标题: 《纽约时报》关于中国政府批准上海迪士尼项目的报道 [打印本页]
作者: DNA 时间: 09-11-6 21:08
标题: 《纽约时报》关于中国政府批准上海迪士尼项目的报道
本帖最后由 DNA 于 2009-11-6 21:09 编辑
China Approves Disney Theme Park in Shanghai
LOS ANGELES — After a courtship of about 20 years, the Walt Disney Company has won approval from the central government of China to build a Disneyland-style theme park in Shanghai, Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive, said Tuesday.
The agreement for a Shanghai Disneyland is a landmark deal that carries enormous cultural and financial implications. Analysts estimate the initial park — not including hotels and resort infrastructure — will cost $3.5 billion, making it one of the largest-ever foreign investments in China.
The initial resort, with a mix of shopping areas, hotels and a Magic Kingdom-style theme park, will sprawl across 1,000 acres of the city’s Pudong district — with the theme park occupying about 100 of those acres. It would be a little bigger than Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., and on par with the parks in Paris and Tokyo. It is expected to open in five or six years.
Disney’s plans are ambitious: If further development of the resort happens as expected over the coming decades — still a big if — it will encompass more than 1,700 acres and have a capacity rivaling Disney World in Florida, which attracts about 45 million annual visitors.
The company’s goal is to create an engine that will drive demand among China’s 1.3 billion residents for other Disney products, from video games to Broadway-style shows to DVDs. Disney typically relies on the creation of new Disney TV channels to pump its brand abroad, but China’s limits on foreign media have made that impossible. The approval, notably, did not come with concessions from China on the television front.
Mr. Iger called the approval “a very significant milestone” in a statement, taking care to praise China as “one of the most dynamic, exciting and important countries in the world.” A spokeswoman declined to elaborate on details. Throwing open its doors to such a uniquely American — and permanent — entertainment experience is a milestone for China, which has aggressively protected its culture from Westernization in general and Hollywood in particular. Only 20 non-Chinese films are allowed to be shown in theaters each year, for instance, and those are often edited.
“Disney, perhaps the most iconic American brand of all, is supercharged in this department,” said Orville Schell, director of the Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations.
It was unclear what convinced China to finally approve the deal after years of off-again, on-again talks. The prospect of creating tens of thousands of jobs at a tough economic moment might have played a role, Mr. Schell and other analysts said.
Others have speculated that the timing involved President Obama’s inaugural visit to China later this month.
Mr. Schell said he saw something more at work. “It’s a signal that now they will tolerate a certain kind of Western investment,” he said.
Disney will own about 40 percent of the Shanghai resort, with the remainder owned by a holding company formed by a consortium of Chinese companies selected by the government, according to people with knowledge of the plan but who were not authorized to speak publicly.
Only the Magic Kingdom-style portion of the project needed Beijing’s approval; Disney will now negotiate with Shanghai authorities on construction plans, but that is considered a matter of process.
Details about rides are still being worked out, but there are to be a smattering of classic attractions and new rides developed specifically for Shanghai, perhaps incorporating Chinese stories and history.
Disney is often accused of force-feeding its products to international markets and thus homogenizing culture. The company’s heavy-handed creation of Disneyland Paris in the early 1990s, for instance, was a public relations disaster; French farmers with pitch forks protested Disney.
But the company, under new leadership since 2005, has worked to erase that imperious reputation by bending to the quirks of local markets and taking on local partners. Where appropriate, it has incorporated local customs; the decision to serve alcohol at Disneyland Paris helped turn that resort into a financial success.
Disney has opened a chain of language schools in Shanghai, taking care to promise that the goal is to teach children to speak English, not to indoctrinate them with Princesses 101. (The company’s characters, however, are very visible at the centers.)
Disney, which already does more business in China than most foreign media companies, has more than 600 employees in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Merchandise like plush toys and Mickey Mouse apparel is sold at about 6,000 branded locations.
The company delivers about a dozen hours of television programming (“Mickey Mouse Clubhouse”) to local stations each week, and its Broadway unit has toured “The Lion King,” among other shows.
