Why is Wanda Group Working So Hard to Win Hollywood’s Favor?
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with me on LinkedIn.Barnum-Wang  By Robert Cain for China Film
Biz  September 25, 2013  I’ve seen more than my share of Chinese
movies over the years, but not one has been nearly so
entertaining as the show that Wang Jianlin and his Wanda Group
have been putting on recently for Hollywood’s benefit.  With its
$20 million investment in the Motion Picture Academy museum and
its star-studded publicity blitz for a new mega-studio complex
in the Chinese city of Qingdao, Wanda is mounting a big,
fascinating show to win favor in Hollywood.  And it’s perfectly
reasonable to ask “why?”  Now reportedly China’s richest person,
Wang has styled himself as the P.T. Barnum of his age, a
billionaire grandstander and showman who has brought panache to
an industry that—in Hollywood, anyway—has become as moribund as
a funeral parlor. Like the great 19th century circus master who
preceded him, Wang has se