CHINA DAILY USA Friday-Sunday, October 14-16, 2016

7SHANGHAIENTERTAINMENT

CULTURECOMPANY

China to have its own Broadway theaterBy ZHANG KUN in Shanghaizhangkun@chinadaily.com.cn

Chinese fans of Broadway musicals will in the near future no longer have to brave the long fl ight to New York as Shanghai will be getting its very own theater dedicated to such performances.

Located along the northern Bund area in the city’s Hongk-ou district, the SIIC (Shanghai Industrial Investment) Center Theater will be part of a new development by the State-owned and Hong Kong-listed SIIC that also includes office buildings and malls. The the-ater is scheduled for comple-tion in 2021.

The ground-breaking cere-mony for the project took place at Hotel Peninsula on Sept 27, alongside the offi cial establish-ment of a new joint venture: the SIIC Nederlander Culture Development Co. Ltd, which will be the owner and manager of the new theater.

“This will be Shanghai’s fi rst authentic Broadway the-ater,” said Bob Nederlander, president of Nederlander Worldwide Entertainment, one of the world’s largest theater owners and musical producers.

According to Nederlander,

who hails from the third gen-eration of the entertainment company, China has proven to be a very dynamic market for musicals and the new joint venture will continue to strive to bring quality productions from China to the world and vice versa.

Nederlander Worldwide Entertainment currently runs the top three box offi ce

theaters on Broadway and its productions have won pres-tigious accolades such as the Tony and Grammy Awards.

“We at Nederlander wel-come Shanghai’s newest the-ater to the pantheon of great Broadway theaters, which will strengthen the connection between the cultural industries of Broadway and Shanghai,” said Nederlander.

The new 2,000-seat theater will be designed by Paul West-lake and Tom Gallagher from Westlake Reed Leskosky, an architecture fi rm well known for their theater designs.

According to Nederlander, the company is committed to providing the best in audience development, customer ser-vice and operations, factors it has identifi ed as necessary for

a good and complete theater experience for audiences.

“Those of us in the industry know that what is being per-formed onstage is just a tiny fraction of the work necessary to achieve both commercial and cultural success,” said Nederlander.

“Nederlander shall bring our 104 years of refi ned Broadway management expertise to off er

Shanghai and visiting audi-ences an authentic Broadway experience.”

One of the fi rst off erings by this new joint venture will be a China national tour for the Broadway musical The Produc-ers. Adapted from a Mel Brooks’ film of the same name, the original production premiered in 2001 and had won 12 Tony awards.

According to Xu Junying, vice president of SIIC Neder-lander Culture Development, the new SIIC Center Theater will have an artist-in-residence plan as the theater regards education as an important part of its business. She also added that China’s musical industry has been faced with a short-age of talents and profession-als, and that this initiative will benefi t the performance arts community.

American composer and musical producer Frank Wild-horn was named as the fi rst artist in residence. Known for his musical creation Jekyll & Hyde, Wildhorn has worked extensively in Asia in the past decade, with one of his most notable achievements being the creation of a successful musical adaptation of the popular manga series Death Note in Japan.

Offi cials from SIIC and Nederlander attend the groundbreaking ceremony for China's fi rst Broadway theater. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

Briefl y

Most families in cityconsidered well-off

According to Engel’s Coef-fi cient law, as much as 84.2 percent of Shanghai fami-lies have hit or are above the “well-off ” standard, with their expenditures on food accounting for less than half of their income, according to a survey conducted by the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. The survey also found out that more than half (55.9 percent) of the city’s individuals receive a per capita income of between 51,000 ($7,591) and 100,000 yuan, with the annual household income of 61.5 percent of local fami-lies ranging from 100,000 to 200,000 yuan.

Shanghai Electric mayacquire Fiat’s Comau

A number of Chinese enterprises including Shanghai Electric have approached Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) with a bid to buy its Comau robot-ics business, according to Reuters. Chinese conglom-erate Sinomach and Shang-hai Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering (Simee) have also contacted the FCA regarding a possi-ble buyout. Comau is Fiat’s second-largest components business and its adjusted operating profi t was 72 mil-lion euros ($80 million) last year. The potential acquisi-tion comes amid the recent trend of Chinese enterprises taking over overseas compa-nies. It was reported earlier this year that Midea Group Co became the largest share-holder of Kuka AG after buy-ing a 25.1 percent stake in the German robot maker.

National Day travel patterns released

Latest data published by WeChat, China’s most wide-ly used mobile messaging application, revealed that the most number of people traveling across China dur-ing the recent National Day holiday came from Beijing, while Shanghainese were the most prolific in going abroad. The survey, which tracked the travel patterns of Chinese between Oct 1 and Oct 7, also found that Guang-zhou and Hong Kong were the most favored domestic destinations, while the Unit-ed States was the top over-seas destination for Chinese tourists. The most popular domestic scenic spot was the West Lake in Hangzhou where the G20 summit was held in September.

New railway station will be built in Pudong

Plans to build the new 46-hectare Shanghai East Railway Station are current-ly underway. The station will become the city’s sec-ond-largest after Hongqiao Railway Station and the fi rst in the city’s Pudong New Area, according to Eastday.com. Sun Zhang, a profes-sor from Tongji University, was quoted by ThePaper.cn saying that passengers in Shanghai stand to enjoy more convenience from this latest addition, which takes the tally to four railway sta-tions in Shanghai.

