China has a knack for knock-offs, to say the least. Lately, the term "shanzhai" (山寨) has come to describe this phenomenon. "Shanzhai" is literally a mountain fortress, but in pop culture the word now describes fake goods and those who make them -- the fakes are well done and the people making them well fortified. I imagine just about everything in this picture is shanzhai, right down to this guy's smokes, which are probably shanzhai Marlboro. I took this picture in Phoenix Old Town (凤凰古城), Hunan province, a beautiful reminder of what towns and villages in China must have been like before the wrecking ball hit.
Shanzhai is just a mountain fortress literally. But in the empire era, it’s always a base of a group of bandits, who were usually against the current government. Several of bodacious “Shanzhai” claimed their own regime in the history and got perished by the government army. I believe this word turned out to be “fake” because it represents of “non-mainstream”, “non-official”.
Thanks for the explanation!