What's up with American companies lately making things cheaper in China to give consumers an alternative to piracy? For example, on the Shanghai Expat forum, user Magnolia tells us that the reason I can only find an RMB 28 copy of the new Willy Wonka movie at the little DVD place next to Hongkou Stadium is that it's an official Warner Bros release. And I just discovered that Shanghai Book City on Fuzhou Road is selling classic computer science reprints in English and Chinese for cheap: an officially licensed Nanjing University Press reprint of O'Reilly's Python was going for RMB 68, about USD 7.50. Why didn't they do start doing this a long time ago?
A couple Chinese friends told me that November eleventh (11/11) is Singles' Day? And that it's a Western holiday? I told them I'd never heard of it.
Oh man, I went to a net cafe last night for the first time in forever, and I just about died from the broadband rush. Dial-up is cool, but only in moderation. (I know Asa's laughing his head off right about now.)
posted by Micah Sittig at 11:57,
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2 Comments:
I bought a few reprints of English computer science/ software engineering books back in Beijing. Both the Wangfujing bookstore and the Foreign Languages bookstore had a decent selection. Design Patterns, Fowler's Refactoring book, Sipser's Theory of Computation (they're now on 2nd edition, but the 1st is close enough, and RMB38 vs. US$100 is worth the trouble). I've seen more than a few copies of these reprints in the hands of Chinese students here in Portland, too.
I'm surprised to hear that they're so widespread, but I guess it's a small enough effect that the book publishers can afford to ignore it (for now). Just wait until they have to bust some guy for selling Chinese-price books on eBay like they did that one American guy for selling pirated DVDs.
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