Illustration: Peter C. Espina/GT

 Most Chinese cities are an endless parade of grey towers, but every so often you'll stumble onto something bizarrely out of place, like buildings in the shape of pants, eggs, coins or boots. There's been a particular habit of copying well-known buildings including the White House, Arc de Triomphe and the US Capitol. Now the Pentagon is also added to the list.

Recently news about a giant shopping mall in Shanghai, modelled on the Pentagon, went viral. The Shanghai Pentagonal Mart built in 2009 is even bigger than the Pentagon in Virginia, sprawling across about 500,000 square meters. In the Shanghai mall you can walk between any two points in no more than seven minutes, and it was even labeled as the largest commercial property in Shanghai.

Far from downtown, the Pentagonal Mall is located close to Shanghai Pudong International Airport, the Shanghai Disney Resort, tariff-free zones and colleges. But the huge demand for retail space in Shanghai didn't make the giant building prosper.

Without a clear-cut and consistent business target set for the gigantic building, most tenants have departed after they found it extremely hard to woo customers. Inside the mall, a shop selling imported goods in a corner is struggling to survive. Elsewhere, dust settles in well-decorated shops, many are locked and escalators are turned off, without shoppers. The owners say they hope that the Disney Resort, which will open in June, could bring more traffic.

China's increasing exchanges with the outside world has removed the cultural superiority complex of Chinese people, but instead push their thinking to another extreme. Many people, particularly local leaders fancy unusual buildings to showcase their supposedly exceptional taste. They believe that foreign things, especially from the West, are definitely better than home-made ones and they love to give opportunities to foreign architects to practice design skills. That's why we've had a rash of copycat buildings.

While foreigners are increasingly interested in authentic Chinese culture, in many cases domestic curiosity and thirst for exoticism is misleadingly converted into the blind pursuit of the shallowest copies of foreign culture. It would be one thing to take inspiration from foreign buildings and use it to design new forms in China. Blind copying doesn't show respect for architecture, just a cargo-cult mentality that confuses form with substance. What underlies it is actually a lack of confidence in Chinese culture.

But copycat buildings may disappear now that ordinary Chinese people who have more opportunities to learn about the outside world are demanding higher aesthetic standards for their urban landscapes. Ostentatious architecture can only attract more ridicule rather than praise.

Besides, excessive focus on the appearance and ill-planned usage of buildings will only produce economic disasters. Many such programs are approved by local officials to add credit to their achievements. Officials and developers seldom have detailed or thought-out plans. L'Avenue Shanghai, a fancy shopping complex that was a brief sensation for its giant boot shape, had seen sluggish business since it was opened in 2013. Business opportunities and real profits always outperform a sensational facade.

China's own culture has suffered, as people chase glitz over substance. Proper designs and well-planned development should prevail, not weird and easily mocked buildings.

The author is a reporter with the Global Times. sunxiaobo@globaltimes.com.cn