Preview

The Success of Chinese Version of ‘Mamma Mia' Musical

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2372 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Success of Chinese Version of ‘Mamma Mia' Musical
Yurun Gu (Rainie)
Professor Barbara Stewart
ESL: English For Research Skills
December 3, 2013

The Success of Chinese Version of ‘Mamma Mia!’ Shows to the Chinese Musicals Development

Abstracts In recent years, musicals in China are being paid much more attentions than in the past. The show of Chinese version of ‘Mamma Mia’ has a bigger purpose than profit: it is part of a much larger drive towards a new Chinese creativity. The article will explain why Chinese version of ‘Mamma Mia!’ made such a great achievements in China, and examine what Mamma Mia! 's success means for Chinese theatre, including the copyrights introductions, marketing strategies, and management modes. Then it will seek ways of creation and survival of Chinese musicals and give some inspirations for them.

Introduction ‘Mamma Mia!’ is the first musical that was purchased from western country and was translated into Mandarin in China. It made a huge success. Also, it is a breakthrough for Chinese musicals and made considerable significances. But before that, musicals in China actually almost have failed. According to Zipeng Ren writes in the Chinese Musicals Survey that in 2011, there were 285 musical performances in Beijing, but the number of audiences is less than 30 million. That means that compared to the total number of performances in Beijing is 13,470,000, the musicals only accounted for 2%. The drawbacks are evident. First, the story is not moving which is unable to attract Chinese audiences. Hui Lu criticizes in the Survival and Development of Chinese Musical that the level of Chinese musicals is not high enough to meet the requirements. The second reason is the inexperienced business operations. Marketing and operation of a musical is indispensable. Third, because of the immature market, Chinese musicals lack professional actors and creative directors. However, everything is changing really rapidly in China, including musicals



References: Kirsty Lang.(2013).The Guardian. Mamma Mia in Mandarin. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/apr/01/mamma-mia-china-british-soft-power Nick Clark. (2012). Mamma Mia! in Mandarin heralds theatre 's cultural revolution in China. The Independent. Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/news/mamma-mia-in-mandarin-heralds-theatres-cultural-revolution-in-china-8329376.html Anita Xu, Debbie Young.(2011) Nancy Pellegrini. (2013). The success of Mamma Mia!. Time Out Shanghai. Retrieved from http://www.timeoutshanghai.com/features/Performing_Arts-Theatre/13343/The-success-of-Mamma-Mia.html Patti Waldmeir. (2011). China’s Mandarin Mamma Mia. FT magazine. Retrieved from http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/0b05d818-de75-11e0-a2c0-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2mO3QVINi Getty. Chinese Version Of Hit Musical 'Mamma Mia! ' In Shanghai. (2011). Huffpost Arts & Culture. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/11/chinese-version-of-hit-mu_n_891808.html Justin Bergman.(2011). Will a Mandarin Mamma Mia! Be Lost in Translation? Time. Jinghua Mao. (2013). Reflections on Chinese musical localization issue: the Take Chinese version of "Mamma Mia" as an example. The Cultural Industry Institute of Beijing University.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Lion King Paper FInal

    • 2055 Words
    • 2 Pages

    What musical theatre does best is to be abstract, not literal reality. Julie Taymor director…

    • 2055 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    By the early 1930’s, the theater and film capital of the United States was separated across the continent. In the Great Depression, artists had to make a choice: stay in New York, where the winters were harsh, and business was sparse, or move to Hollywood; sunny year round, and business and money was everywhere. Which would you choose? It is, of course, a trick question. Movie studios quickly tired to add musicals after The Jazz Singer in 1927, however they lacked the technology to actually make one; the sound was awful and camera movement was minimal. But in 1933, with the production of 42nd Street, Warner Brothers was finally competitive with the Broadway counterparts. Soon after more studios were making their own musicals, such as Paramount, MGM, and RKO.…

    • 508 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The graphic novel American Born Chinese (2006), by Gene Luen Yang, is a very modern and influential piece of work that can be compared to the short indie film Two Lies (1990), directed and written by Pamela Tom, which had preceded the novel by 16 years. These two different forms of work, both utilizing their ability to teach the audience, are used as powerful venues for the topic of identity crisis among the Asian people in a majority European American world. In the film, we have Mei and her family who are all having some trouble adjusting to their lives in Southern California but more specifically we have Mei and her trouble to understand her mother 's cause and intent for having undergone double eye-lid surgery. In ABC, we have our protagonist, Jin, who is having trouble fitting into his new school in San Francisco since he is one of the very few Asian admitted to the school. Another time line in the novel is the story of the monkey king who does anything to get rid of the fact that he is a monkey in order to fit into society. The third is the story of Danny, a European American who has trouble and often becomes embarrassed with his hyperbolic Chinese cousin, Chin-Kee. This character is first introduced by saying "Harro Amellica!" while Jin 's father, carrying giant Chinese take out container says "I 'll put your luggage into your room, Chin-Kee" (48). All three of these time line show our characters having some sort of shame or embarrassment to the fact that their own image or background is different from those around them.…

    • 2458 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Bibliography: "Les Misérables" Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Ed. Colin Larkin. © Muze Inc and Oxford University Press, Inc. 2009. Encyclopedia of Popular Music: (e-reference edition). Oxford University Press. . 23 April 2010 http://www.oxford-theatreandperformance.com/entry?entry=t270.e38378…

