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[Blablurn]

Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin visited Shanghai Disney land last fall to see for himself attractions drawn from the Disney catalog, from Star Wars and Pirates of the Caribbean to Snow White and the other fairy-tale princesses.

Mr. Wang, whose competing theme parks lean toward stomach-churning thrill rides, had voiced contempt for Disney’s bringing its brand of Americana to China. “One tiger is no match for a pack of wolves,” he said in a 2016 TV interview. He described plans to build as many as 20 theme parks in China in a growing showbiz empire that included AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. and Legendary Entertainment, a Hollywood production and finance company.

This month, Mr. Wang’s Dalian Wanda Group announced plans to sell most of its theme-park properties for more than $13 billion, including debt. Mr. Wang, 62 years old, is preparing for an IPO of his property business in China but has yet to receive regulatory approval, prompting him to reduce debt and raise cash.

Mr. Wang’s retreat reflects the challenge of rising to show-business superpower. China has yet to field companies with the talent to compete with Hollywood’s movie and TV studios. American box-office success follows a century of filmmaking, which Disney and Comcast Corp.’s Universal Studios have parlayed into global theme-park empires.

The late Walt Disney built Disneyland in the 1950s with the help of movie studio workers skilled in the arts of storytelling and illusion. Wanda, one of China’s largest commercial property developers, tried to elbow its way into the business without that background.

A few years ago, Walt Disney World employees in Orlando, Fla., noticed guests measuring bricks on Main Street and taking photos of fanciful shop keyholes, according to a person with knowledge of the incident. When asked, the visitors said they were conducting research for Wanda, this person said.

More recently, staffers at the original Disneyland in Southern California noticed park guests observing how lines were managed at Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, a popular children’s attraction, this person said.

Read the full article here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas...a-key-ingredient-blockbuster-films-1500561334

Pretty interesting article that shows the difference between US and China in a soft power-related field.

Remarkable even more, when you consider that Wanda Chairman Wang Jianlian said this last year:

In May, Wanda Chairman Wang Jianlin predicted failure for the Shanghai Disney Resort and pledged to build 15 to 20 smaller theme parks across the country over the next several years to compete with Disney.

"The frenzy of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck and the era of blindly following them has passed," he said.

 

[Slayven]

Did he own those bootleg, rust traps?

 

[sant]

The Chinese lack creativity and this situation makes it obvious

You are never going to match Disneyland if you think the bricks and keyholes have anything to do with its success

You can't copy culture

 

[Slayven]

The Chinese lack creativity and this situation makes it obvious

You are never going to match Disneyland if you think the bricks and keyholes have anything to do with its success

You can't copy culture

 

[Aegus]

Come at the Queen you best not miss.

 

[Hesemonni]

The Chinese lack creativity and this situation makes it obvious

Yes. This absolutely defines a whole nation.

Just like Trump does to Americans.

 

[sant]

Yes. This absolutely defines a whole nation.

Just like Trump does to Americans.

They killed their own culture after the cultural revolution.

Why do you think J-pop and K-pop are way more popular than Chinese music?

Why does no one care about Chinese cinema outside of China?

Why do Chinese video games fail to penetrate outside of China?

The Chinese that resisted and wanted to be free thinking fled to the west or were silenced

 

[Marmaladefire]

The Chinese lack creativity and this situation makes it obvious

You are never going to match Disneyland if you think the bricks and keyholes have anything to do with its success

You can't copy culture

Are we already doing the casual anti-chinese thing this early in the thread.

Edit: Seems like it's not so casual, huh?

By the way, the "bricks and keyholes" have a lot to do with the success of WDW and DL in recent times. The devil is in the details. They are perfect. Everything is perfectly spaced, made to be convenient (and conveniently overlooked). Down to the spacing of trashcans and the way you never accidentally walk "off stage" That is why Disney trains its employees to look for people doing this. It can get you escorted out.

Funny enough, if you ask a lot of people in Orlando how they feel about the Shanghai park, they aren't much more happy than Wanda about it, lol.

