China's KIRF marketplace captured on hidden camera
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted October 7th 2009 2:29AM
posted October 7th 2009 2:29AM
Love 'em, loathe 'em, or love to loathe 'em as you will, but the humble KIRF has a big place in our geek DNA -- that's why we were tickled when the gang over at Shanzhai.com paid the markets of Shenzhen, China, a 60 Minutes-esque visit complete with hidden camera. Although we've been hearing tales for years now about the legendary stalls deep in the heart of KIRFdom, Western visitors have rarely made the trip -- until now! And this clip has it all, including one of our all-time favorite head scratchers: the Buddha handset. But don't take our word for it -- grab yourself some popcorn and move on past the break to see it for yourself.
See more video at our hub!
This just looks like the Wan Chai Computer Centre or any one of the many buildings in Mong Kok, Hong Kong....nothing special at all.
Gweilo,
i thought I was watching a video from Mongkok (btw, I absolutely LOVED mongkok...gadget lover's paradise.)
Wow. These guys have never been to Hong Kong before, or any other South East Asian countries. Either that or they merely stayed in their hotel's swimming pool while drinking some pina colada. What a waste of vacation time.
Canal Street in Manhattan, NYC.
Hidden camera? Hahahahaha
Why do they need a hidden camera?
ppl there could get angry
and imagine 2 chinese workers starting insulting you while you dont understand a word but all other chinese looking at you with a disgusting face
Im half chinese but I never really get how their minds "work"
I still have to say that shanghai is no difference, though I saw a lot real ones there (not phones actually, rather consoles)
I still remember when I bought my first gba there while already spotting the very first PSP for ~ 400$.
Boy, I was so eager to get one though money went all on food ~~~
Man - you are half Chinese and do not know how their minds work. Just like anybody elses. I have been living in China for many, many years and dealt with that source of prejudice coming from foreigners. You just do not understand their language, their gestures and mimics. That does not have anything to do with the mind. It is tradition, culture, history etc.. Your parents would have had the obligation to send you to China to learn these things.
Hm, some shop owners weren't too happy when I took photos with my DSLR...
Look at 2:11, the "hidden" cam is just a Flip cam.
Interesting. I know a lot of Brasilians come to the US (Miami) to do their electronics shopping. Many of them told me it is much cheaper here. That always seemed...odd.
Kinda hokey with the "hidden camera" but interesting to see. The contrast to the US, where it's hard to find anywhere that keeps large inventories of gadgets due to their meteoric depreciation, is stark.
Normal stuff all over SE Asia. Also the same as Latin America. There is a mall in Sao Paulo similar to this. There is also a neighborhood specializing in computer & electronics like this, That same mall also sells all software based on the number of discs needed. They sell IE for the same price ($5) as QuickBooks since they both used the same number of discs. The suggested retail price of the software does not matter.
We have some places like this here in Brazil.. but they are closing them all in São Paulo, Federal police are making them close or forcing them to use original and pay correct taxes... but they are still a lot of those kind of stores here.
please go to Pacific Mall
How did you get Master Billy Quizboy to do the voice over?
I found it lacking in the occasional Pete White interjection.
Go team Venture!
why would you need a hidden camera, they dont give a shit
I agree, why should they care if you film their stuff, it's not like they are trying to hide it
Problem is that the chinese government might do a token action against people shown in international videos, and such actions can be a bit brutal, and those people who might be targeted, and realise that, might not welcome such recordings by foreigners.
Most people don't want to be 5 years in a chinese prison or get a neckshot in the name of keeping up appearances, that's why the makers of this video should have fuzzed out the faces at least, but being completely selfish and self-absorbed they didn't bother.
Here in Ontario, Canada. We have a HUGEEEE KIRF mall called "Pacific Mall" in Markham.
Right beside the huge mall are smaller malls such as Splendid China Tower, etc which are all KIRF also. Its like a KIRF paradise.
