Old Teachings, New Marketing Strategies, and Hollywood's Industry
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Master’s Degree in European, American and Postcolonial Language and Literature Final Thesis Old Teachings, New Marketing Strategies, and Hollywood’s Industry: The Cultural Conflicts between the U.S. and China Supervisor Simone Francescato Assistant supervisor Marco Perusi Savorelli Graduand Zeno Casti 845026 Academic Year 2018 / 2019 Abstract This study aims at identifying the analogies and differences between American culture and Chinese culture stemming from marketing strategies and their adaptation. It shows in particular that some Chinese literary masterpieces, including Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, can be considered as starting point and as inspiration for American financial strategy, business attitude and general approach to the American mentality and lifestyle. The objective of this research is to explain how the teachings contained in such works represent the cornerstones that inspired American successful entrepreneurial spirit and why they are considered now the key for American marketing approach to China and its enigmatic culture, especially through the translation of brands into Chinese language. The study then investigates the economic factors and cultural influences that China exercised over U.S. Film Industry, by focusing on the economic and cultural reasons why Hollywood decided, or rather, was forced to accept financing from China in order to expand (and save) their Film Industry and why Chinese film production companies chose to invest in this business to learn the know-how needed to produce successful films in China. The research concludes with a comparison between the American Dream and the Chinese Dream and their origins. Table of contents INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………….3 1. Western brands in China..…….…………………………………………………….6 1.1 Entering the Chinese market by understanding Chinese culture…………………….6 1.2 Brief history of the evolution of the Chinese consumer …………………………….8 1.2.1 Maoism: “Communism is not needing money to eat”……………………..8 1.2.2 Dengism: “Get a loan and realize your dream”……………………………9 1.2.3 After Deng Xiaoping……………………………………………………..10 1.2.4 Collectivism vs. individualism……………………..…….………………11 1.3 Gaining and losing face in China, the importance of “Mianzi”…………..….…….12 1.4 Western brands translated into Chinese………..………………….………………..16 2. Chinese literature and American business strategy…..………………………….22 2.1 How Chinese military treatises transformed American strategic approach…..……22 2.2 Sun Tzu and The Art of War…………..……………………………………………27 2.3 Seven business lessons from The Art of War…………….…..……………………..29 2.4 Golden Rules of Business Success by Tao Zhu Gong…….…..…………………….33 2.5 How Jack Ma applied The Art of War and Jin Yong’s wuxia novels in growing Alibaba’s business………………………………………………..…………………….43 2.6 The shadow of the Chinese Communist Party………..….…………………………49 3. Economic factors and Chinese cultural influences on Hollywood.…….….…….54 3.1 Why Hollywood needs China……..…….………………………………………….54 3.2 Perception management and preventive censorship ..…..….………………………57 3.3 Culture warfare and Hollywood’s adaptation to Chinese filmmaking ..…..……….62 1 3.4 America vs China: What pushes these nations to create partnerships……..………67 3.5 China overturns Hollywood’s flops: The Great Wall (2016) case……..…………..73 4. American Dream vs Chinese Dream……..……………………………………….79 4.1 A very short history of the American Dream…………..…………………………..80 4.2 The origins of the Chinese Dream…………..……………………………………..83 4.3 Chinese and American Dream: Two different cultural approaches…..……………90 4.4 Chinese propaganda in TV series and theaters.……………………..……………..98 4.5 American Dreams in China by Peter Chan……………..………………..……….104 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………….…108 WORKS CITED………………………………………………………………………112 2 INTRODUCTION U.S. and China have very different ways of looking at the world. These two countries have particularly different historical background, social ideologies, and ways of managing international relations. Analyzing cultures from a culturological perspective does not lead to determining which is better or worse, but rather to understanding how different cultures are socially constructed, how the perception of difference has been negotiated over time, and whether it is possible to find analogies between them; in some cases, these analogies have blatantly served marketing purposes such as growing a business or saving a long-lasting Film Industry. My thesis aims at defining the positive and negative influences that American and Chinese cultures have exerted on each other in the contemporary era. It is divided into four chapters which investigate the consequences arising from cultural exchange and confrontation in