Spirits Spook Plan for Shanghai Disneyland
From the Times of India:
Mickey Mouse has met an unexpected obstacle on his chirpy march to bring Walt Disney’s consumer culture into China – ancestor worship. Amid rice fields and bamboo groves south of Shanghai, hundreds of villagers are resisting plans to dig up family graves in order to make way for the first Disneyland in mainland China.
“It’s harder than persuading them to move out of their homes,” lamented one of three local officials charged with the task. “A house just equals money but to disturb the forefathers is a trauma for generations.”
Officials are using tact and cajolery to avoid spoiling the news that more than £2 billion is to be lavished on what Disney calls “a Magic Kingdom theme park with traits tailored to the Shanghai region.”… Many contributors to the websites of Chinese television and the People’s Daily complain that Disney fare is an insult to China’s ancient culture. One commentator went so far as to predict that Disney’s seductive array of characters would destroy the nascent Chinese cartoon industry.
See also the past CDT post, “China Approves Disney Theme Park in Shanghai.”
POSTED COMMENTS: One Response
It’s not hard to empathize that bulldozing graveyards is crass without resorting to spirits and ancestor worship as explanations.