Photo:VCG

China Management Science Society advocated on Thursday to mark December 31 of 2020 as Anti-plagiarism Day after film director Guo Jingming and TV producer-screenwriter Yu Zheng apologized for their plagiarism behaviors. 

The non-profit national academic social organization on China's management science research and practice said in its proposal that copycatting, plagiarism and other phenomena are still common in China despite the constant improvement of the nation’s legislation and enforcement of intellectual property rights. 

Those plagiarists who ignore court decisions are extremely harmful to the protection of the legitimate rights and interests of originators and the development of the diversity of China's cultural and creative industries. 

The proposal was initiated after controversial Chinese film director Guo Jingming and TV producer-screenwriter Yu Zheng apologized successively on Thursday for their plagiarism behaviors which have drawn wide attention on the internet in recent years. 

Guo apologized on China’s Twitter-like Sina Weibo for copying writer Zhuang Yu’s original novel In and Out of the Circle in his full-length novel Never Flowers in Never Dreams published in 2003 and promised to compensate Zhuang with all his copyright income from the novel. 

Yu also apologized on Weibo for plagiarizing well-known Chinese romance novelist and screenwriter Qiong Yao’s 1993 novel Plum Blossom Mark in his TV drama Palace 3: The Lost Daughter broadcast in 2014. 

The organization aimed to establish Anti-plagiarism Day to communicate the experience of creating excellent original content and set up advanced role models, publicizing and learning relevant legal spirits, and stimulating and building a sense of pride, responsibility and achievement toward the originators in the cultural and creative industries through relevant activities and ceremonies. 

Global Times