How to Create Disneyland With Chinese Characteristics
More than six decades after Walt Disney built the first Disneyland as a place to take his family, tens of thousands of Chinese families will converge on Shanghai Disneyland Park during the week-long National Day Holiday.
Disneyland is one of the top tourist spots in the United States, and this will surely hold true for its new Shanghai incarnation. It is estimated that the park could hold 100,000 guests at its maximum capacity. As a theme park designer and Disneyland fan, I decided to be part of history by attending the opening of Shanghai Disneyland, the company’s sixth theme park and the third such resort in Asia.
The Walt Disney Company calls their latest park “authentically Disney, distinctively Chinese,” and this is apparent from the attractions themselves through to the master planning of the park. On June 16th this year — a date chosen for its auspicious inclusion of the number six, which in Mandarin connotes good luck and financial success — I joined the hordes of visitors braving the summer heat on the opening day.
One way that Disney’s “Imagineers” have adapted their Shanghai project is through innovations that prevent queue cutting, a vice that plagues modern China. Instead of the standard paraphernalia of ropes and stanchions, the park’s queue dividers are highly themed, almost barricade-like contraptions designed to make it difficult to crawl underneath or climb over. As queuing time in one of China’s most populous cities can stretch for well over an hour, strictly imposing a queuing system is an essential crowd control measure.
Guests familiar with other Disneylands will notice the ubiquitous Disney Castle right ahead of them as they enter the park. This is the largest of all the Disney Castles, a fitting centerpiece to the immense proportions of the park. The Shanghai castle also doesn't take sides — it's built for all the Disney princesses, not just one. A subtle nod to local culture is the golden peony perched atop the castle, a traditional symbol of feminine beauty, poise, and elegance.
The park’s master plan was also tweaked to reflect the huge number of visitors expected at the park. Wary that mainland Chinese consumers may not relate to the “Main Street, U.S.A.” land in operation at other Disneyland Parks — including Tokyo and Hong Kong — designers have created “Mickey Avenue,” a broader, shorter boulevard that should ease crowd congestion following the end of the nightly fireworks display.
A further new feature is Treasure Cove, an 18th-century Spanish port town built to evoke the sets of “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise. The area is crawling with foppish Jack Sparrow and Davy Jones impersonators (whose Mandarin skills, strangely, are left unmentioned in the movies themselves). This focus is hardly surprising, seeing how it reflects the broader appeal the “Pirates” films have enjoyed in China — the latest installment, “On Stranger Tides,” has grossed over $70 million at the box office to date.
As an art director with experience in theme park design, I can assert that the difference between a good and a great theme park lies in the details. On this point, Shanghai Disneyland has surely delivered. On Adventure Isle, queue rails spiral like knotted tree trunks. In Treasure Cove, speakers are disguised as overturned wooden crates and even the lighting looks as though it predates electricity. Such an immersive experience, combined with the sheer size of the park, will allow guests to discover something new every time they visit and encourage repeat custom.
Of course, since its opening, the park has taken a lot of flak for various shortcomings. TV reports showed teething problems with ticketing and decried the high prices of the resort. The behavior of some visitors also came under scrutiny both at home and abroad, buffered by viral videos decrying the poor manners of local tourists.
While Disneyland must take steps to tackle these issues, I believe they have broadly delivered on their ability to combine authentic Disney and distinctive “Chineseness” into a satisfying customer package. Customers recognize that Disney is a mark of quality, and this will compel people to visit despite the well-publicized hitches. The company has taken their theme park, given it cutting-edge new attractions and a completely new layout, and yet its core remains true to what Disney does best: storytelling. This particular storybook has pages waiting to be filled, too — if the vast tracts of as-yet-unused land on the outskirts of the park are anything to go by.
(Header image: A family watches the fireworks at the Shanghai Disney Resort on opening day, June 16, 2016. Liu Xingzhe/Sixth Tone)