 

[Ratrat]

They killed their own culture after the cultural revolution.

Why do you think J-pop and K-pop are way more popular than Chinese music?

Why does no one care about Chinese cinema outside of China?

Why do Chinese video games fail to penetrate outside of China?

The Chinese that resisted and wanted to be free thinking fled to the west or were silenced

To be fair, there are only a handful of countries with decent soft power outside of America.

 

[sant]

Are we already doing the casual anti-chinese thing this early in the thread.

By the way, the "bricks and keyholes" have a lot to do with the success of WDW and DL in recent times. The devil is in the details. They are perfect. Everything is perfectly spaced, made to be convenient (and conveniently overlooked). Down to the spacing of trashcans and the way you never accidentally walk "off stage" That is why Disney trains its employees to look for people doing this. It can get you escorted out.

Funny enough, if you ask a lot of people in Orlando how they feel about the Shanghai park, they aren't much more happy than Wanda about it, lol.

Those details are what you focus on after you figure out how to get people to come to the park in the first place. A 5 year old wants to go to Disneyland because he watched the Cars movie, has a bunch of toys, video games, bedsheets, watches the show on the Disney channel.

Theme parks fit perfectly in to Disney's strategy because of this. It is a positive feedback loop.

 

[LiveFromKyoto]

They killed their own culture after the cultural revolution.

Why do you think J-pop and K-pop are way more popular than Chinese music?

Why does no one care about Chinese cinema outside of China?

Why do Chinese video games fail to penetrate outside of China?

The Chinese that resisted and wanted to be free thinking fled to the west or were silenced

The Cultural Revolution ended 40 years ago.

And did not wipe out 3+ millennia of civilization. Chinese novelists have won nobel prizes. Chinese directors have won the Palme D'or.

Before making ignorant, sweeping statements about a billion people you might actually want to learn something about their culture first.

 

[sant]

To be fair, there are only a handful of countries with decent soft power outside of America.

India has more soft power than China with an economy 5x smaller

 

[sant]

The Cultural Revolution ended 40 years ago.

And did not wipe out 3+ millennia of civilization. Chinese novelists have won nobel prizes. Chinese directors have won the Palme D'or.

Before making ignorant, sweeping statements about a billion people you might actually want to learn something about their culture first.

And you think its effects are not long lasting? Huge events like that can have repercussions for centuries.

One Chinese director won the Palme D'or. So did one from Iran. What is your point?

 

[SpacePirate Ridley]

Wanda was always going to go the parking lot with theme rides and he was going to fail. Disney already had to change a lot of stuff for the chinese audience so going to dl and dw to copy stuff there was never going to work.

 

[Kieli]

I consume American culture ravenously and it's delicious in every sense of the word. Modern Chinese books, movies, TV, games, and music are unbelievably boring to me.

 

[Marmaladefire]

Those details are what you focus on after you figure out how to get people to come to the park in the first place. A 5 year old wants to go to Disneyland because he watched the Cars movie, has a bunch of toys, video games, bedsheets, watches the show on the Disney channel.

Theme parks fit perfectly in to Disney's strategy because of this. It is a positive feedback loop.

People go to different parks for different reasons. Once you have your own hook, which doesn't have to be Disney's is when you start looking at the details. (This guy has thrill parks right? Disney is not that and people looking for that get bored at Disney all the time)
Until Pandora opened, the Wizarding World was a better immersive experience, and it was next door, and Disney felt the impact of that. Be Our Guest is amazing, not because Beauty and the Beast is my favorite Disney movie (it certainly is not) but because it captures every detail you could possibly think of. You really feel like you are having dinner during a snow storm in a castle. I would recommend it to people who knew nothing about the source material.

Why do you think J-pop and K-pop are way more popular than Chinese music?

Pre-existing cultural cache. Weebs love Jpop, and Kpop is derivative of American pop and hip hop with even more intense targeting towards horny teenagers.Also, you only think Jpop and Kpop mater because you hang out on the part of the internet with the people who like it. There are Chinese artists that are quite popular across Asia.

