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Surely we've all been burned by counterfeit/terrible Chinese Amazon products by now.. makes it harder to trust Chinese brands generally. At a certain point one

Surely we've all been burned by counterfeit/terrible Chinese Amazon products by now.. makes it harder to trust Chinese brands generally. At a certain point one is willing to pay a premium for the merely western/capitalist kind of incompetence, rather than risking full immersion in the chabuduo lifestyle.

tartoran 5y ago
Had to look up chabuduo, had no idea what it meant. [0] https://www.chinaexpatsociety.com/culture/the-chabuduo-mindset https://www.chinaexpatsociety.com/culture/the-chabuduo-minds...
- steveylang 5y ago
  Ha, I’m an American born Chinese and I didn’t get the Americanized reference until I clicked on your link. In my experience the phrase more or less means functionally sufficient, which is not exactly the same as say ‘not as good.’ Sometimes you want the best thing you can buy, other times you just want one that does the job. Of course, that is a different distinction than being pragmatic vs. cutting corners. I guess ‘chabuduo’ sometimes sits in the gray area between the two.
Larrikin 5y ago
Pretty sure there are tons of jokes in 70s and 80s American movies and shows about how crappy Japanese cars and electronics are. There are crappy Chinese knockoffs on Amazon now but there's no indication I've seen that everyone in the country is happy with just staying there.
deleted 5y ago
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binarysolo 5y ago
"American incompetence" can be pursued via court of law, so that puts a certain floor to how bad things can get... Source: me, a US brand owner who has worry about product liability...
steveylang 5y ago
My experience has been that there are plenty of both good and bad ‘no name’ products to be found on Amazon. The bad ones I return and get a 100% refund through Amazon. None of the stuff I buy is counterfeit, although plenty probably have designs copied from other products. Sometimes I’ve wondered whether I should buy that tool or pack of LED light bulbs from the local hardware store instead, but either way I’m buying products made in China and sold by a big American corporation. I don’t know where this wormhole goes, although there has been some good discussion here covering multiple aspects and viewpoints.

tartoran 5y ago

Had to look up chabuduo, had no idea what it meant. [0] https://www.chinaexpatsociety.com/culture/the-chabuduo-mindset https://www.chinaexpatsociety.com/culture/the-chabuduo-minds...

steveylang 5y ago
Ha, I’m an American born Chinese and I didn’t get the Americanized reference until I clicked on your link. In my experience the phrase more or less means functionally sufficient, which is not exactly the same as say ‘not as good.’ Sometimes you want the best thing you can buy, other times you just want one that does the job. Of course, that is a different distinction than being pragmatic vs. cutting corners. I guess ‘chabuduo’ sometimes sits in the gray area between the two.

Larrikin 5y ago

Pretty sure there are tons of jokes in 70s and 80s American movies and shows about how crappy Japanese cars and electronics are. There are crappy Chinese knockoffs on Amazon now but there's no indication I've seen that everyone in the country is happy with just staying there.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

binarysolo 5y ago

"American incompetence" can be pursued via court of law, so that puts a certain floor to how bad things can get... Source: me, a US brand owner who has worry about product liability...

steveylang 5y ago

My experience has been that there are plenty of both good and bad ‘no name’ products to be found on Amazon. The bad ones I return and get a 100% refund through Amazon. None of the stuff I buy is counterfeit, although plenty probably have designs copied from other products. Sometimes I’ve wondered whether I should buy that tool or pack of LED light bulbs from the local hardware store instead, but either way I’m buying products made in China and sold by a big American corporation. I don’t know where this wormhole goes, although there has been some good discussion here covering multiple aspects and viewpoints.