BCC/BCH is just an altcoin is being created with air drop plans based on snap shot of blockchain as of August 1st 2017 12:20 UTC.
Yes, it will be a new altcoin with exact specifications similar to bitcoin but with 8MB block size and with other segwit proposals and finally it will start its life with pre-mined blocks. (pre-mined blocks are being copied from bitcoin's blockchain).
Why big hype on BCC/BCH and how they will survive 51% attack ?
I think of any fork of Bitcoin's code as a "fork"... Bitcoin Cash takes it a step further than other altcoins by fully leaving the UTXO set and ledger history intact.
But when you think about it, isn't that what any hard fork is? A hard fork changes/removes the consensus rules, making it incompatible with the original blockchain, while retaining the UTXO set and ledger history. I see no fundamental difference here. If anything, the airdrop/altcoin comparisons show exactly what a hard fork really is.