Cheap DVD’s went somewhere

We are officially in the middle of a DVD crackdown. I’ve talked to 2 DVD shop owners, one has all their DVD’s behind a secret door, they said because the police now come by every 1 or 2 months. Another shop which now keeps its DVDs in a secret closet next to the counter (with pictures of the newest DVDs up in the store so customers can know what they have) said they probably won’t put DVDs out until after August, and then they don’t know what will happen.

Though I’m sure crackdowns will help keep them off the street during the Olympics, especially given the somewhat flexible nature of the Chinese legal system, but I stand by my statement that bootleg DVDs will be all over the place in China pretty much until there is no more censorship here… which is to say there will be bootleg DVDs in China for the next one million years.

I’m going to check XinJieKou, the DVD mecca, over the weekend, and do a bit more unofficial reporting.

Bradley Gardner