specific contexts, such as the world of business and popular culture. In the first chapter, I show how U.S. companies targeting Chinese market have taken into consideration many different cultural aspects, customs, and habits in order to deal with modern Chinese consumer’s tastes and preferences. At the same time, they have respected ancient traditions like the importance of gaining and losing face, or miànzi (面 子). The companies that better understand and interpret these features, for example, have manifested their comprehension of Chinese culture through an ingenious and effective translation, or rather adaptation, of their brand to Chinese language. In fact, the strategic choice of characters, used to make brands pronounceable in Chinese, when it is not limited to reproducing only phonetics or meaning, can reveal unexpectedly effective messages and, eventually, interesting references to values and contents. For instance, the Chinese name of Coca-Cola, 可口可乐 Kĕkŏu Kĕlè, both accurately reproduces the original sound of the brand and is also able to evoke a very relevant meaning: Chinese people, by reading Coca-Cola’s characters immediately think of “what is worth drinking in moments of happiness”, or simply, “the drink that makes you happy”. This translation became so effective as to make useless the presence of the original brand on bottles and cans distributed in China. In this case, the commitment to studying and effectively interpreting Chinese culture generated an enormous reward in terms of brand awareness, allowing Coca-Cola to achieve much greater success than other foreign 3 brands. The strategy adopted by the American multinational corporation concerning Chinese market approach recalls one of the most famous teachings of Chinese general and philosopher Sun Tzu: “To know your Enemy, you must become your Enemy”. Here, “becoming your enemy” means identifying with Chinese culture and specifically being able to gain market shares by understanding and giving value to its traditions. Actually, this is just one of the principles which refer to a broader influence that Chinese literature classics such as Sun Tzu’s The Art of War and Golden Rules of Business Success by Tao Zhu Gong had on shaping American business and strategic mentality. In reality, Chinese military strategy treaties had already become a subject of great interest to American military leaders at the time of the U.S. conflicts in Asia against Japan, North Korea and Vietnam. In a gradual way, over time, the teachings contained in such books have been interpreted in a broader and modern context, especially outside the military sphere. Soon, these titles became popular among entrepreneurs and political leaders from all over the world, because they were considered as an excellent repository of ingenious strategies and clever tactics to be used to become successful. The second chapter will dwell on how the content of these classic works became trending references also in American popular culture, starting with the 1987 film Wall Street by Oliver Stone to the most recent American TV series, such as Vince Gilligan’s neo-western crime drama Breaking Bad; and it will investigate why many American high-ranking officers, political leaders and successful entrepreneurs from all over the world, including Chinese tycoon Jack Ma, have been inspired by these writings to the point of becoming (especially The Art of War) their favorite books. But all that glitters is not gold. In fact, in the case of Jack Ma, co-founder of Alibaba Group, one of the leading multinational companies in the field of e-commerce, retail, Internet and technology, rumors has it that besides being inspired by Chinese literature classics and Jin Yong’s wuxia novels to grow his business, he had also been subject to Chinese Communist Party influence. The aim of this chapter is also to present and discuss the effect that present-day Chinese media along with the heavy presence of the Communist Party exerted over Chinese people, important entrepreneurial realities, and international relations, also considering the resulting cultural controversies. The longa manus of the Chinese government 4 extends up to the national booming film industry whose expansion has always been controlled over the years, for example, by applying preventive censorship or limiting the number of western movies showed in the country. The economic-cultural relationship between U.S. and China in the motion picture industry along with the ensuing debates will be explored in the third chapter. China is one of the most populated countries in the world, with one of the highest middle-class growth rates and therefore a massive number of potential theatergoers. From a commercial perspective it is easy to understand why Hollywood longs to enter China’s movie market and why it is so important that their films are watched by the