Why does no one care about Chinese cinema outside of China?

Plenty of people do? How many Polish or Israeli films do you see every year? Are those people lacking in culture and creativity?

Why do Chinese video games fail to penetrate outside of China?

Because China made the local market weird, segmented and borderline illegal for a long time which hindered development on the most popular platforms in the West, and gamers just started thinking indie games could be any good?

Wanda was always going to go the parking lot with theme rides and he was going to fail. Disney already had to change a lot of stuff for the chinese audience so going to dl and dw to copy stuff there was never going to work.

Yes. Who's castle is that even supposed to be? ("it's just a Chinese castle" is the official answer) Everything is super vaguely themed, besides like..Some food. Shanghai park is beautiful, but If you want Disney in Asia, go to Tokyo or Hong Kong.

 

[NoRéN]

Are we already doing the casual anti-chinese thing this early in the thread.

Edit: Seems like it's not so casual, huh?

By the way, the "bricks and keyholes" have a lot to do with the success of WDW and DL in recent times. The devil is in the details. They are perfect. Everything is perfectly spaced, made to be convenient (and conveniently overlooked). Down to the spacing of trashcans and the way you never accidentally walk "off stage" That is why Disney trains its employees to look for people doing this. It can get you escorted out.

Funny enough, if you ask a lot of people in Orlando how they feel about the Shanghai park, they aren't much more happy than Wanda about it, lol.

Spoken like one of them hardcore disney fans.

Those details are what you focus on after you figure out how to get people to come to the park in the first place. A 5 year old wants to go to Disneyland because he watched the Cars movie, has a bunch of toys, video games, bedsheets, watches the show on the Disney channel.

Theme parks fit perfectly in to Disney's strategy because of this. It is a positive feedback loop.

Spoken like a parent that gets it by seeing the "magic" in action. This here is what the Wanda chairman is not getting.

 

[Ratrat]

India has more soft power than China with an economy 5x smaller

We already established that its not easy. Pointing out a few countries that do well don't disprove that.

Pre-existing cultural cache. Weebs love Jpop, and Kpop is derivative of American pop and hip hop with even more intense targeting towards horny teenagers.Also, you only think Jpop and Kpop mater because you hang out on the part of the internet with the people who like it. There are Chinese artists that are quite popular across Asia.

This seems kind of ignorant? Look at the size of those industries in Japan and Korea. 'No, its those weeeebs!' is just stupid.

 

[G.ZZZ]

China does have a lot of issues with his controlled media and propaganda (just read about how movies have to always present the government positively and chinese virtues etc...), but let's not act like it's some sort of genetical chinese fault.
They still have underground art scenes that it's simply hard to access because of censorship, but it nonetheless exist.

 

[Condom]

They killed their own culture after the cultural revolution.

Why do you think J-pop and K-pop are way more popular than Chinese music?

Why does no one care about Chinese cinema outside of China?

Why do Chinese video games fail to penetrate outside of China?

The Chinese that resisted and wanted to be free thinking fled to the west or were silenced

Chinese feudalist nationalists, they still exist apparently.

 

[sant]

People go to different parks for different reasons. Once you have your own hook, which doesn't have to be Disney's is when you start looking at the details. (This guy has thrill parks right? Disney is not that and people looking for that get bored at Disney all the time)
Until Pandora opened, the Wizarding World was a better immersive experience, and it was next door, and Disney felt the impact of that. Be Our Guest is amazing, not because Beauty and the Beast is my favorite Disney movie (it certainly is not) but because it captures every detail you could possibly think of. You really feel like you are having dinner during a snow storm in a castle. I would recommend it to people who knew nothing about the source material.


Pre-existing cultural cache. Weebs love Jpop, and Kpop is derivative of American pop and hip hop with even more intense targeting towards horny teenagers.Also, you only think Jpop and Kpop mater because you hang out on the part of the internet with the people who like it. There are Chinese artists that are quite popular across Asia.


