It appears that this year, the yearly ice festival in the city of Harbin in China has decided to change the ice creations from before. This time, they have been replaced with Disney characters and Disney themes.
What is perhaps the world’s most famous ice festival has become another of the world’s Disney theme parks, with a Disney licensing company taking over operations from the local Communist government. It is the first time a private company has run the ice festival.
Snow White has replaced snow dragons. Children wander through the frozen hallways of Aladdin’s Castle instead of a Qing dynasty palace. “It’s a Small World” plays in one corner of the park. (What better theme music for globalization?)
“It was too stodgy,” Qi Juwei, 51, the organizer of this year’s event, said of the old festival. “You can’t keep putting the same light in the same block of ice.”
Disney also gets the free publicity since they don't run it, but had a hand in approving the various ice sculptures.
Zz.
1 comment:
Is Disney not charging them licensing fees?
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