# Chinese plagiarism **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 8, 2014, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-plagiarism/706626 "2014-12-08T01:54:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-plagiarism/706626/21 "2014-12-09T18:21:19Z")
I thought ‘Chinese Plagiarism’ is the name of the next Guns 'N Roses album. ---
**Author:** ![busterpickle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@busterpickle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/busterpickle)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-plagiarism/706626/22 "2014-12-09T18:22:04Z")
Huh, huh, and huh. Could this be why they see no fault in directly copying each other or another company? ---
**Author:** ![Kiyoshi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kiyoshi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiyoshi)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-plagiarism/706626/23 "2014-12-09T18:46:01Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > But I think part of the argument is that Chinese society still largely follows the older paradigm, where quoting the masters is the key. So it’s hard to make people think originally when they grew up in a culture that demands that they admit that they don’t know nothing about nothing, bow before the masters, and quote them humbly. Isn’t that exactly the same as the Western system though? In academic essays you aren’t allowed to come up with original ideas, everything has to be cited from the experts, who in turn have cited from the experts that came before them. The only thing that stops our essays from being “plagiarism” is referencing the sources. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-plagiarism/706626/24 "2014-12-09T19:37:24Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > What was the result fo that argument? Did the teacher fail all of them? Were they told that outside China, a student was expected to come up with their own original answers? As much as most of the non-Chinese students wanted the university to drop the hammer on them, they were relatively lenient, and basically told them that they got that one strike, and to get their acts together and do their own work. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-plagiarism/706626/25 "2014-12-09T19:44:52Z")
> [@Kiyoshi](#): > > Isn’t that exactly the same as the Western system though? In academic essays you aren’t allowed to come up with original ideas, everything has to be cited from the experts, who in turn have cited from the experts that came before them. The only thing that stops our essays from being “plagiarism” is referencing the sources. **Kiyoshi** , you’re missing the fundamental point that on Western style essays, you’re basically using your citations as building blocks to support your own original analysis. So on a history paper, you would be asked to write a paper on the effects of the Emancipation Proclamation. You might go on to write about the role of the telegraph with respect to disseminating that information in an original way. As part of your argument, you might say that the nationality and/or state origin of the telegraphers had a difference in how the proclamation was prioritized for sending, and back that up with a cite to a historical paper that studied the origin of telegraphers. In the examples we’re using here, a Chinese student in the same situation would basically take an already written paper and paraphrase it, while possibly using huge chunks of uncited text from the original. (sorry for the multi-post; I tried to edit my last one, but timed out) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-plagiarism/706626.md?page=1)