Compassion, Creativity & Collaboration: The Story of a Shanzhai Breathing Apparatus
A grass-root innovation story from China, reprinted from the Honeybee Newsletter Vol 20 – April – June 2009
21 January 2010 |
Shanzhai literally means ‘mountain village’. Though of late, this has become
very popular not just in China but worldwide for’underground’, ‘small scale’
or for many, the evidence of grassroots innovations and wisdom of common people
(China Daily, 2009). This term was used sometimes to refer to the people involved
in anti–social activities and those who were elusive of official control. In the
recent years, this term has also been used to refer to duplicate or imitative technical
gadgets, such as, 'Shanzhai cell phones'. But, the story of the Shanzhai Breathing
Apparatus compels us to change the stereotypic perspective. Here is a real life
story of how communal sympathy for a sick girl blew fresh life into her!
More