Shanghaiist: Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised Thames Town is full of fakes

D. U. Niasen of Tunbridge Wells

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 22:28:25 +0800

Cannae agree more with last post! The non-copy Chinese fish n chips outfits in UK are doing better than our local-born and bred Costa's originals. Normally, they, (as the Japanese do with pubs) buy our outfits off lock stock and barrel and then rebuild them in Japan. The Shanghainese probably knew better and can get away with a shack at half the price and no health inspectors they can bribe. Just why should we get so uptight when we get copied? When we saved enough money from our black markets and back-of-lorries, all of us rush off the next flight to the East to buy their imitation Rolexes, Cartiers, and Omegas... and their imitation Prada, Burberry etc handbags. We simply can't afford our originals and we love their imitations, so what's the problem? If them easterners stop making all those copies that keep us at the standards we are accustomed to we would be finished. And think about that - if the Chinese took to copying our football hooligans they would have a better army the next day! And then, the world would be their oikster!

McLymey

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 19:45:17 +0800

Calm down, guys! It's all storm in that cup of Lobsang Rampa Slimming Tea mate! We haven't copied our own proverb 'Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery'. We should rejoice when we get copied - lets face it how many would want to copy us the sad state Blighty is in today (in fact decades ago). The Japanese copied us and now made cars we would die to drive in and die on the roads in. The Chiense copied our lousy 'cuisine' and now make run the best chippies in Albion. We all go to the Indians to wash our lousy beers down with a curry. 'Thames Town' may be 'dead' at the moment but with the buyers deliberately depressing the market there presently the moment the price is right the buyers would rush in and buy the whole town up (probably with cash). Then the owner of Shanghai Chips would come over here to buy up the real McLyme and turn it into an upmarket McShanghai serving proper food, of course - what can be so wrong with that, I ask? So don't panic guys, the Chinese word for calamity has the element of opportunity written into it (so says the pomps anyway...) do see it as a good thing the Chinese whom you huff and poof over, and belittle can come over one day to bless you. There is copyright law in China (yes, they have running water, telephones and faster internet too) but it is a grey area this business of having a shopfront cloned - three nails in the right place can render the copy a new/original version in itself. So don't choke on your chips guys enjoy the fact that McLyme has a face that launches a thousand chips and that others want to copy. Getting indigestion over your chips over this kind of thing ain't healthy. With our blessed Eton and others scrambling over to have themselves copied in China, a copy of McLyme can't be all that bad, eh? Let's face it, again - we are in 'dinosaur country' (in fact Lyme is) we can only recount the 'good old days' when we wuz pirates out to plunder and pillage the world over and now we ain't got no more loot to keep us afloat. We have even become 'running dogs' to the Yanks a position no one anywhere is dying for. And only the Chinese, Russians and the Poles are our salvation - the first two spend heavily to keep us paying our mortgage for our uncopied council houses and the Poles are keeping our loos flushing properly something we can't do ourselves... Now keep huffing and poofing and going red in the face, fellas - we would be a dead proper Jurassic specie if we cannot adapt and keep up with the more creative, the more enterprising, in this world. On the other hand, we can sit back and wait for Shanghai Jim to colonise and civilise us - how about that as chips for thought? Now let's all count our blessings and fall off the Cobb, the 'real' chips from the real McLyme in hand!

Cedric

Sun, 10 Sep 2006 21:32:42 +0800

Oh my, it really sucks!

Viktor

Sun, 10 Sep 2006 14:00:35 +0800

Thames Town is totally scary - a real ghost town! I really wonder when people are going to move in and open the first pub - right now all there is is one wedding shop. That one runs quite well though, as you can imagine.

nanheyangrouchuan

Sat, 09 Sep 2006 04:58:40 +0800

The original town is much cleaner, same for the fish and chips...much cleaner. Too bad China can't copy that feature.