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September 11, 2015

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Bridging cultures at Shanghai Disney Resort

AS a native of Chuansha Town, the site of the soon-to-be-opened Shanghai Disney Resort, it was perhaps fate that drew Xu Chang to her current job at the Walt Disney Imagineering Creative Studio in Glendale, California.

Xu, who joined the studio in 2010 after graduating from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, is a cultural analyst. According to Xu, this position was created specifically for the Shanghai Disney Resort project team. With this unique position, Xu is working closely with the creative team to promote cultural awareness and understand Chinese sensibilities. She is also responsible for making the Disney experience more enjoyable for Chinese visitors.

Among other duties, Xu organized bi-weekly sessions on various aspects of Chinese culture, including literature, popular entertainment and etiquette. And, being Disney, plenty of time was spent delving into popular Chinese fairy tales like the Butterfly Lovers and White Snake Lady.

She also helped organize team research trips to China. In Hangzhou, in east China’s Zhejiang Province, the team watched the West Lake Impression Show, a lavish song and dance spectacle based on the tale of the White Snake Lady, a tragic love story from ancient China.

The creative team also took part in many other activities in the country, such as partaking in dim sum and learning about local dining culture. Back in Glendale, they’ve also spent the last several years celebrating Chinese New Year. During this traditional festival, members of the team would gather to eat Chinese snacks and watch the CCTV Spring Festival Gala. They’ve even handed out red envelopes.

“One thing about this team is that they never take anything for granted,” Xu explains. “Everyone I work with has always been very respectful and I enjoy working with all of them. It’s also a cultural learning process for my colleagues and me.”

In addition to the initial cultural immersion, Xu and her colleagues turned their attention to the language of the park. All of the park’s marquees and operational signs are required to be in Chinese and English. Similarly, live shows and recorded announcements are required to be bilingual, as the company is always committed to creating a resort that is authentically Disney and distinctly Chinese. Chinese artists, designers, architects and craftsman are utilized in every phase of the project, including the design and construction of the resort, both on the ground in Shanghai and at Walt Disney Imagineering in California.

“We always want to make sure that guests can understand the attraction experience and get a glimpse of the story from their names,” says Xu.

To achieve this goal, the Chinese names and scripts in the resort were developed in parallel with the English version to make sure Chinese guests will be immersed in the entire environment. Working in collaboration with a local team in Shanghai, both sides worked tirelessly to find accurate and storytelling twranslations of both Chinese and English-language material.

For instance, Xu pointed to the Hunny Pot Spin ride. This Winnie the Pooh-themed spinning ride features an unusual spelling of the word “honey,” which is meant to exemplify the innocent, carefree world of Pooh and his friends.

Of course, this meaning is lost in Chinese if directly translated, so Xu and her colleagues thought of a similar word play. In the end, since “honey” and “crazy” share the same pronunciations in Mandarin, the ride was named Spinning (“Crazy”) Honey Pot.

“With the stories we tell and the language we use, our guests can feel comfortable and they can easily navigate the park. A lot of what we created is meant to bring a sense of familiarity to our guests, and encourage them to explore this brand new, immersive environment on their own.”




 

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