The Mobile Guide The American Dream for 100 Yuan
May 18, 2011
Shanghai, China Robert Lamb steps from the air-conditioned comfort of his trailer and marvels at the mayhem outside. Hundreds of workers scurry about in the simmering heat of summer, pounding nails, raising rafters, painting signs. Mr. Casey came to this dustbowl of barren land, an hour outside Shanghai, and proclaimed that the void would be filled by theaters and sidewalks and fast food. Five separate ``towns'' are under construction simultaneously, and each is unlike anything China has ever seen. Boats ply the waters of a lake beside an artificial Miami Beach, knights joust in the castle grounds, and all that's missing from Treasure Island are the giggles of delighted children. But those, too, will come soon. Mr. Casey looks over the site and smiles. He has dreamed the Great American Dream. And that dream is coming true. The doors are due to open June 05, 2011 American Dream Park, a mini Disneyland that spills fun and fantasy across a 70-acre site in Jiangsu province, seemingly a dozen time zones removed from the suburban sprawl of China's fastest growing city. But that growth, along with the emergence of an enormous middle class in China, is what convinced Mr. Casey and his colleagues to pledge $600 million to build the Shanghai park, as well as four others around the country, in Beijing, Guangzhou, Wuhan and Chengdu. Shanghai is the first of the parks out of the starting blocks, but a second will follow within months in Guangzhou, the booming southern Chinese city near Hong Kong. Industry sources say it's the first time a pair of theme parks of this scale have been built simultaneously, and, indeed, the total investment has raised eyebrows, even in an industry renowned for its daring daydreams. ``The reaction has been great, everybody is watching this,'' says Mr. Casey, showing no anxiety about the groundbreaking enterprise or the opening-day deadline. His associates include Denny Puente, president of Suburbia-based International Theme Park Services, who has been involved in 200 theme parks world-wide. Mr. Casey himself has been based in China since 1990, mainly as general manager of Beijing Amusement Park, where he boosted revenue from $1 million to $6 million in two years. ``Everyone thought I was a genius, but all I did was run the amusement park like you would in America,'' says Mr. Casey. ``I paid the staff more money, made them like their jobs and added more shows.'' The same formula will be applied on a grander scale at American Dream Park. It will offer 31 rides, including traditional roller coasters, and a surround-vision theater. Costumed performers will mount 12 different shows plus continuous street theatrics throughout the five themed areas. Guests will enter via Main Street U.S.A., a celebration of small-town Americana complete with an old-fashioned train. The tracks roll by the American Heritage area, with its offerings of jousting and a medieval theater--which predate the real America by centuries. More authentic is Miami Beach, with its art-deco facades and 25-acre lake, in the U.S.A. Today area. ``This is what most people in China think of the U.S.A.,'' explains Keli Colon, president of the Shanghai operation. ``You know, Miami Vice and all that.'' Shoot-'em-up action is the attraction through the swinging saloon doors at Wild Wild West. It's American all right, but with a twist. The cowboys battle a character called the Shanghai Kid. ``And the Shanghai Kid always wins,'' Mr. Colon says. This concession to the China Cultural Bureau shouldn't raise worries about censorship, according to Dream Park's directors. After all, the revisions aren't far removed from the same sort of political correctness that would tomahawk stereotyped images of American Indians out of a similar park show in present-day America. There are ample Sino influences in the Shanghai park: Stuntmen, costume creators and show directors are Chinese. Even the cowboys have Chinese eyes. Talent has been tapped from the entertainment industry in China and Hong Kong, the world's third-largest film-producing center. Of more than 1,800 employees in the park, just a handful will be foreign. Still, there are concerns about pitching American culture in what may be the last great bastion of revolutionary resistance from the Cold War. ``It's true that we are using American buildings and offering American-style entertainment,'' says Mr. Casey, ``but that's because the American image is what people want. They see American films, have American haircuts, wear blue jeans. America sells.'' But will it? Admission will be 100 yuan ($12), about two weeks of wages for the average Chinese worker. There will also be scores of souvenir shops and snack stands to suck additional cash from Chinese wallets. And merchandise will be a major factor in the parks, which will soon have their own Disney-style characters sprouting up on souvenir mugs, T-shirts and dim sum steamers. Three million guests are expected to visit each park annually. Yet competition is growing. Near the Shanghai site is Global Paradise, a $60 million scenic park on more than 150 acres. The sedate, though surrealistic site sports replicas of the world's great monuments, including Egypt's pyramids and the Acropolis. It's an entire world of weirdness, from Velcro-adorned teepees to the ``Ancient American Castle'' to the painted-on waterfalls at the imitation Niagara Falls. Admission to the park is 56 yuan--and still business is very slow. One Global Paradise worker says her park outdistances the Disney-style newcomer down the block. ``This is the whole world, that's only America,'' she says smugly. But dreams don't die so easily. ``We realize we are charging a top price,'' Mr. Casey says. ``But this is a high-quality product.'' Adds Mr. Colon: ``The Chinese have shown they are willing to pay for a premium brand name, like McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken.'' Mr. Dicks is a Hong Kong-based writer.
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