in a wide range of sizes. But there also were large, ostrich-like flightless birds like Gargantuavis and flightless diving birds like Hesperornis.

Groundbreaking: They unearthed the partial skeletons of seven individuals - about 150 bones in total - all in remarkable condition

Documenting the moment: A film crew from the BBC Natural History Unit was there to capture the moment the scientists realised exactly how big their discovery was

Bones recovered: Gallina and his team of Argentine paleontologists say the 19 vertebrae they recovered in Argentinaís Patagonia region belongs to a new species of Diplodocid they named Leinkupal laticauda, providing what they say is the first evidence that a family of long-necked, whip-tailed dinosaurs survived beyond the Jurassic period, when they were thought to have gone extinc

'It might be that they were simply much more ecologically diverse and that could have helped them survive an extinction,' said Benson, who also noted that smaller creatures did a better job surviving the asteroid impact at the end of the Cretaceous.
Paleontologist David Evans of Canada's Royal Ontario Museum said dinosaur body size evolved relatively quickly early on in their time on Earth as they invaded new ecological niches, but then slowed down among most lineages.
The exception was the maniraptoran lineage that led to birds, Evans added.
More than 1,000 species of dinosaurs have been identified but many are known from only fragmentary fossil remains.
This study estimated the weight of every dinosaur whose remains are complete enough to contain the bones needed for the study's formula, which is based on the relationship between the robustness of the limbs and the weight of the animal, the researchers said.