This story about Disney - and Hollywood - in China is wild:
The other fascinating part about Disney’s strategy involves the string of English language schools that they opened in the country.
When they were building their theme park in Shanghai, they knew that a child won’t beg their parents to go to a theme park unless they love the characters that they’ll see there. Disney said, “Well, okay, we don’t have decades of movies to do this with.” And they were not allowed [by the Chinese government] to get a Disney Channel onto Chinese airwaves.
So what they decided to do was to launch a string of schools called Disney English, which would essentially teach young Chinese children English, but using Disney characters: Mickey wants an apple, or Luke Skywalker is 30 years old. I walked by one of these schools when I was there, and I remember that Toy Story 4 was coming out that week; all of the teachers were wearing Toy Story 4 T-shirts. So it doubled as a really effective marketing tool as well. Not only did these kids learn the English that their parents wanted them to speak, but they also left with an affection for these Disney characters that they had been introduced to.
Read more at Big Hollywood movies are being made with Chinese audiences in mind - Vox
🤙 Join the Group Chat on email, RSS, Micro.Blog, or ActivityPub
My best work starts on my blog and ends up on social media later. Signup below to receive digest emails on Monday mornings in your inbox. Optionally, you can also subscribe via RSS or follow on Micro.Blog, @[email protected] on Mastodon/ActivityPub.
Join Josh on Threads · Instagram · Facebook · Twitter · LinkedIn · Mastodon