| By Laura M. Holson, The New York Times
In building the new entrance to Hong Kong Disneyland, Walt Disney executives decided to shift the angle of the front gate by 12 degrees.
They did so after consulting a Chinese feng shui master, who said the change would ensure maximum prosperity for the park. Disney also put a bend in the walkway from the train station to the gate, to make sure the flow of positive energy, or chi, does not slip past the entrance and out to the China Sea.
Following the advice of a feng shui master is one of many steps Disney executives have taken at the park to reflect Asian culture - and make sure they do not repeat some mistakes of the past. When Disney opened Disneyland Paris in what had been a sugar beet field near Paris in 1992, the company was roundly criticized for being culturally insensitive to its new European neighbors. In Hong Kong, Disney is including ritual incense burning as each building is finished, and it has picked what it was told is a lucky day, Sept. 12, for the opening.
The financial stakes are high: international growth is a key part of Disney's expansion efforts. China is expected to become one of the world's largest tourism destinations in the next 15 years, according to the World Tourism Organization. That bodes well for Disney, as Hong Kong itself is already in the top 15.
"It used to be Disney was exported on its own terms," said Robert Thompson, a professor of popular culture at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York. "But in the late 20th and early 21st century, America's cultural imperialism was tested. Now, instead of being the Ugly Americans, which some foreigners used to find charming, we have to take off our shoes or belch after a meal."
Plans for Hong Kong Disneyland, Disney's 11th theme park and a replica of the original Disneyland, began in 1999 on Lantau Island, a 30-minute train ride from central Hong Kong. Built on the former Penny's Bay and bordered on two sides by mountains, the park is a joint venture with Disney and Hong Kong's government and the first of the parks Disney wants to build in China, including one in Shanghai.
Disney invested $316 million for a 43 percent equity stake in Hong Kong Disneyland; the rest is owned by Hong Kong's government, which contributed $419 million. The park also has $1.1 billion in debt.
The dazzling visual effects and nods to cultural differences at Hong Kong Disneyland may seem like just marketing measures. One of the park's main ballrooms, sure to will be used for Disney's popular weddings, measures 888 square meters because 8 is a number of fortune, said Wing Chao, master planner for architecture and design for Walt Disney Imagineering.
In Chinese, 4 is bad luck, because it is pronounced like the Chinese word for death, so there are no fourth-floor buttons in the elevators at the Art Deco Hollywood Hotel, or other hotels in the park.
Cash registers are close to corners or along walls, where their placement is believed to increase prosperity. And in the park's upscale restaurant, Crystal Lotus, Disney has installed a virtual koi pond where virtual fish dart away from guests when they walk on a glass screen.
The pond is one of five feng shui elements in the restaurant, including wood, earth, metal and fire, which glows on a screen behind bottles in the bar.
"We could not have real fire because of the fire code," Chao said.
After the debacle at Euro Disney and, closer to home, problems with attendance at the California Adventure park in Anaheim, it is easy to understand why Disney would take such pains.
"I don't know anything about fire and kitchens and where fire belongs and what doesn't," said Jay Rasulo, president of Disney's theme parks and resorts.
Tourists sniffed at California Adventure when it opened in 2001, saying it looked more like a shopping mall than a theme park. In recent years, Disney added, at considerable expense, the Tower of Terror thrill ride and an attraction based on the animated film "A Bug's Life."
The French government recently helped bail out Euro Disney, the parent company of Disneyland Paris, offering loan concessions and investments to save it from bankruptcy.
Though its finances have been restructured, Euro Disney is still about $2 billion in debt. Many in the entertainment industry have regarded the starting of Disneyland Paris as a study in how not to open a theme park.
Rasulo, who was president of Euro Disney from 1998 to 2000, said Disneyland Paris grew quickly as a major tourist attraction in Europe, with 10 million visitors in its first year. But he conceded that the park was initially larger than it should have been and was built with too much debt.
Profit at Euro Disney in recent years has been slim to nonexistent; the park has shown a net loss the last three fiscal years, according to Disney. By contrast, Hong Kong Disneyland is being built in two smaller phases and is carrying half as much debt as its French sibling.
Disneyland Paris got off to a bad start by not offering wine when it opened. After wine was finally introduced, Disney hoped to placate visitors by offering more French food.
"Our guests told us, 'Guess what? That's not what we want,"' Rasulo said. What they wanted, he said, was American cornbread and barbecued chicken.
Disney also misunderstood how Europeans planned their vacations. In comparison with Americans, who often book their trips directly with Disney, Europeans rely more on travel agents. In 1992, Disney did not adequately train travel agents, leading to fewer bookings, Rasulo said.
Disney marketing executives in Asia have been training travel agents for months, mostly in China, where the company expects one-third of the park's business to come from.
Teaching Chinese people about Disney may be the key to the park's success there. Disney merchandise and characters are little known in Asia outside Japan, where the company has had a successful theme park for 22 years. China, in particular, has resisted the spread of Western popular culture.
For Disney, analysts say, Hong Kong Disneyland is an opportunity to introduce new generations to Princess-themed costumes, Winnie-the-Pooh stuffed animals and Mickey Mouse T-shirts.
Last year, Disney hired the Chinese pop singer Jacky Cheung to be host of the "Magical World of Disneyland," a television show where classic animated films like "Tarzan," "Dumbo" and "Alice in Wonderland" are introduced to the Chinese audience, which also learns about Disney and the theme park.
Because of the diverse cultures in Asia, Rasulo said, Disney had to be flexible. Three languages will be spoken in the parks: English, Cantonese and Mandarin. At a recent tasting in Hong Kong of dishes to be served in the parks' eight restaurants - from curry to noodles to sushi - Disney executives considered a hamburger being prepared by a local chef.
"I've had curry before, and I've had sushi before, but this was a hamburger that didn't taste like a hamburger that I knew," said Tom Fitzgerald, a senior creative executive at Imagineering.
He said it tasted like pork meatloaf and added, "You don't want to say, 'Well, this is the way we make a hamburger in the States, and so that is the way we're going make a hamburger here."'
Disney chose the proposed burger.
The park also has a topiary garden where Minnie and Mickey Mouse and other characters will take photographs with guests, a favorite pastime with international visitors.
One of the most anticipated attractions is the Jungle River Cruise. But in a change from other parks with that attraction, Disney has replicated Cambodian ruins for guests to float past and an unruly pack of hippos.
While all the talk of feng shui may seem like overkill to those with Western sensibilities, Rasulo said that as a practice it was just common sense. Rasulo said Chao came to his office recently and suggested he put a mirror on the wall behind his computer.
"Now if my secretary wants to get my attention, I can see her in the mirror," Rasulo said with a laugh. "So it actually is an incredibly practical thing."
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