In September 2011, Patti Waldmeir of Slate.com wrote: “Indeed, some Chinese businessmen and even government officials believe that faking things can be creative in its own right — provided the imitation adds value.” It “encompasses things such as HiPhone, a knockoff iPhone that can accommodate two sim cards, a feature popular with globetrotting Chinese travellers — and not available from the real thing. One of the most famous examples of shanzhai culture is the Chinese search engine Baidu, which many consider a knockoff Google — but with better music search functions. And recently, a shanzhai amusement park opened near Shanghai, based on the online game World of Warcraft. Who but a Chinese counterfeiter would think to turn a virtual game into a real-world amusement park?

A senior Chinese government official recently defended the role of shanzhai in China's budding culture of innovation. Liu Binjie, head of the China National Copyright Administration, said shanzhai "is a sign of the cultural creativity of the common people", which "fits a market need" in China.