The Imitation Paradox

How did China transform from technological copycat to global innovator? The Imitation Paradox challenges Western narratives of "theft" and "imitation," and reframes imitation as a creative force in China's technological rise. Drawing on 40 years of fieldwork – spanning telecoms, shanzhai culture, and pandemic apps – Xiaobai Shen reveals how imitation shapes innovation, participation, and governance in the digital age. Shen argues that China and the West operate within "two moral universes:" In the Chinese framework, shaped by Confucian traditions, ethical concepts like privacy, freedom, and collective good are relational and context-dependent rather than universal. These values support a distinctive digital governance rooted in civic cultivation and mass participation.

• Examines China’s long struggle to learn from and imitate Western technology.
• A framework for understanding the interplay between technical and social development in China.
• Examines the emergence of multi-sided service platforms.

Dr Xiaobai Shen is a Senior lecturer (Associate Professor) in International and Chinese Business, the University of Edinburgh Business School. Her primary research interests are in the area of Science & Technology and Innovation Studies with a particular emphasis on China. Currently, she is Co-investigator for the research project on "Isomorphism and Contextuality: national policies for science, competitiveness and innovation (Isomorphic differences) funded by DFF/FSE/FP2; the Principal-Investigator for the research project on Convergence or differentiation in I.P. protection strategies and business models? funded by the AHRC Centre for Digital Copyright and I.P. Research in China and CREATe, the RCUK Centre for Copyright & New Business Models in the Creative Economy. Previously, she has acted as an investigator for several large research projects in biotechnology and ICT, including G.M. technology in China: the ESRC INNOGEN programme, and CIPR - collective intellectual property rights project under PRIME, funded by an E.U. commission and EU-China ICT Standards partnership. She is associate editor of the Journal of Science and Technology Policy Management. She is the author of The Chinese Road to High Technology: the Case of Digital Telecommunications Switching Technology in the Economic Transition (Palgrave Macmillan 1999).