I've been to similar markets in Beijing, and they played up this video a ton. I walked through the Beijing market taking video with my canon powershot and asking questions. It was no big deal
Kinda ironic that this China-shot video is put on youtube, when youtube is blocked here (and therefore I can't see it hehe). Gotta say though that KIRFs are everywhere and a fact of life here. There is no-one hiding them, they are everywhere. Hua Qiang Bei is the largest electronics marketplace in southern china, and once you get by all the guys selling fake copies of windows and office on the street, plus the people selling fake receipts or stolen laptops, there are literally miles upon miles of booths all selling the same KIRF gear. And don't think the rent is cheap, a booth here is actually expensive, even by western standards. Its just that people here will work for peanuts, and there are so many consumers...
Or con-sumers :)
I want my Vertui knock off.? I want to be able to rock it quasi-pretensions like with my NYC neighbors.
I've always wondered how safe all of these knockoff phones are. As much radiation that brand name phones put off, I can only imagine how much radiation the fakes put out.
I don't get it?
This could be anywhere in Asia.
For example it looks exactly like MBK in Bangkok, which is a major commercial shopping centre that happens to have a hell of a lot of phones for sale.
Not every building shown in the start of the video is an electronic store, many are department stores,
As many have already said these places are everywhere in China and also in SE Asia.
As for many of the phones shown - a large percentage of well known brands would actually be original not shanzai.
They have to be kidding that phone stall workers are shy with foreigners - there the ones that pay
above market rate for phones, they will follow you after you have started asking about prices. Maybe they should
go to Lou Wu commercial city there definitely not tame there.
As for taking a 'hidden' video you could do this anywhere and they wouldn't even think twice even back in 2007 or earlier for that matter.
Also recently I visited NYC and had to laugh about the similarities with Shanghai.
Guys standing on the street with a blanket covered in fake bags that would grab the corners of the blanket and run when police where near.
People selling fake aftershaves on trolleys.
People with fold out cards with fake watches, bags saying watch bag.
The only difference between these people in NYC and Shanghai was the nationality.
I've been to this market in Shenzhen. The place is amazing. 15 floors of everything you could ever want to get your hands on, including all the KIRF you could ever hope to find. I stood in the main hall in utter amazement for the better part of 5 minutes swiveling my head from side to side, trying to take it all in. My boyfriend was questioning my sanity afterwards, but it was all worth it.
As an American in China I've seen some of the most ingenious and inane products ever produced. This place has a thought process all its own. Sans coming over here and visiting/living for a while, no economic model or argument is going to give you a sense of what and why the Chinese do what they do with respect to technology, copyright or otherwise. There is a mentality here that is ingrained in the people, be in hundreds/thousands of years of imperial rule to 60 years of "communism." Put simply, there is no concept of intellectual property or why it wouldn't be okay to take your idea and do something else with it, up to and including making a fake or different outright copy.
I could write ad nauseum on this subject and have, but will say again, if you're ever able to, come and visit for a while. China is like no place else on earth, for all its goods and bads!
The myth is that the Shanzai were so quick in copying the LG Chocolate phone and marketing it in China that when the real one finally launched it was rejected by consumers as fake. Can anybody confirm?
I know I'm not letting any cats out of any bags with this one, but just north in Toronto... they have this place in North York (predominantly asian) called Asian-Mall (at least that's what we called it as young teens), almost IDENTICAL to this place... Every kind of kock-off watch, clothing, cell phones, etc. etc. etc... even places where you can bring in your game console and within 20min-1hr you can pick it up, fully modded out and with a nice assortment of the latest game backups... everything.
the best part were the candy stores and the ice cream shops they have setup in there ; )
it was really funny, because I grew up and have always lived in america, but we'd go over the boarder from Buffalo and when we went to this "mall" we were the only white people in the place. Imagine being the only white people surrounded by thousands of asians? its kinda funny, especially as a teenager.
Toronto is stark full of Triads... I wont get into the other business we did up there before we came back to the states... hehe
~Jr
I've been to the Shanzhai markets in Shanzen... crazy stuff. Also the sales clerks aren't shy around foreigners, they see white tourists and try to charge them double the price. Very high pressure, very crowded.