Plenty of people do? How many Polish or Israeli films do you see every year? Are those people lacking in culture and creativity?



Because China made the local market weird, segmented and borderline illegal for a long time which hindered development on the most popular platforms in the West, and gamers just started thinking indie games could be any good?

The Communist party has a quota on Western films because their own movies cannot compete. This year they have been more aggressive with the quota and ticket sales are down.

The Chinese are in a similar spot in their development curve that the Japanese were in the 80's. Back then Sega and Nintendo were making moves and doing well in the West. Anime was also starting to make its way over here and get popular. Where is the similar culture influence from the Chinese? They have none.

The Communist party tries to manufacture culture and celebrities, but is no where near as good at doing it as Disney or the rest of Hollywood

 

[Donos]

A few years ago, Walt Disney World employees in Orlando, Fla., noticed guests measuring bricks on Main Street and taking photos of fanciful shop keyholes, according to a person with knowledge of the incident. When asked, the visitors said they were conducting research for Wanda, this person said.

More recently, staffers at the original Disneyland in Southern California noticed park guests observing how lines were managed at Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, a popular children's attraction, this person said.

Oh lord, China don't care. But you copying everything is not the key to success here.

 

[andythinkpad]

India has more soft power than China with an economy 5x smaller

That come out of nowhere. What's your definition of soft power?

 

[sant]

China does have a lot of issues with his controlled media and propaganda (just read about how movies have to always present the government positively and chinese virtues etc...), but let's not act like it's some sort of genetical chinese fault.
They still have underground art scenes that it's simply hard to access because of censorship, but it nonetheless exist.

I said no where that it is a genetic fault.

Culture is very much a product of the environment that is created by society.

People of Chinese decent do make contributions to popular culture in the west, but guess what? Those people are westerners. I define people by their culture and their values.

 

[LiveFromKyoto]

And you think its effects are not long lasting? Huge events like that can have repercussions for centuries.

You're so out of your depth here. I've edited a book about the Revolution published by Harvard. I know exactly what its effects were, and you're just spinning things out based on your Western-centric awareness of junk culture. The Revolution itself was rejected and pretty much buried by the post-Mao government as soon as it ended. Nobody's keeping that ethos going.

One of the outcomes was Scar Literature, an entire literary movement about processing the CR that has won mass international acclaim. It was a painful event for that generation but it didn't somehow end Chinese creativity.

One Chinese director won the Palme D'or. So did one from Iran. What is your point?

:Rolleyes:

China's had multiple films hit in the West, has one of the world's most vibrant arthouse cinemas and several actors of prominence. Jackie Chan is still the world's second highest-paid actor.

And if we're judging national creativity solely by penetration into English language geek culture, how many Indian games hit the top of the NPD? How about Africa, did everybody with creativity flee that entire continent?

Incidentally, you shouldn't knock Iranian cinema either. Iran has two directors among the highest metacritic ratings of the 21st century.

If you're looking for an explanation, language barrier and a perceived unwillingness of mass audiences to accept non-white actors scaring off distributors are your culprits.

 

[sant]

That come out of nowhere. What's your definition of soft power?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bollywood
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=punjabi+music+videos

Exporting your culture and values to other countries.

 

[Cow Mengde]

Jackie Chan is still the world's second highest-paid actor.

Really!? Second highest paid in the world? That's an interesting fact.

 

[Marmaladefire]

We already established that its not easy. Pointing out a few countries that do well don't disprove that.


This seems kind of ignorant? Look at the size of those industries in Japan and Korea. 'No, its those weeeebs!' is just stupid.

No. I love Japanese music, and being a Kpop fan is annoying, but I like that too. Japan has the ~second~ largest music industry in the world last time I checked. That's a huge industry. Jpop is also huge in China. However, the gimmick idols and angsty teen Jrock that get any coverage here are rarely representative of what's actually going on in Japanese music scenes, and is generally straight up weeb bait, and anyone who actually follows them could tell you that. As for Kpop, it is popular, but I stand by that. Kpop is very pretty, very polished, the idols work super hard and the management companies keep those factories running in top shape, but it generally is American pop and hip hop from 5 girls ago (or sometimes, like TWICE or Stellar recently, Jpop from 7 years ago)

Spoken like one of them hardcore disney fans.

