A panorama of intellectual property in China

In Confucian theory, the copy is not seen as something negative. Indeed, to reproduce something stroke by stroke, to basely imitate a work, is to reproduce the original work of the master. The copy that is a faithful execution of the original work is in no way perceived as a fraud. Thus, regarding the first classic period of Chinese pictorial art (The Tang Dynasty) François Cheng notes that Chinese pictorial art has always made room for copying with the freedom to “re- interpret” an original work: “the long history of Chinese art constantly brings together, values of continuity and renewal that are apparently totally opposed, in a way that is complementary and joined”. This tradition of the copy that comes up naturally about China is not confined to the Far East.