Let me get this straight: Wikipedia is banned on the mainland, but they allow someone to get away making bread named after a verboten website? Somebody forgot to take their sensibility tabs this morning (or evening) here, and yes, it is right: the Wikipedia has a spoof. Wikipedia, meet the… Wekipedia.
I should have stopped dead a few days ago when I was grabbing a bottle of ice tea at the supermarket. My eyes fell on bread made by — Wekipedia. Yes, you read it right — the Wikipedia — sans the first “I”.
The Chinese name, wei bai ke (维百客), sounds too close to wei ji bai ke (维基百科), the Chinese name of the Wikipedia. The characters are a bit different, but these two characters 维 and 百 are still part of both names.
It’s unfortunate, when you come to think of it, that we’re churning out fakes or ripping other folks’ names just like that. But this most recent case of Wikipedia versus Wekipedia is just too… I leave you to fill in the blank!
All I know is that I would not be at the least amused if the real world Nanny (not just the Net Nanny) banned Wekipedia along with Wikipedia.
By the way, if you look closely, you’ll see the name of the company — Beijing Wekipedia Foods Co., Ltd. and — is that their impersonation or impression of Jimbo Wales in the middle of their logo? At least the old man in the pic doesn’t look Chinese…
Tags: blognation, China, blognation China, Mainland China, Wikipedia, fakes
October 30th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
Too funny! Wow!