But Disney executives have set a high bar for international growth, saying publicly before the recession that about 50 percent of the company’s annual profit could originate overseas within a few years; now it is about a quarter of revenue and operating income.
The company picked Shanghai largely because of its transportation network; moving guests in and out of a huge resort and feeding them while they are there pose enormous logistical challenges. About 300 million potential customers live within two hours of the site, located between the city’s airport and downtown.
“Strategically, we know that our theme parks represent a huge tent pole for the Disney brand wherever we put them,” Jay Rasulo, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, said in August during an interview about the division’s growth plans.
The announcement marks the culmination of a courtship that began in July, 1990, when Zhu Rongji, then the mayor of Shanghai, made a trip to the original Disneyland in Los Angeles with four other Chinese mayors and came home determined to have a Disneyland in his city. Mr. Zhu rose through the ranks to become premier of China from1998 to 2003 and was a consistent champion of the project, said Michael Rowse, the Hong Kong government official who played a central role in negotiating the establishment of Hong Kong Disneyland, which opened four years ago.
The Shanghai approvals come as Disney works to keep its domestic theme parks healthy amid the global economic downturn. Unlike most theme park operators, Disney has managed to keep attendance high by applying steep discounts to hotel rooms and dining.
Keith Bradsher contributed reporting from Hong Kong.
原文链接
作者: DNA 时间: 09-11-9 01:07
标题: 翻译
(洛杉矶)——经过长达20年的追求，沃特迪士尼公司(Walt Disney Company)已经获中国中央政府批准在上海建造一个迪士尼风格的主题公园(Disneyland-style theme park)。迪士尼首席执行官罗伯特·A·伊格尔(Robert A. Iger)在周二说。
上海迪士尼乐园(Shanghai Disneyland)项目的确立，是一个隐藏着巨大文化和经济含意的里程碑。据分析者估计，独特的公园——不包括酒店和配套的基础设施——就需要35亿美元，令迪士尼乐园成为一项在中国史无前例的国外投资项目。
独特的渡假村配套结合了购物区、酒店和一个神奇王国风格主题公园(Magic Kingdom-style theme park)，铺陈延展占浦东新区(the city's Pudong district)面积达1000英亩。整个主题公园占地面积大约有100个像那样的区域。它会比加州阿纳海姆(Anaheim, Calif.)的迪士尼稍大一些，会和巴黎(Paris)和东京(Tokyo)的一样大。预计会在五六年后开放营业。
迪士尼的规划雄心勃勃：如果渡假村长期发展，在可以想见的十年时间里——如果还是预期的这样大的话——它将完成超过1700英亩并且容量可与弗罗里达州的迪士尼世界(Disney World in Florida)相媲美，后者每年吸引着约合四千五百万的游客。
