Disney's China Play
Its New Hong Kong Park
Is a Big Cultural Experiment;
Will 'Main Street' Translate?
By GEOFFREY A. FOWLER and MERISSA MARR
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
June 16, 2005; Page B1
On Saturday nights in southern China, many families watch 50-year-old footage of a foreigner named Walt Disney describing how he designed the "happiest place on Earth."
This Chinese-language version of the "Magical World of Disneyland" TV show is designed to educate the Chinese about Disney's world and lure them to the $3.2 billion Hong Kong Disneyland, which is set to open Sept. 12.
Hosted by a Chinese pop star, the show features black-and-white clips of the late Mr. Disney explaining his California masterpiece. "Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams and hard facts that have created America...with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world." The old footage of Mr. Disney appears between modern-day images of the groundbreaking at the Hong Kong park, which is a replica of the original in Anaheim.
Walt Disney Co. is gambling that its founder's 1955 vision will play well in modern-day China -- especially to its 290 million consumers under the age of 14. "We need to be [there] in a bigger way, faster," Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger said at an analyst meeting this year. The Hong Kong park is a springboard into China, where Disney has little presence, with a third of its visitors expected to come from the mainland.
China poses marketing challenges Disney hasn't faced before, which make pushing its largely undiluted American fare a risk. Its approach to China goes to the heart of a longstanding debate about how best to bring global brands to local audiences around the world.
Disney, which also has overseas parks in Paris and Tokyo, is betting that the family values it stands for are relevant in any part of the world. While it has introduced a few local elements to some of the attractions, Hong Kong Disneyland mirrors the original park in California, from Main Street, U.S.A. to the Space Mountain roller coaster to Sleeping Beauty's castle. Most attractions will use Cantonese, Mandarin and English, but like the parks in Tokyo and Paris, "face characters," such as Cinderella, will be played by white actors who speak only English -- part of a global strategy that aims to best represent the characters from the original animated motion pictures.
"The Disney American spirit is in the architecture and the whole ambiance," says Wing Chao, vice chairman for Asia Pacific development for Disney parks. "We're bringing Disney America...to Hong Kong."
Disney has had a mixed record walking the cultural tightrope. It initially flopped in France -- where blunders like not serving alcohol compounded debt problems -- and still is struggling to turn a profit there. By contrast, Tokyo Disneyland is so popular that nearly one in five Japanese people visit it each year.
While Hong Kong's relatively wealthy 6.8 million citizens are well versed in Disney's cartoons-and-Cinderella culture, the brand is far less pervasive in mainland China. Many Western media and consumer-products companies have stopped exporting their Western goods, choosing instead to develop more locally tailored fare. Chinese consumers are drawn to luxury, but still want culturally relevant products. And sometimes the government demands Chinese goods: It recently proposed banning foreign-made cartoons on prime-time TV.
Britney Spears doesn't burn up the charts in China. Today, 70% of music and 90% of all programming on Viacom Inc.'s MTV China is made in China. At Yum Brand's KFC, 85% of the menu is unique to China, with some cross-cultural hybrids, such "Dragon Twisters" with Peking duck sauce.
This may help explain why some say that exporting Disney to China isn't so simple. In pitching the Chinese, "the key thing to avoid is the 'American Dream' " idea, says Tom Doctoroff, the North Asia CEO of WPP Group's JWT ad agency, which has helped bring Nike and Ford to China. "Dreams, yes -- American, no. There has been no example of a product that has built success in China on an American identity alone."
Disney executives say that making a Magic Kingdom-style park was part of the agreement with the government, which is largely financing the venue: It is kicking in $419 million for a 57% equity stake, with Disney contributing $316 million for its minority interest. With an eye toward strengthening tourism, authorities also agreed to put up $780 million in debt financing and to develop the surrounding land and infrastructure. (Euro Disney also was partly backed the French government).
Disney, which is also eyeing plans to build a park in Shanghai, says research it conducted with focus groups suggested that Chinese people want an authentic Disney experience. So for its new park, Disney has largely eschewed Chinese characters and stories. Mulan, a Chinese heroine Disney promoted in films, is the lone local character in the park. She is one of several with her own gazebo, where visitors can seek autographs and take pictures. She also is the only character Disney will allow to speak Cantonese. "We don't want to overplay the Mulan story in what is essentially an American theme park," says Roy Tan Hardy, the park's vice president for marketing.
Disney did at least mull the broader implications of such an American-centric environment. One former executive who was involved in designing the park says company officials had serious discussions about "whether or not to create a Hong Kong Disneyland that is based on Chinese/Asian fairy tale-like themes," and presented senior management with a few attractions that weren't "cookie cut" from Anaheim. "But ultimately, we were asked to stay pretty true to the California Disneyland program," the former executive says, and "learn through time as to what the market would want changed and can handle."
