City of Legends

Lovely cover, isn’t it?

Not really. The book, published in China and available internationally, features a cover by my friend, American artist and photographer Jean Fan. Its full title is 钱.性.孩子–好女人不可不知的婚姻雷区(爱情智慧系列丛书 (Money, Sex and Kids: Stop Fighting about the Three Things That Can Ruin Your Marriage).

Only, she didn’t give permission for the photo to be used.

Everyday thousands of new products, millions of not so new products, and all sorts of adaptations of products are stolen, "borrowed" and hijacked in places like China, where there is no respect for the rule of international law, business ethics and common decency.

Jean is lucky to have found out about it. A friend saw a copy for sale and sent her a photo of the cover.

The watermark across the middle of the picture has been skillfully removed by the thief, but it is her picture (See below for the original, reprinted with permission).

It is not that stealing other people’s work and making money off it is new (right, Mr. Gates?) and we really can’t completely expect people to play fair when we don’t even play nice in our own sandbox. In our culture, which has suffered under the parasitic nature of capitalism for centuries, we still haven’t quite got it right, how are we to expect foreign lands that are just now coming to grips with the Darwinian forces of the marketplace to understand?

Jean, sorry this is happening to you. Sorry we so much want the market that is China that we don’t slap meaningful sanctions on them for this sort of conduct.

It is a lovely picture, though.

Side-note to those waiting to hear word: Barbara Holmes and I completed the first round of her interview with me today. Awkward. She asked some questions, particularly based on my recent list of cultural influences and my muses, that I was not sure how to answer. So I did the smart thing. I spoke the truth.