First Sino-Foreign Joint Venture in Performing Arts Marks Birth of "Oriental Broadway"
2006-3-28 10:28:18
People's Daily
Beijing Oriental Broadway International, the first Sino-Foreign joint venture company in performing arts, has been established in Beijing, signaling a new era of Broadway-style development of Chinese culture.
"Oriental Broadway" was shared by a local Chinese company Beijing Time New Century Entertainment Co., Ltd., and the nearly 100-year-old Nederlander Worldwide Entertainment of the United States. The new firm is expected to offer services on theater management and performance promotion.
Chen Jixin, General Manager of the Beijing Time New Century Entertainment Co., Ltd., said Oriental Broadway will start by promoting a dozen of the most popular Broadway musical operas. Apart from Broadway best-sellers, Chen said it will also set up an alliance of Chinese theaters, which will be an historic move in the history of Chinese performing arts.
"It is not merely a simple alliance, but a way to arrange the schedule and sales of the theaters, so that every performance can be staged at the right time, in the right place, for the right audience, and most importantly, to make the best profit," Chen explained. She revealed that within one year, Oriental Broadway will have built an alliance of at least 11 theaters in big Chinese cities, and this figure will reach 23 in five years with theaters of medium-sized cities.
"This move is the first step of the Chinese performing arts industry, following a similar one in Chinese cinema," said Prof. Chen Shaofeng, vice director of the Research Institute of Chinese Culture Industry of Beijing University. He predicted that an "enormous" amount of money will be involved in this move.
Robert Jr. Nederlander, president of the U.S.-Based Nederlander Worldwide Entertainment, said to set up such a large-scale theater alliance is not only innovative in China, but also seldom seen worldwide.
"Such a big step by a Sino-Foreign joint venture performing agency reflects the confidence of foreign business in the Chinese market, but also marked the further reform of the Chinese cultural industry," Chen Jixin said.
In recent years, Chinese people's need for cultural consumption and entertainment has surged with the rapid growth of Chinese national economy. Latest statistics from Chinese Academy of Social Sciences showed that in recent two years, cultural consumption by Chinese people will amount to 700 billion yuan (around 84 billion U.S. dollars).
However, as Chen observed, culture in China has faced great challenges, as the most profitable products like "The Cats" and "The Phantom of Opera" by foreign companies overshadowed local products and forced local producers out of business. In the meantime, most Chinese theaters still had no mature and complete strategy for development.
"They were just like a blind man on a blind horse in their daily operation, and needed to learn advanced methods on theater management and operation," she said.
Chen Shaofeng said "Oriental Broadway" will help forge a theater-based industry chain with the help of foreign investment. According to Chen, the Chinese government in recent years has sped up the reform and opening-up of the culture industry.
Local cultural products have been encouraged to be taken overseas and foreign cultural products have also been welcomed on China's stage.
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