Pèngcí () is the practice of
crooks placing ostensibly expensive, fragile items (usually porcelain) in places where they may easily be knocked over, allowing them to collect damages when the items are damaged.
The term has been expanded to include a predominantly Chinese crime where scammers feign
injury
Injury is physiological damage to the living tissue of any organism, whether in humans, in other animals, or in plants.
Injuries can be caused in many ways, including mechanically with penetration by sharp objects such as teeth or with ...
in
traffic accidents in order to
extort money from drivers,
as well to describe "broken porcelain"
diplomacy
Diplomacy is the communication by representatives of State (polity), state, International organization, intergovernmental, or Non-governmental organization, non-governmental institutions intended to influence events in the international syste ...
, in which any foreign criticism of the
Chinese government
The government of the People's Republic of China is based on a system of people's congress within the parameters of a Unitary state, unitary communist state, in which the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) enacts its policies through people's ...
, or its strategic issues, is met with manufactured outrage, shattering the "porcelain of diplomacy" and fanning popular anger.
The
melon drop scam in the western world is similar to Pengci which originally targeted Japanese tourists due to the high price of watermelon in Japan. The scammer will bump or cause the mark to bump into them causing the scammer to drop a watermelon. The scammer may then receive upwards of $100 for "compensation".
Origin
There are different theories about the origin of "pengci", two of which are most recognized by the public.
Terminology in the antique market
When placing antiques on the booth, some sellers deliberately placed fragile porcelain, counterfeit or damaged defective products in the middle or corner of the road, waiting for passers-by to accidentally damage them, and they can take the opportunity to extort money under false pretenses.
Declining nobles in late
Qing Dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...
During the 200 years of Qing government rule, nobles (
Eight Banners
The Eight Banners (in Manchu language, Manchu: ''jakūn gūsa'', , ) were administrative and military divisions under the Later Jin (1616–1636), Later Jin and Qing dynasty, Qing dynasties of China into which all Manchu people, Manchu househol ...
) enjoyed certain privileges. However, in the late Qing Dynasty, the national power weakened, and the money and food supplied to the nobles became less and less, and eventually disappeared. The nobles sold real estate and antiques in order to survive. In order to get more money, some of them walked in crowded places with a piece of defective porcelain in hand. They deliberately let the carriage or passers-by touch the porcelain and damage it, and threatened pedestrians or the carriage driver to force them to pay compensation. In the beginning of the
Republic of China
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...
, this behavior often occurred in downtown areas, but the tools of crime were replaced with pens, glasses, music boxes and other small items.
See also
*
List of confidence tricks
Scams and confidence tricks are difficult to classify, because they change often and often contain elements of more than one type. Throughout this list, the perpetrator of the confidence trick is called the "con artist" or simply "artist", and ...
*
Staged crash
A staged crash, or crash for cash is when criminals maneuver unsuspecting motorists into crashes in order to make false insurance claims. The cars generally suffer little damage in relation to the large demand that is then fraudulently submitted.
...
es and
collisions as forms of insurance fraud
References
Fraud
Crime in China
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