Hoping to avoid accusations of cultural imperialism, Disney has bowed in some areas: The park will feature Chinese and other Southeast Asian foods, and its grounds will have correct feng shui -- a mystic design element that some Chinese believe brings good fortune. Some rides, such as the Jungle Cruise, set amid Cambodian ruins, have been tweaked for local tastes. Disney designed a core attraction to appeal to the local appetites for taking photos: the Fantasy Gardens, where Mulan resides.
Disney also bills Tokyo Disneyland as a replica of the original park in Anaheim. Its success is partly the result of subtle local adaptation that lets Japanese people appropriate Disney's characters and Americana for themselves, says anthropologist Aviad Raz, who wrote a book on the topic in 1999. For example, in Tokyo Disneyland's "Main Street, U.S.A." is instead known as the "World Bazaar," where Japanese guests shop for the gifts they are expected to bring back home. At its Paris park, Disney has introduced local touches like a more-elaborate castle.
Adults on peak days will pay 350 Hong Kong dollars (US$45) to enter, slightly less than the $49 fee at the park in Paris and $50 in Tokyo. The pricing might put a visit out of the range of most families in southern China's Guangdong province, where the per capita disposable income of urban residents averaged just US$1,495 a year in 2003. Disney's Mr. Hardy says the company thinks "the pricing is affordable for the bulk of the audience that we are targeting." Disney will give special discounts to the elderly.
Strict state media controls mean Disney is constrained from promoting the "Magical World of Disneyland" program in certain parts of China. So it has backed up its marketing with efforts such as a new Web site and promotions, including advertising on Coca-Cola cans. To build "branded story education," Disney toured south China's malls and has been wooing local travel agents. The company also has teamed up with the Communist Youth League to give story-telling sessions in community centers.
Since reservation lines opened for the park's two hotels in February, 80% of the bookings have come from Hong Kong residents looking for a respite from tiny apartments. Most of the rest have come from Taiwan and other parts of Southeast Asia. Mainland residents may be waiting to book travel through travel agents, or staying with family or alternative hotels in Hong Kong, Mr. Hardy says.
Write to Geoffrey A. Fowler at geoffrey.fowler@wsj.com and Merissa Marr at merissa.marr@wsj.com
Its New Hong Kong Park
Is a Big Cultural Experiment;
Will 'Main Street' Translate?
By GEOFFREY A. FOWLER and MERISSA MARR
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
June 16, 2005; Page B1
On Saturday nights in southern China, many families watch 50-year-old footage of a foreigner named Walt Disney describing how he designed the "happiest place on Earth."
This Chinese-language version of the "Magical World of Disneyland" TV show is designed to educate the Chinese about Disney's world and lure them to the $3.2 billion Hong Kong Disneyland, which is set to open Sept. 12.
Hosted by a Chinese pop star, the show features black-and-white clips of the late Mr. Disney explaining his California masterpiece. "Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams and hard facts that have created America...with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world." The old footage of Mr. Disney appears between modern-day images of the groundbreaking at the Hong Kong park, which is a replica of the original in Anaheim.
Walt Disney Co. is gambling that its founder's 1955 vision will play well in modern-day China -- especially to its 290 million consumers under the age of 14. "We need to be [there] in a bigger way, faster," Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger said at an analyst meeting this year. The Hong Kong park is a springboard into China, where Disney has little presence, with a third of its visitors expected to come from the mainland.
China poses marketing challenges Disney hasn't faced before, which make pushing its largely undiluted American fare a risk. Its approach to China goes to the heart of a longstanding debate about how best to bring global brands to local audiences around the world.
Disney, which also has overseas parks in Paris and Tokyo, is betting that the family values it stands for are relevant in any part of the world. While it has introduced a few local elements to some of the attractions, Hong Kong Disneyland mirrors the original park in California, from Main Street, U.S.A. to the Space Mountain roller coaster to Sleeping Beauty's castle. Most attractions will use Cantonese, Mandarin and English, but like the parks in Tokyo and Paris, "face characters," such as Cinderella, will be played by white actors who speak only English -- part of a global strategy that aims to best represent the characters from the original animated motion pictures.
"The Disney American spirit is in the architecture and the whole ambiance," says Wing Chao, vice chairman for Asia Pacific development for Disney parks. "We're bringing Disney America...to Hong Kong."
Disney has had a mixed record walking the cultural tightrope. It initially flopped in France -- where blunders like not serving alcohol compounded debt problems -- and still is struggling to turn a profit there. By contrast, Tokyo Disneyland is so popular that nearly one in five Japanese people visit it each year.
