ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the formation of authenticity in branded commodities. In the capitalist global market, authentic brands are distinctive symbols attached to commodities that possess intellectual property rights (IPR). The owners of the brand have social legitimacy that is sustained by market and political principles. The chapter presents the pair fake/real to refer primarily to the origin of the objects: whether a product comes from an authorised factory or is an outlaw copy. series of classic Brazilian sociological studies, which drafted a general theory about the country, have shown that, behind the ideas of the cordial man, harmony among classes, and racial democracy lies hidden a society marked by social stratification and racial segregation. The chapter argues between the city of Shenzhen and branded commodities, brands constitute an objectification of the everyday imposition of the border and of the identity negotiations occuring between the people of Hong Kong and the mainland Chinese since reunification.