迪士尼公司的目的,是添置一架可以刺激中国十三亿居民对迪士尼周边产品需求的引擎。从视频游戏到百老汇风格演出(Broadway-style shows)再到DVD光盘。迪士尼典型地依靠创作新的迪士尼电视节目(Disney TV channels)以拉动其海外品牌度，但因中国限制外媒而使其难以可行。迪士尼获得特别批准，并不意味着从中国拿到了个在电视机前的特许权。
伊格尔先生(Mr. Iger)在声明中宣称这项获批是“一个意义非常深远的里程碑”。盛赞中国是“一个全世界最有活力、激情和最重要的国家。”发言人削减了对复杂细节的公布。永久地打开这扇独特的美国式娱乐节目之门,对中国而言是一个里程碑。中国曾强烈地保护着本国文化免受西化，尤其是好莱乌的影响。例如，每年只有20部非中国电影可以在院线上映，并且还经常是被再剪辑过的。
“迪士尼可能是最代表美国品牌的名片了，且这种作用进一步得到了加强，”亚洲社会中心美中关系处(the Asia Society's Center on U.S.-China Relations)的董事奥维尔·谢尔(Orville Schell)说。
还不清楚是什么说服中国在一而再再而三地讨论后最终批准这个项目的。在经济困难时期创造数以万计就业岗位的期望可能起着重要作用。谢尔先生(Mr. Schell)和其他分析者如是说。
另有人推测这与本月晚些时候奥巴马总统(President Obama)就职后的来华访问有着密切关联。
谢尔(Mr.Schell)说他看到更多的还是效果。他说，“这是一个他们现在能够容忍某种形式西方投资的信号”。
迪士尼将拥有上海渡村约40%的股份，剩余部分股份则由一家政府指定的中国财团组建而成的公司占有。公司成员了解这一项目但不被允许向公众言说。
总工程只有神奇王国风格(Magic Kingdom-style)的部分得到北京的批准。迪士尼(Disney)将从现在开始与上海当局进行建设方案的谈判。但那只不过是一个过程罢了。
关于项目的细节仍还在商讨之中，但是显而易见经典有吸引力的和新的项目可能在上海会有特定的发展，可能会包含中国历史和故事。
迪士尼(Disney)经常被诟病为它的产品填鸭式打入国际市场并因些同质化其他文化。例如，这家公司拙劣地在二十世纪早期建造巴黎迪士尼乐园(Disneyland Paris )，便是一个公共关系灾难：法国农场主们通过抛掷叉子以抗议迪士尼(Disney)。
但这家公司自从2005年有了新的领导层后，开始致力于通过向突发事件妥协和与当地伙件合作，以抹去专横的名声。相应的，它已经组成当地习俗的一部分了：决定在巴黎迪士尼乐园(Disneyland Paris)提供酒饮服务，已使该度假村成为一种有利可图的成功模式。
迪士尼(Disney)在上海开了一家连锁语言学校，谨慎宣称其目的是教孩子们学习英语，而不是灌输他们《公主101》(Princesses 101)。（公司的角色非常明确。）
迪士尼(Disney)已经在中国较之其他外媒公司做出了更多的商业行为，在北京、上海、广州有着600名雇员。毛绒玩具和米老鼠(Mickey Mouse)服饰这些商品已经在近6000个品牌专柜出售。
这家公司每周在当地电台播出近12小时电视节目（《米老鼠俱乐部》"Mickey Mouse Clubhouse"）。并且它的百老汇剧团会有《狮子王》("The Lion King")之类的剧目演出。
但是迪士尼(Disney)管理层已经设置了一个国际高增长的标杆，对公众公布在经济衰退前约50%的公司年度利润在几年间可以来自海外，现在它大约是四分之一的收入和经营所得。
这家公司选择上海很大的原因是源自它的交通运输网：运载大型度假村的旅客进出流量和满足其需求，是巨大的挑战。大约有三亿潜在游客，生活在以这个城市的机场和商业区之间作为中心的两小时经济圈内，
“我们知道这是具有战略意义的，我们无论把主题公园放在何处都象征着一个巨大的迪士尼品牌(Disney brand)支柱，”沃特迪士尼公园和度假村(Walt Disney Parks and Resorts)主席杰·拉苏洛(Jay Rasulo)在八月份接受关于部分发展规划的采访时如是说。
这项宣布标志着这项始于1990年7月的追求建园的长跑画下了句点。那时时任上海市长的朱容基(Zhu Rongji)与其他四位中国市长同行，参观了位于洛杉矶(Los Angels)独特的迪士尼乐园(Disneyland)，然后回国就决定在他的城市也建那么一座迪士尼乐园(Disneyland)。朱先生(Mr. Zhu)晋升为中国总理（1998年-2003年）自始至终都是这项工程的拥护者，在四年前运营的香港迪士尼乐园(Disneyland)建造谈判中起重要作用的香港政府官员麦克尔·卢维斯(Michael Rowse)如是说。
上海获批迪士尼(Disney)项目，起到在全球经济下滑的情况下保持本国主题公园良性发展的作用。不同于大部分主题公园的管理者，迪士尼(Disney)已经通过提供很大折扣价的洒店和晚宴来保持高访客量。
作者: 恰好恰好 时间: 11-11-6 06:30
支持一下
| 欢迎光临 (http://tonghuar.com/) |
Powered by Discuz! X3 |