Shanzhai on literally is Cottage. It refers to piracy, clone and imitation. In the modern usage, a cottage means a modest, often cosy dwelling, typically in a rural or semi-rural location. When they combine together, Shanzhai Cho means Hong Kong started constructing some small factories in the twentieth Century, fifties and sixes. Normally, scale of the factories are small, it wouldn’t be more than twenty people in a factory. The area of the factory might be a few hundreds to thousands. Actually, Shanzhi Cho was made some fake brand and made a great quantity of not very high technology electronic products.

Cottage originally means the dens of robbers and bandits. Later on, became the word on market. It means Chinese imitation and pirated brands and goods, especially electronics like mobile phone. It not merely has all of functions like a mobile phone, it is also very cheap. Therefore, it is concerned by lower class consumers.

Most of the Shanzhai Cho were low-end and family-based factory. That refers to the boss was a father and his wife helped him. His sons or daughters would be an accountant, too. It means that the factories helped the family to maintain their life. Shanzhai Cho can know that fifties and sixes Hongkongers struggle to their hard life.