Disneyland in China? http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=1678 May 2nd, 2007 by James Did I say Disneyland? I meant Shijingshan Amusement Park, an amusement park in Beijing that has absolutely nothing to do with Disney. Japanese bloggers seem to have recently discovered the existence of this park and have posted pictures of some of its characters: Here we have an original Chinese duck character hanging out with one of the Beijing Olympics mascots. Maybe this child is amazed by the inadequate size of the duck character’s shirt? Some have claimed that the park is illegally copying Disney’s Minnie Mouse. However, the park’s operators have insisted that the character on the right is not a mouse. It is a cat with very large ears! After some searching, I managed to find an English language news article that mentions this fine amusment park: With its slogan “Disneyland is too far,” Beijing’s Shijingshan Amusement Park features a replica of Cinderella’s Castle, with staff dressed like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and other Disney characters. None of this is authorized by Disney - but that has not stopped the state-owned park from creating its own counterfeit version of the Magic Kingdom in a brazen example of the sort of open and widespread copyright piracy that has Washington fuming. The United States announced Monday it would file a case at the World Trade Organization over rampant copyright piracy in China, a practice which US companies say deprives them of billions of dollars each year. But 31-year-old housewife Zhang Li betrays a typical Chinese attitude on the issue while chasing her young son around the park. “I don’t understand why that is such a big problem. Shouldn’t others be able to use those characters besides [Disney]?” she asks. No, no, lady. You’ve got it all wrong. They aren’t using Disney characters. It’s a big-eared cat, not a mouse. Come on! Update: A few pictures from Japanese media coverage of the theme park (thanks, toru!): A blue character that is not Doraemon and a Kitty that is not Hello Kitty. More of the park’s original characters! A couple of short guys with beards standing in front of one of the state-owned park’s rides.
Good call. That's a UNIVERSAL STUDIOS mascot, not Disney... still good shiznit right here... I bet it's an awfully well-concocted prank to Diz executives...
My brother was in China for a business fair -- his company builds machines that roll wrapping paper, tin foil, posters etc... and they have a number of patents. Boldly and just a few feet away from them was a Chinese company blatantly selling machines using their patented processes.
My favorite knock off ever, at least that I've seen with my own two eyes, is in downtown Ulan Baatar Mongolia - MongRonalds! It's like a mongolian version of McDowells from "Coming to America".
What's new? China is notorious for this kind of stuff. But this is the funniest thing yet. Thanks for the laugh, I enjoyed your descriptions the most.
Look... me and the McDonald's people got this little misunderstanding. See, they're McDonald's, I'm McDowell's. They got the Golden Arches, we have the Golden Arcs. They got the Big Mac, I got the Big Mick. We both got two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles and onions, but their buns have sesame seeds. My buns...have no seeds.
Just sheds more light on China being the #1 piracy market in the world by far. It would be nice if the RIAA lobbied congress to do something about it there, as opposed to suing 10-year-old girls and grandmothers.
Disney is the master of stealing. They took Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault stories etc and copyrighted them for themselves. Then they got America to change the copyright laws just for them too. So Disney can suck it.
Yeah, there's subtle irony that this wouldn't be illegal if not for the Sonny Bono Act that extended the terms of copyrights.