Spoken like a parent that gets it by seeing the "magic" in action. This here is what the Wanda chairman is not getting.

I mean, those details make the magic work in action. I'm not a "hardcore" fan so much as I've actually worked in the parks (In entertainment too..)

 

[Condom]

I said no where that it is a genetic fault.

Culture is very much a product of the environment that is created by society.

People of Chinese decent do make contributions to popular culture in the west, but guess what? Those people are westerners. I define people by their culture and their values.

You are wrong. Human history is against you. The state very much is a spreader of culture.

Look just at European countries and state subsidies for art on which the art sector depends. The old Soviet art sector and so on. The eurocentrism and reactionary ideology is showing. Western (hyper capitalist) 'culture' is the only thing that counts for you.

 

[sant]

You're so out of your depth here. I've edited a book about the Revolution published by Harvard. I know exactly what its effects were, and you're just spinning things out based on your Western-centric awareness of junk culture. The Revolution itself was rejected and pretty much buried by the post-Mao government as soon as it ended. Nobody's keeping that ethos going.

One of the outcomes was Scar Literature, an entire literary movement about processing the CR that has won mass international acclaim. It was a painful event for that generation but it didn't somehow end Chinese creativity.



:Rolleyes:

China's had multiple films hit in the West, has one of the world's most vibrant arthouse cinemas and several actors of prominence. Jackie Chan is still the world's second highest-paid actor.

And if we're judging national creativity solely by penetration into English language geek culture, how many Indian games hit the top of the NPD? How about Africa, did everybody with creativity flee that entire continent?

Incidentally, you shouldn't knock Iranian cinema either. Iran has two directors among the highest metacritic ratings of the 21st century.

If you're looking for an explanation, language barrier and a perceived unwillingness of mass audiences to accept non-white actors scaring off distributors are your culprits.

Art house cinema and the stuff you mentioned does not constitute soft power.

Do you think an obscure Iranian film maker winning an award is equivalent to little kids in Brazil that love Mario?

The whole premise of this article is that the Chinese cannot build a better theme park in their own country than Disney can. Nobody cares about literary styles and movements. The Chinese and the Americans are fighting for influence all over the world and Mickey Mouse and Batman are big weapons to wield.

 

[andythinkpad]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bollywood
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=punjabi+music+videos

Exporting your culture and values to other countries.

That's not the US acamedia's definition of soft power. But I will give you India export slightly more entertainment outputs.

Soft power is geopolitic influence.

 

[numble]

They killed their own culture after the cultural revolution.

Why do you think J-pop and K-pop are way more popular than Chinese music?

Why does no one care about Chinese cinema outside of China?

Why do Chinese video games fail to penetrate outside of China?

The Chinese that resisted and wanted to be free thinking fled to the west or were silenced

While the Cultural Revolution was a big issue, one of the reasons today is that the Chinese market is big enough to be domestically-oriented. The big Chinese movies have box office grosses that rival or surpass movies in the US box office. The same with the music industry. Unlike Korea and Japan, which have smaller populations, they do not need to focus on an exported market.

You could also argue that its a function of the stage of development. Korea and Japan had success after they became developed and modern countries, while China is still considered developing. Even then, its cultural products seem to be doing well in Southeast Asia.

India has more soft power than China with an economy 5x smaller

Based on what criteria? In the 2 soft power rankings on Wikipedia, China is ahead of India:
http://softpower30.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/The-Soft-Power-30-Report-2017-Web-1.pdf
http://www.realinstitutoelcano.org/...ERES&CACHEID=f36b5f004830c24a8e3b8fe0dd72d861

 

[Chairmanchuck]

Why does no one care about Chinese cinema outside of China?

What is this post?

