Early 2009, every registered user at Chinese internet literature website jjwxc.com received a perplexing message from the site administrator. After explaining the newly revised rules on plagiarism, the letter concluded with a tirade:
Nosy Netizens intrigued by the very last part of the letter began searching and soon found the sentence it alluded to. Amusingly, this time a third-grade elementary student led the copying avalanche. He had stolen the original sentence from an anthology of exemplary essays:
This came to be known in China as the "bi ying ying" incident, following closely on the footsteps of Weiwei Zhang (a.k.a vivibear) scandal, a Chinese romance novelist famous for copy-and-pasting because all of her novels are best described as collages of stuff by other people. The word bi ying ying is used nowadays to mean "unthinkingly copy," whereas plagiarism involves at least some modification of the copied material.
The bi ying ying incident has exposed one phenomenon: an alarming number of Chinese writers resort to bi ying ying to pen their novels, and the new generation of confident plagiarists does not deign to paraphrase, or remove tell-tale typos. Even more shockingly, the CEO of one Chinese publishing company estimated that more than 80% of net writers have plagiarized.
What then, one might ask, are the Chinese publishers and authorities doing to curb copying? This post takes a look at the reasons behind bi ying ying and its future in China.
New Rules Regarding Plagiarism (Latest revision, February 2009)
信件内容 抄袭处理制度（09年2月修订）
(...)
ps: Due to the many recent cases of plagiarism, we hereby gravely remind every writer: any description that you search and found on-line, be it about events, people, or landscape and directly inserted into your own writing, is considered plagiarism!
Beware when you use Baidu that anything in your search results will likewise show up when readers double-check your writings. In this latest revision, we have increased the penalties for plagiarism. Any novel deemed to have copied will be added a public shame list for all to see! In addition, the points you have [jjwxc.com has a point system that automatically generate the ranking lists] will be deducted by 30%, and the guilty novel will have its own points deducted by 60%. Cherish your reputation and guard your writing career against wrong paths.
A lackluster sentence with misspellings that appeared in the essay of an elementary student [here, the administrator wrote junior high instead, probably because it is less embarrassing] and subsequently copied by more than 10 novels is an utter disgrace to our website!
ps：鉴于最近一阶段，抄袭之事越来越多，本站不得不郑重提醒各位作者一件事：从网上搜来一些关于事物、人物、景物的描写，直接用在自己文里的行为，也叫抄袭！请慎用百度，写的人能搜出来，读的人也能搜出来，世上没有不透风的墙！这次修订的规则，加大了对抄袭的处罚力度，所有判定为抄袭的文章，都要进黑名单公示于众，并且半年内所有文章，积分减30%，抄袭文积分减60%，永不翻身。请各位作者爱惜羽毛，少走错路。一句中学生作文里的，不怎么出彩，还有错别字的话，被十多篇文章抄，简直是晋江的耻辱！
发信时间 2009-02-04 11:34:43
Nosy Netizens intrigued by the very last part of the letter began searching and soon found the sentence it alluded to. Amusingly, this time a third-grade elementary student led the copying avalanche. He had stolen the original sentence from an anthology of exemplary essays:
Pink peach flowers, white pear flowers, and the flamboyant, tender Begonias...all smiled (Chinese: 笑盈盈, Pinyin: xiao ying ying) and bloomed.When this proud student uploaded his essay to the web, one typo was made, and xiao ying ying (笑盈盈) became bi ying ying (笔盈盈). Though similar in appearance, bi ying ying is not a valid Chinese word. Because the mediocre sentence appears to hold unfathomable attraction for so-called internet writers, the exact sentence with the same typo was discovered in at least 10 other net novels.
粉红的桃花、雪白的梨花、娇艳的海棠花……都开得笑盈盈的--Yueli Chen
This came to be known in China as the "bi ying ying" incident, following closely on the footsteps of Weiwei Zhang (a.k.a vivibear) scandal, a Chinese romance novelist famous for copy-and-pasting because all of her novels are best described as collages of stuff by other people. The word bi ying ying is used nowadays to mean "unthinkingly copy," whereas plagiarism involves at least some modification of the copied material.
The bi ying ying incident has exposed one phenomenon: an alarming number of Chinese writers resort to bi ying ying to pen their novels, and the new generation of confident plagiarists does not deign to paraphrase, or remove tell-tale typos. Even more shockingly, the CEO of one Chinese publishing company estimated that more than 80% of net writers have plagiarized.
What then, one might ask, are the Chinese publishers and authorities doing to curb copying? This post takes a look at the reasons behind bi ying ying and its future in China.
Related Post(s)
Bi ying ying Phases Out Plagiarism In China, Pt. 2
Bi ying ying Phases Out Plagiarism In China, Pt. 3
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