DVDs in China

Pirated movies are rampant in China.  You can buy just about any movie or TV show for about $2.00 U.S.  Some DVDs are illegal in China.  However, the local police really don’t care.  So, even though the DVD sellers take their wares “underground”, they really don’t have to.

However, there are DVD stores in China that sell authorized copies — even American copies — of movies and television shows.  However, there are some that you have to watch out for.  The DVD trade in China can be wrought with danger.

Here’s a pic of a DVD “closet” that we visited:

As you can see, this looks like a mirror on a wall in a clothing store.  In fact, it *is* a clothing store.  However, when we asked for DVDs, one of the store owners showed us that the mirror was actually a closet door.  She opened it and we went inside to find a walk-in closet with walls lined on both sides with illegal DVDs.

That’s me in the right-hand side of the mirror taking a picture with my phone camera.  I risked life and limb to get that picture.  As soon as the clothing store owners realized I was taking a picture, they became very agitated.  We left before anything serious could happen, but it did get a little tense for a few seconds.

Once back on the street, someone approached us and asked, “DVD?”  One of the fellows we were with had been feverishly looking for the old Tarzan collection, so he immediately said “Yes” before we could do anything about it.  So, we followed this street artisan through an alley to a stairwell in an apartment building.  He grabbed a couple bags from underneath the stairwell and led us to a backlot restaurant for employees, where we were quickly surrounded by folks that looked like Chinese mafia – in dress suits and everything (and, yes, we did have a couple run-ins with Chinese mafia – more on that later).  After our friend looked through the bags full of DVDs, we felt obligated (i.e., pressured) to buy something.  He purchased about 5 DVDs.  It felt like we were paying for our freedom and well worth the purchase.  He still didn’t find the Tarzan collection he was looking for, but we were safely on our way.  Lesson learned – maybe.