Chinese cinema is pretty big in asia, same as chinese/taiwanese music. People like Zhang Shaohan, Liang Jingru or S. H. E., Jay etc. have/had concerts all over asia.

 

[sant]

You are wrong. Human history is against you. The state very much is a spreader of culture.

Look just at European countries and state subsidies for art on which the art sector depends. The old Soviet art sector and so on. The eurocentrism and reactionary ideology is showing. Western (hyper capitalist) 'culture' is the only thing that counts for you.

What are you talking about? People from all over the world eat Western culture up.

 

[LiveFromKyoto]

Art house cinema and the stuff you mentioned does not constitute soft power.

Do you think an obscure Iranian film maker winning an award is equivalent to little kids in Brazil that love Mario?

The whole premise of this article is that the Chinese cannot build a better theme park in their own country than Disney can. Nobody cares about literary styles and movements. The Chinese and the Americans are fighting for influence all over the world and Mickey Mouse and Batman are big weapons to wield.

Then don't launch into arguments about creativity if your standard is pervasion of corporate cartoon mascots.

 

[numble]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bollywood
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=punjabi+music+videos

Exporting your culture and values to other countries.

If you search Chinese music videos on Youtube, you get 3x the results. Obviously they are not catering to people in China, since Youtube is blocked in China. Why are there so many results for Chinese music videos?

 

[sant]

That's not the US acamedia's definition of soft power. But I will give you India export slightly more entertainment outputs.

Soft power is geopolitic influence.

Where does geo political influence come from? Hearts and minds. You are selling your values and vision for the world through your movies and music. You are exporting your culture to the rest of the world.

Pop culture is replacing religion as a source of answers to life's problems. Do women watch Rom coms when they go thru a tough breakup or do they go to church?

 

[sant]

While the Cultural Revolution was a big issue, one of the reasons today is that the Chinese market is big enough to be domestically-oriented. The big Chinese movies have box office grosses that rival or surpass movies in the US box office. The same with the music industry. Unlike Korea and Japan, which have smaller populations, they do not need to focus on an exported market.

You could also argue that its a function of the stage of development. Korea and Japan had success after they became developed and modern countries, while China is still considered developing. Even then, its cultural products seem to be doing well in Southeast Asia.


Based on what criteria? In the 2 soft power rankings on Wikipedia, China is ahead of India:
http://softpower30.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/The-Soft-Power-30-Report-2017-Web-1.pdf
http://www.realinstitutoelcano.org/...ERES&CACHEID=f36b5f004830c24a8e3b8fe0dd72d861

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/intl/china/yearly/

6 of the top 10 were American films. 1 was Indian

 

[andythinkpad]

Where does geo political influence come from? Hearts and minds. You are selling your values and vision for the world through your movies and music. You are exporting your culture to the rest of the world.

Pop culture is replacing religion as a source of answers to life's problems. Do women watch Rom coms when they go thru a tough breakup or do they go to church?

"Soft power" has specific sets of meanings in international politic discussions, you don't get to reuse this word for something else. If you don't know what it is, go to youtube and search "CSIS soft power"

 

[SiteSeer]

...

i don't think many people will argue the damage of the cultural revolution or the stifling effects of a one party government, but to parlay that history into a critique on chinese creativity is, frankly, racist.

 

[sant]

"Soft power" has specific sets of meanings in international politic discussions, you don't get to reuse this word for something else. If you don't know what it is, go to youtube and search "CSIS soft power"

Do you not understand the power that Hollywood has over the rest of the world? A kid in Shanghai who grows up loving the Avengers is going to have a much different world view and association with Western culture than the kid who grew up with Communist propaganda.

That kid is going to be molded by the media he consumes. Is that not the ultimate manifestation of soft power?

 

[Kikujiro]

They killed their own culture after the cultural revolution.

Why do you think J-pop and K-pop are way more popular than Chinese music?

Why does no one care about Chinese cinema outside of China?

Why do Chinese video games fail to penetrate outside of China?