    • 670 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In the years before Oklahoma! was created, Broadway was dying. New and refreshing musicals were a rare occasion and when an artist tried to create something that he hoped his audience would like, he was sadly disappointed. Broadway was suffering from a lack of what it was revered for: astounding plays and musicals. Its time of glamour and glitz was almost forgotten, and was in need of being saved. That is why Oklahoma! is considered a rebirth of the American musical theatre at the time. It brought Broadway back to life, filling theatre seats with enthusiastic audiences who embraced the changes of this new theatre musical with open arms and made it a legend. Oklahoma! set new standards for classic American theatre by introducing new techniques of presenting the musical to the audience, introducing a new genre of music into the theatre, and strayed away from the usual classic form and structure of a musical that audiences had grown used to. It was a time of change, a time of excitement, and a time of setting standards for the future.…

    • 2881 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    merry widow

    • 643 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Classic American film musical conventions and structure are paramount to the development and defining of…

    • 643 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Mo Tzu

    • 1983 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Mo Tzu’s Against Music is not against Music: How Mo Tzu critiques early Chinese Class based society in their Musical Practices…

    • 1983 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    * Dong, Lan. “Writing Chinese America into Words and Images: Storytelling and Retelling of the Song of Mu Lan.” Lion and the Unicorn 30.2 (2006): 218-33. Web. 3 May 2011. <http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/uni/summary/v030/30.2dong.html>.…

    • 1841 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    If you want to travel in Beijing, I think Peking Opera is a don’t-miss show for you. Different from other operas, like Italian Opera, Peking Opera is a form of traditional Chinese theatre which combines music, vocal performance, mime dance and acrobatics. It arose in the late 18th century and became fully developed and recognized by the mid-19th century. Nowadays, Peking Opera has become the quintessence of Chinese culture. Today I am going to inform you of this great treasure from three aspects: roles, facial makeup and schools.…

    • 608 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    This paper argues that the Cuiqiao’s character is actually a figment of Gu Qing’s imagination. The Chinese Communist Party assigned Gu Qing to find folk songs to raise the morale of his fellow comrades. However, from a 21st century perspective, it is evident that communism bought about problems in China and the director, Chen Kaige wanted to subtly address these issues using the lyrics sung by the character, Cuiqiao. Cuiqiao is the perfect embodiment of how the Communist Party wanted to introduce communism – alluring, melodic, and welcoming. However, China suffered from internal struggles because the party’s ideality of communism was different from the reality of communism. Due to these two differences, there were opposing views on how the…

    • 2307 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Musicals like “The Phantom of the Opera” were really popular amongst the audience and the musical currently has the most number of performances amongst all of the Broadway musicals which shows how favored The Phantom of the Opera is until this day. Another thing that occurred in this era was that film and book adaptations were beginning to be more common. In the 1990’s, Broadway and the Walt Disney Company made an alliance to adapt and recreate films Disney created to musicals and the “Lion King” stood out the most out of all the adaptations. The Lion King, directed by Julie Tamor is the 4th longest running musical and it is the highest grossing musical even beating The Phantom of the Opera. Other musicals adapted from the Disney movies include “Beauty and the Best, Aladdin, Marry Poppins etc. To attract the younger audiences, a musical called Rent was produced which got a lot of popularity and success from the younger audiences, which lead to interesting and unusual musicals. The development of Broadway musicals was incredible in the 20th century as people were able to gain a lot of entertainment and excitement from new genres and adaptations from musicals which is why the 20th century was the golden era of musicals.…

    • 837 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Webber later wrote the all-famous Phantom of the Opera during this period, beating out the Cats record. As Webber’s best known and highly recognized musical, Phantom has been viewed by over 140 million people, played in 35 countries, performed in 166 cities worldwide, and earned an estimated $6 billion, with box office revenues higher than any film or stage play in history. It has been released in 15 different languages, won over 70 awards, sold over 40 million copies of albums, and was on July 7, 2014, hit its 11,000th show on Broadway.1 One can easily tell that Phantom was big…

    • 1335 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    American Musical Theater is something most Americans enjoy today, musicals such as West Side Story, Sweeney Todd, Jersey Boys, Wicked and Into the Woods. These are all some examples that have made it big in today’s society. These musicals didn’t appear out of nowhere though and neither did American Musical Theater, nor was the theater the same when it started as it is today. The American Musical Theater has evolved from its simple beginnings into it’s own genre in today's society through the help of diverse composers, writers and actors, along with cultural contributions.…

    • 1821 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    It was 1899 in Paris, France, it was the time of the Bohemian Revolution, and it was the summer of love. Christian, played by Ewan McGregor, was a writer and came to Paris to experience this revolution and be surrounded by the artists, singers, and dancers of this new Bohemian world. Little did he know that he would experience something he had never felt before but always believed in: love. Moulin Rouge, directed by Baz Luhrmann, is an exquisite movie musical based off of a real life cabaret called Moulin Rouge in Montmartre. The movie tells the story of the love triangle between Christian, Satine aka the “Sparkling Diamond” of the Moulin Rouge, played by Nicole Kidman, and The Duke. Although Christian and Satine are fictional characters, the story includes real life characters such as Harold Zidler, the co-mastermind of the Moulin Rouge and Toulouse-Lautrec, a famous French artist. Moulin Rouge is a great look into what life was like back in Paris in 1900, but also adds in the love story between Christian and Satine to make for a great movie musical.…

    • 1977 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    In the last century, two musicals have stood out from there comic counterparts. Les Misérables and West Side Story tell more serious stories and have captivated audiences with revivals and film versions. Both are based on classic literature, and share universal and relatable social problems. West Side Story created by Lenard Bernstein, Steven Sondheim, Arthur Laurents, and Jerome Robbins tell the story of Romeo and Juliet in 1950s New York. Les Misérables by Composer Claude-Michael Schonberg and lyricist Alain Boublil is based on Victor Hugo’s novel of the same title. The atypical nature of both the musicals that has made them more than just a temporary cultural fad. Initially both musical were not received well and did not receive that same…

    • 1404 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays