As Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government looks to tame China’s celebrities, the popularity of a new Universal Studios theme park in Beijing shows Hollywood’s enduring soft power among the nation’s 1.4 billion people.
Tickets for yesterday’s grand opening, priced at 638 yuan (US$98.67), sold out within 30 minutes of going online last week — as did rooms costing as much as 20,000 yuan at the resort’s two hotels, state-run media reported.
Fliggy (飛豬), an online travel site operated by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴), last week apologized for overselling the 500 yuan Universal Express Pass that lets visitor skip lines.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Yesterday morning, the park became the most-searched topic on the Sina Weibo microblogging site, as hundreds of visitors queued for entrance in the rain while those inside posted videos of their experiences.
A grand opening ceremony was attended by top officials, including Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Secretary of Beijing Cai Qi (蔡奇), state-backed news Web site The Paper reported.
The surging demand underscores the challenge Xi faces in dampening the appetite for celebrities among the general public, as the CCP looks to curtail foreign influences and promote the concept of “common prosperity.”
A commentary published widely in state-run media last month warned against “fan culture” and “worshiping Western culture.”
Earlier this month, the National Radio and Television Administration — China’s broadcast regulator — ordered television companies and Internet platforms to ban film stars with “incorrect politics,” cap salaries and do away with idol worship.
One of China’s most popular film stars, Zhao Wei (趙薇), was blacklisted from China’s Internet, while another actress was last month ordered to pay 299 million yuan in overdue taxes, late fees and fines.
The popularity of the Universal Studios theme park shows resistance to the CCP’s tightening of cultural standards after decades of allowing Western influences, said to Adam Ni (倪淩超), co-editor of China Neican, a newsletter on Chinese public policy issues.
“As powerful as the party is, it will have to contend with countless everyday decisions by the Chinese, which would together make up the moral fabric of the People’s Republic,” he said.
In the lead-up to the park’s public opening, dozens of Chinese celebrities — including Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon actress Zhang Ziyi (章子怡) and supermodel Liu Wen (劉雯) — visited attractions related to Jurassic Park, Transformers and Harry Potter.
Photographs of other guests dressed in Hogwarts cloaks, and posing with Minions and Transformers characters, became trending topics on Sina Weibo.
“Universal Beijing Resort is popular with the Chinese because there is part of the global culture that the Chinese thirst for,” Ni said. “Beijing is trying to reinforce this dichotomy between ‘Chinese’ and ‘foreign,’ but there is still much admiration and curiosity for foreign cultures in China. So the public attitude toward Western culture is two-faced.”
The project, which is expected to attract 30 million visitors a year, is a joint venture between state-owned Beijing Shouhuan Cultural Tourism Investment Co (北京首寰文化旅遊投資) and Comcast NBCUniversal. It has been in the works since 2001.
New Chinese ambassador to the US Qin Gang (秦剛) last week compared one of the attraction’s roller coasters to bumpy diplomatic ties between Washington and Beijing.
“After all tumbling and shakes, the roller coaster came to a soft landing in the end,” Qin, who visited the park before moving to the US in July, wrote on Twitter.
That positive spin was shared by the Global Times, which last week said the popularity displayed China’s “cultural confidence.”
However, there were other signs the attraction would face challenges from the government.
Cai on Thursday urged the US side to add more “Chinese elements” to the park in a video call with Comcast Corp chief executive officer Brian Roberts, the Beijing Daily reported.
Universal Beijing Resort did not respond to a question on how it would deal with China’s requests.
Harrison Wang, a 39-year-old Beijing resident who works in the film industry, heaped praise on the theme park after he attended the soft launch.
“People are here for the famed scenes and characters of these well-liked movies, as well as the world-class entertaining experience,” Wang said. “As the country’s borders are closed now, it offers a taste of the authentic Western culture.”
PATENTS: MediaTek Inc said it would not comment on ongoing legal cases, but does not expect the legal action by Huawei to affect its business operations Smartphone integrated chips designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) on Friday said that a lawsuit filed by Chinese smartphone brand Huawei Technologies Co (華為) over alleged patent infringements would have little impact on its operations. In an announcement posted on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, MediaTek said that it would not comment on an ongoing legal case. However, the company said that Huawei’s legal action would have little impact on its operations. MediaTek’s statement came after China-based PRIP Research said on Thursday that Huawei filed a lawsuit with a Chinese district court claiming that MediaTek infringed on its patents. The infringement mentioned in the lawsuit likely involved
Taipei is today suspending work, classes and its US$2.4 trillion stock market as Typhoon Gaemi approaches Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rain. The nation is not conducting securities, currency or fixed income trading, statements from its stock and currency exchanges said. Authorities had yesterday issued a warning that the storm could affect people on land and canceled some ship crossings and domestic flights. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) expects its local chipmaking fabs to maintain normal production, the company said in an e-mailed statement. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp said it has activated routine typhoon alert
GROWTH: TSMC increased its projected revenue growth for this year to more than 25 percent, citing stronger-than-expected demand for AI devices and smartphones The Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER, 台灣經濟研究院) yesterday raised its forecast for Taiwan’s GDP growth this year from 3.29 percent to 3.85 percent, as exports and private investment recovered faster than it predicted three months ago. The Taipei-based think tank also expects that Taiwan would see a 8.19 percent increase in exports this year, better than the 7.55 percent it projected in April, as US technology giants spent more money on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and development. “There will be more AI servers going forward, but it remains to be seen if the momentum would extend to personal computers, smartphones and
Catastrophic computer outages caused by a software update from one company have once again exposed the dangers of global technological dependence on a handful of players, experts said on Friday. A flawed update sent out by the little-known security firm CrowdStrike Holdings Inc brought airlines, TV stations and myriad other aspects of daily life to a standstill. The outages affected companies or individuals that use CrowdStrike on the Microsoft Inc’s Windows platform. When they applied the update, the incompatible software crashed computers into a frozen state known as the “blue screen of death.” “Today CrowdStrike has become a household name, but not in