The Chinese that resisted and wanted to be free thinking fled to the west or were silenced

You shouldn't talk about things you clearly are ignorant about.
Every single one of your questions is wrong, you come off as a racist ignorant.

 

[andythinkpad]

You shouldn't talk about things you clearly are ignorant about.
Every single one of your questions is wrong, you come off as a racist ignorant.

It's because the recent China-India border dispute. That's what drive weird stuff into a thread and just talk random China stuff that's wildly inaccurate and off topic.

 

[sant]

You shouldn't talk about things you clearly are ignorant about.
Every single one of your questions is wrong, you come off as a racist ignorant.

Then explain why the Communist party has to institute a quota on foreign films:

Facing a slowdown in box-office growth, regulators cut the blackout season short in 2016, allowing a handful of U.S. studio titles into the market in late July and August. Some had speculated that China might abolish the summer blackout practice altogether this year, since Washington and Beijing trade officials are currently engaged in a high-stakes renegotiation of the U.S. film industry's terms of doing business in China. Allergic to the notion of American pop culture dominance, Beijing employs various means — including quotas, reduced revenue shares and blackouts — to limit Hollywood's access to the massive mainland Chinese theatrical market. The United States Trade Representative office, with the MPPA's urging, is understood to be pushing hard for China to give up such practices.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/china-delays-release-spider-man-homecoming-valerian-1020258

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/intl/china/yearly/

Is this data table racist and ignorant? It shows that 6 of the top 10 grossing films in China this year were American.

 

[dreamcastmaster]

Do you not understand the power that Hollywood has over the rest of the world? A kid in Shanghai who grows up loving the Avengers is going to have a much different world view and association with Western culture than the kid who grew up with Communist propaganda.

That kid is going to be molded by the media he consumes. Is that not the ultimate manifestation of soft power?

Do you actually know anything about Chinese life or just grabbing random headlines and jamming them together to fit your racist ignorant views?

 

[sant]

It's because the recent China-India border dispute. That's what drive weird stuff into a thread and just talk random China stuff that's wildly inaccurate and off topic.

The Indian state and military is incompetent. They have no hope of victory against the Chinese. Their gear is a weird mashup of Western, Russian and home grown trash. They couldn't even build a decent rifle themselves.

The Chinese are modernizing their gear with good home grown stuff and re thinking their doctrine. We should all be worried. They are coming for the status quo.

 

[nephilimdj]

Tony Stark is Chinese in the new 4D ride, Disney have spend a fuck load making stuff for China/HK disneylands.

 

[sant]

Do you actually know anything about Chinese life or just grabbing random headlines and jamming them together to fit your racist ignorant views?

Why don't you address my points instead of just calling me racist

 

[Cipherr]

They killed their own culture after the cultural revolution.

Why do you think J-pop and K-pop are way more popular than Chinese music?

Why does no one care about Chinese cinema outside of China?

Why do Chinese video games fail to penetrate outside of China?

The Chinese that resisted and wanted to be free thinking fled to the west or were silenced

You were being serious? Are you really REALLY suggesting that a country with the population of China lacks creativity overall? Thats.... staggeringly ignorant.

Now maybe they may need improvements to help the creative folks stand out and achieve the success they deserve, but there's just no way you can label an entire race of people as creatively inferior, that's just...

dude what?

 

[Mistake]

i don't think many people will argue the damage of the cultural revolution or the stifling effects of a one party government, but to parlay that history into a critique on chinese creativity is, frankly, racist.

The Chinese revolution is another thing altogether. But actually, it's quite the opposite. Some of my Chinese friends have said that the reason things from korea or america do so well is because they are starved for something new. Many movies or tv shows in china focus on "the good old days" or something from history, and they're tired of it. And don't blame the directors either when they can't make the material they want due to being censored, we had a thread on here once about it. So there are many factors to consider

As for market penetration, that is just something the US excels at. No matter what country tries, that is going to be hard. Heck, many foreign movies have been completely remade for the American market. Look at The Ring.