While Hong Kong's relatively wealthy 6.8 million citizens are well versed in Disney's cartoons-and-Cinderella culture, the brand is far less pervasive in mainland China. Many Western media and consumer-products companies have stopped exporting their Western goods, choosing instead to develop more locally tailored fare. Chinese consumers are drawn to luxury, but still want culturally relevant products. And sometimes the government demands Chinese goods: It recently proposed banning foreign-made cartoons on prime-time TV.
Britney Spears doesn't burn up the charts in China. Today, 70% of music and 90% of all programming on Viacom Inc.'s MTV China is made in China. At Yum Brand's KFC, 85% of the menu is unique to China, with some cross-cultural hybrids, such "Dragon Twisters" with Peking duck sauce.
This may help explain why some say that exporting Disney to China isn't so simple. In pitching the Chinese, "the key thing to avoid is the 'American Dream' " idea, says Tom Doctoroff, the North Asia CEO of WPP Group's JWT ad agency, which has helped bring Nike and Ford to China. "Dreams, yes -- American, no. There has been no example of a product that has built success in China on an American identity alone."
Disney executives say that making a Magic Kingdom-style park was part of the agreement with the government, which is largely financing the venue: It is kicking in $419 million for a 57% equity stake, with Disney contributing $316 million for its minority interest. With an eye toward strengthening tourism, authorities also agreed to put up $780 million in debt financing and to develop the surrounding land and infrastructure. (Euro Disney also was partly backed the French government).
Disney, which is also eyeing plans to build a park in Shanghai, says research it conducted with focus groups suggested that Chinese people want an authentic Disney experience. So for its new park, Disney has largely eschewed Chinese characters and stories. Mulan, a Chinese heroine Disney promoted in films, is the lone local character in the park. She is one of several with her own gazebo, where visitors can seek autographs and take pictures. She also is the only character Disney will allow to speak Cantonese. "We don't want to overplay the Mulan story in what is essentially an American theme park," says Roy Tan Hardy, the park's vice president for marketing.
Disney did at least mull the broader implications of such an American-centric environment. One former executive who was involved in designing the park says company officials had serious discussions about "whether or not to create a Hong Kong Disneyland that is based on Chinese/Asian fairy tale-like themes," and presented senior management with a few attractions that weren't "cookie cut" from Anaheim. "But ultimately, we were asked to stay pretty true to the California Disneyland program," the former executive says, and "learn through time as to what the market would want changed and can handle."
Hoping to avoid accusations of cultural imperialism, Disney has bowed in some areas: The park will feature Chinese and other Southeast Asian foods, and its grounds will have correct feng shui -- a mystic design element that some Chinese believe brings good fortune. Some rides, such as the Jungle Cruise, set amid Cambodian ruins, have been tweaked for local tastes. Disney designed a core attraction to appeal to the local appetites for taking photos: the Fantasy Gardens, where Mulan resides.
Disney also bills Tokyo Disneyland as a replica of the original park in Anaheim. Its success is partly the result of subtle local adaptation that lets Japanese people appropriate Disney's characters and Americana for themselves, says anthropologist Aviad Raz, who wrote a book on the topic in 1999. For example, in Tokyo Disneyland's "Main Street, U.S.A." is instead known as the "World Bazaar," where Japanese guests shop for the gifts they are expected to bring back home. At its Paris park, Disney has introduced local touches like a more-elaborate castle.
Adults on peak days will pay 350 Hong Kong dollars (US$45) to enter, slightly less than the $49 fee at the park in Paris and $50 in Tokyo. The pricing might put a visit out of the range of most families in southern China's Guangdong province, where the per capita disposable income of urban residents averaged just US$1,495 a year in 2003. Disney's Mr. Hardy says the company thinks "the pricing is affordable for the bulk of the audience that we are targeting." Disney will give special discounts to the elderly.
Strict state media controls mean Disney is constrained from promoting the "Magical World of Disneyland" program in certain parts of China. So it has backed up its marketing with efforts such as a new Web site and promotions, including advertising on Coca-Cola cans. To build "branded story education," Disney toured south China's malls and has been wooing local travel agents. The company also has teamed up with the Communist Youth League to give story-telling sessions in community centers.
Since reservation lines opened for the park's two hotels in February, 80% of the bookings have come from Hong Kong residents looking for a respite from tiny apartments. Most of the rest have come from Taiwan and other parts of Southeast Asia. Mainland residents may be waiting to book travel through travel agents, or staying with family or alternative hotels in Hong Kong, Mr. Hardy says.
Write to Geoffrey A. Fowler at geoffrey.fowler@wsj.com and Merissa Marr at merissa.marr@wsj.com