The topic of my final paper will surround the marketing of Disneyland. While in the current stage my focus and research questions are unspecific and unclear, the draft hope to at least act a brainstorm for my final paper.
The method use in my final paper is discourse analysis. Through gathering texts and media text from the internet, the paper attempt to uncover the Disneyland discourse beyond the “dream and fantasy” that it long created.
Discourse analysis I focus on discourse articulated through visual images and verbal text (p.???)
As Rose (2001) mentions there are 2 areas Tonkiss (1998) suggests in the discussion of discourse analysis., the first one is the analysis of the structure of discursive statement, the second one is the analysis of the social context of the statements. In working with discourse analysis I
With the newly opened Shanghai Disneyland Resort, the way Walt Disneyland promotes it has shown a rather different emphasis than its previous Disneylands.
Brannen (2004) identified the way Disneyland has designed and marketed Disneyland in Toyko and Paris. Disneyland used to copy the exact America design of Disneyland to other places in the world. Therefore, people can have a taste of the Disneyland as a foreign place to enjoy. While this strategy gained a huge success in Toyko, the one in Paris faced resistance from the French people.
What makes the Shanghai Disneyland marketing special is that it take the emphasis of “Chineseness” to another level. Shanghai Disneyland is not the first Disneyland that enters China. The Hong Kong Disneyland that opened a decade ago did not have such huge emphasis on Chinese element.
The discourse behind the Shanghai Disneyland Resort than is interesting. From the design of the street and castle to the language and food inside is redesigned for Chinese. It is Disneyland, it is China’s Disneyland.
Robert Iger, the chairman and chief executive officer of the Walt Disney Company said “China Disneyland – authentically Disney and distinctively Chinese” during his visit to Beijing.
The localization (cultural) discourse and the political discourse behind the every decision and marketing of Shanghai Disney is different from the others Disneylands.
“When it comes to culture, the world is not flat. Disney cannot take our culture and export it to China.” Said Iger.
Why would it be a success to have the same (America) Disneyland design in Tokyo while the team must perform lots of changes in Shanghai Disney?
How was such Chinese understanding of Disney constructed? And how Walt Disney adapts to such understanding?
The cultural reason can roughly be that the Chinese do not grow up with Mickey Mouse. Of course, one can see Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters in China, Disney characters however is not the cartoon characters most Chinese grow up with. There was a long negotiation between Walt Disney and the Chinese government on establishing the Disney channel in Mainland China before the opening of the Shanghai Disneyland. Walt Disney finally gave up on this plan. Therefore, the importance of Disney characters in China might not be as much as in the America or Japan society.
When it comes to the foreignness, the Chinese seem to have less appreciation for the American culture. The Chinese can identify with the wonderful Disneyland as a theme park to spend a nice day or two. However, compare to Japan or Hong Kong, Mainland has a much less identification with “Americaness”, for instance, the Midwest America designed street in the park. In one of the interview of Phillippe Gas, the general manager of the Shanghai Disney Resort, he mentioned that
“for example, in every Disney park you have a main street, but we don’t have main street here. We felt it was a very Midwestern America concept from the turn of the 20th century, and not something that was the most compelling or relevant to Chinese consumers.
“So what we have here is Mickey Avenue, with beloved Disney friends welcoming our guests at their entry into the park.”
“But there are some elements that are important to me as my culture tells me, food is one. Language is one.” “If you go to see our shows, take the stunt show, the pirate show, this show was developed in Mandarin.” “People in China like to eat Chinese food…actually we only have one place where we serve burgers.”
From the stances in Gas interview, it clear show something very much related to the Chinese culture. The interview, as one of the marketing strategy for the Shanghai Disney Resort, telling so much about the uniqueness of Shanghai Disney Resort as an attempt to attract Chinese customers.
Marketing, after all, lies its importance in aiming at the right customers. The huge population of Chinese provides so many business opportunities for Disney. In the surrounding 3km of the Shanghai Disney Resort already have 3.3 million potential customers. It aims more than local Chinese than to the tourist from other countries.
The political discourse of Shanghai Disney Resort is explicit. According to Brannen (2004), Walt Disney took into a political discourse by using characters of different origins and fit them into the America ideologies. The choice of localizing Disneyland is never only about cultural differences. The political discourse here is linked to the China resistance to many of the American ideologies.
The Chinese government and the Walt Disney company wrestled on the negotiating table. In the face of such a super entertainment kingdom of Disney, the Chinese government took into account the cultural and ideological factors that a Disneyland in China can present.
However, Walt Disney did not say much on the political factor that affects their decisions. Politics, maybe that seem too ugly to put into a “fantasy land”. On the statements that the general manger Gas comments on the challenges working with the Chinese government, he puts much of the emphasis on to the great partnership with China. It is helping not fighting.
“One of most exhilarating missions that the CEO, Iger, gave me was to think of this as not only building the business, but also helping the country raise its level.” said Gas.
While the Disney company seldom mentions its relationship with the Chinese government. On exploring a Chinese newspaper article, a more critical fact was mentioned. The power that the Chinese government has over the Walt Disney Company. 57% of the shares of the Shanghai Disney Resort is owned by the company owned by the Chinese government and the remaining 43% shares are held by the Walt Disney Company.
One point that is very important is that although there are many Chinese elements incorporated in Shanghai Disneyland, it still places the “Disneyland” before everything. It is Disneyland as Disneyland, which present some core values that will not change, those values that are cross border. Local elements will never override the Disney values.