Although they were established to promote individual designers and unique work, piracy and poor product diversity are undermining these outlets for independent craftspeople. China Daily reports.

Since their introduction 10 years ago, creative fairs have become a staple of China's arts and crafts retail scene by offering unique, home-produced goods, such as objets d'art and exotic foodstuffs produced by independent craftspeople. Now, though, their success is being threatened by the very thing they were set up to avoid - a lack of creativity - and poor legal awareness that has seen piracy of popular items become rife.

Many designers and organizers are concerned that the lack of diversity will undermine creativity and quality, as they have in more-traditional craft markets.

"There is a joke that says every Chinese city has a 'culture street' where 'creative' local souvenirs are sold. In fact, it doesn't matter where tourists buy these items, they all originate in the same place - the wholesale commodity markets in Yiwu, Zhejiang province (a city famous for cheap reproductions)," said Zhang Zheng, an associate professor at the school of journalism and communication at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

Creative fairs originated in the United Kingdom, and were introduced to China by City-Zine, a magazine in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, in 2006. The name of the market, which was devised as a side project for the magazine, is a pun on both "idea mart" and "I'm art" and is intended to emphasize creativity.

The idea caught on, resulting in similar fairs being established across the country, but that initial success is declining as an increasing number of replicas of a few popular items appear on market stalls nationwide.

Wang Wentao, founder of cn-imart, a classified ad website for creative markets, said the fairs have moved away from their original stance and are now a reflection of the infamous culture streets, offering the same limited range of items, such as notebooks, T-shirts and canvas bags, regardless of location.

Lack of regulation

According to Wang, a lack of regulation and oversight means it's difficult to establish whether a piece is an affectionate pastiche of an existing style or a straight copy that has been reproduced for sale.

"Almost every major city has famous creative fairs for locals, although some are known across a wider area. It's natural that both intentional and unconscious copying occurs - after all, a certain famous writer never apologized for plagiarism that was apparent to others - and issues are resolved by simply paying a fine, which is usually far less than the amount the counterfeiters made," he said.

The lack of originality and replication of popular items have seen the number of events organized by iMart, the oldest player in the field, shrink to one per month from its heyday, when it hosted about 10. In the past year, iMart's page on Douban, a major online channel for designers applying to participate in creative markets, has registered just one new post.

Meanwhile, Big Fish Market, a renowned organizer in Xi'an, the capital of the northwestern province of Shaanxi, has announced that it will hold its swansong later this month. A post on the company's social media account reads: "Because we can't stand the unchanging nature of things, we don't like being the same as other people. Right? This is also why you love us. We will bid farewell on Oct 22-23".