The Cultural Globalisation Process of Hong Kong Disneyland

Hong Kong Disneyland (HKDL) was seen as the ‘Millennium Dream Comes True! ’ in 1999, but as ‘Hong Kong’s shame ’ after its opening in 2005. In this article, interviews and ethnographic research are used to examine the different positions of various actors (HKDL workers, consumers and media practitioners) in their relationship with HKDL. Appropriating Lefebvre’s conceptual triad of space, these stories show that Disney brought Hong Kong a physical park, non-transparent values and related management practices. These same stories also demonstrate that HKDL workers and visitors work and consume the park in a local way that Disneyland management finds difficult to control; local people produce and circulate the changed meanings of ‘Disney ’ and change certain Disney management policies. like Tokyo and Paris, which had imported the mega-brand Disneyland from the US. On 12 September 2005, HKDL officially opened on the reclaimed land of Penny’s Bay in Lantau, an outlying island in Hong Kong. Unexpectedly, however, HKDL drew nega-tive portrayals from local media, which recounted the uncomplimentary views of visitors and workers. For the first few months after HKDL’s rehearsal days, the commentary from various press sources (ranging from scholars and local stars to common people) characterised the park as too small, the park On 3 November 1999, the headlines of many Hong Kong newspapers declared the success of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government in signing contracts with the Walt Disney Company in the establishment of Hong Kong Disneyland (HKDL). To celebrate the joint venture, the popular press used headlines like that of Apple Daily, which read ‘Millennium Dream Comes True!’. This millennium dream was not only about Hong Kong having one more theme park, HKDL, but also about Hong Kong fol-lowing in the footsteps of other global citie