Pirated disk sellers cross thin blue line
By Raymond Zhou (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-08-05 06:04

The browsing

If there was a shred of guilt remaining about buying counterfeits, it soon evaporated as I caught sight of Westerners among the customers.

Some looked like professors from nearby campuses, and those in suits and ties must have been expatriates from downtown office buildings.

They silently searched for their disks and displayed substantially better taste than the students milling around. I remember seeing one Western couple's joy as they came across a F W Murnau collection.

For many who buy these disks, pricing is certainly a factor, but availability often matters more. For example, a disk usually sells for 7 yuan (86 US cents) on a Beijing sidewalk and 10 yuan (US$1.2) in a "professional-looking" store.

Assuming the latter is legal, I'd go for it every time. But if you're a stickler for legality and buy DVDs in big stores, you're probably going to be stuck with Jean Claude Van Damme and be forced to wait a generation before graduating to Ingmar Bergman.

My first impression upon entering Cheng's stall on that afternoon was its sparseness. The walls of this 20-square-metre store were once plastered with DVDs. Now half of them were empty.

There were so few customers that I could, for the very first time, feel the presence of air-conditioning. On previous trips, the place was so jam-packed that everyone was sweating, even in winter.

Another difference: The doors were no longer wide open, but left ajar. There was a young man standing outside, as if screening customers.

After I was let in, Cheng apologized: "I don't have much merchandise now."

"It's OK. I'm not here to scout for new disks. I hardly have time for movies now," I said.

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