US fi rm to reshapeSuzhou Creek

Sasaki Associates, a US-based architecture fi rm, has beaten a fi eld of internation-al competitors to win the bid to redesign the Suzhou Creek, reported by Archdaily.com. Also known as Wusong River, the creek has suff ered from severe pollution over the recent decades and the new design will focus on expanding the perceived waterfront of Shanghai into the urban blocks adjacent to the creek. Sasaki has worked on several projects in Shang-hai, including the Xuhui Runway Park, Zhangjiabang Park, Jiading Central Park and the Chongming Island Xinchusha master plan.

CHINA DAILY

By ZHANG KUN in Shanghaizhangkun@chinadaily.com.cn

Shanghai will seek to regu-larly expand its list of his-torical buildings in a bid to eff ectively protect its cultural heritage, said a local conserva-tion expert.

During his speech at the Shanghai 2040 Lecture Series hosted and organized by the municipal urban planning administration, Zheng Shiling, a professor at Tongji University, said that the city had updated its list of outstanding historical buildings just once in the past 10 years.

“To improve the situation, Shanghai will establish a system where a catalogue of antique architectures is regu-larly expanded and eligible targets for protection added,” he said.

While visitors are often impressed with the city’s high-rise buildings, Shanghai actu-ally has a lot more to off er in terms of historical architec-ture, said Zheng, who is also a member of the China Acad-emy of Science. He shared that Shanghai has about 3,000 Western-style villas and many streets and communities that feature distinctive architecture from the past.

“However, it will take addi-tional refurbishment and ren-ovation to bring new vitality to these old buildings and com-munities,” said Zheng.

He also stressed on the need to maintain the integ-rity of the original building during the renovation pro-cess, referring to how popu-lar tourist spot Tianzifang on Taikang Road has lost its character.

“There was insufficient attention paid to the cultural elements and the area has now become nothing more than a cluster of eateries and shops, devoid of creativity,” he said.

Shanghai has the strictest system in China when it comes to protecting its cultural heri-tage. The measures taken by the city to protect culture and heritage span from individual structures to street scenes to riverside landscapes and even networks that cover particular regions and communities.

According to the city’s urban planning, land and resources administration, Shanghai released its fi rst list of 61 out-standing historical buildings in 1989. The latest update took place in 2015 and there are currently 426 buildings, including offices, residences and vintage factory buildings, on the list.

Zheng also suggested that Shanghai should optimize

its skyline by strengthen-ing regulations for high-rise buildings. He said that the skyline still lacks a depth despite 30 years of intensive development.

“Some people have com-pared Shanghai’s urban growth to mushrooms, while others say it is akin to bam-boo sprouts,” he said, pointing out the lack of planning of the city’s building development.

Zheng added that the authorities need to establish different measurements for space administration in the diff erent areas within the city in order to refl ect the unique character of Shanghai.

With regard to new and ongoing developments, Zheng said that a 21-kilo-meter pedestrian street is being built on the east bank of the Huangpu River while the public square in front of the Xujiahui Catholic Church is being refurbished. In addition, several parks in Shanghai’s suburbs are being constructed.

“By 2040, the city will have more public spaces, such as pedestrian streets, public lava-tories, café and outdoor leisure facilities,” said Zheng.

“However, in comparison with other metropolis such as London, New York and Tokyo, Shanghai has less cultural facilities such as universities, museums, theaters and galler-ies, and we need to improve in this aspect.”

New system for heritage protection to be set up

By XU JUNQIAN in Shanghai xujunqian@chinadaily.com.cn

Purchased for 800 million yuan ($119 million) in 2014, Mary Kay’s 13-floor office building in Shanghai’s upscale Jing’an district, which has up to 27,000 square meters of space and neighbors the likes of cosmetics conglom-erates such as L’Oreal and Estee Lauder, represents the beauty company’s single larg-est investment in China.

To Paul Mak, the company’s China CEO, it is a worthwhile investment that will boost Mary Kay’s efforts to drive growth and further penetrate the Chinese beauty market, now the largest in the world.

During an interview fol-lowing the ceremony to kick off the operation of the new building, Mak revealed that the sales from third tier or low-er cities and towns last year had contributed to more than 70 percent of the company’s total. The company is bullish that this trend will continue, helping maintain Mary Kay’s double-digit growth in China.

While the company does not disclose its revenue in China, it had mentioned before that as of 2013, its sales in China had

grown by 75 times since 1995 when it debuted in the market.

In 2014, China had for the fi rst time surpassed the Dallas-based company’s home market as its largest and “most impor-tant market”, said the com-pany’s global CEO David Holl.

The same year, at a time when many real estate companies in China were selling properties to lighten their assets, Mary Kay became the first foreign cosmetics company to invest in China’s volatile property mar-ket with the acquisition of its offi ce building.

The move has been con-sidered a bold one, especially since Mary Kay’s competi-tors had been pulling out of the market. Revlon, the fi rst foreign cosmetics brand to enter China in 1976, had ear-lier that year announced its exit from the Chinese market, citing underperformance. Just one week later, L’Oreal pulled its Garnier brand out of China, claiming that the move would help the group better focus on the growth of its other brands.

Mak said that the acquisition of the offi ce building does not represent an investment in the property sector, but is rather a testament to the company’s

confi dence in China’s cosmet-ics market, or more specifi cally, its direct sales market.

Statistics from the Chinese Academy of Direct Selling Management showed that by 2015, direct sales had become a 200-billion-yuan industry, with skincare and health sup-plements being the two pillar products. The industry size is projected to double over the next decade.

China’s direct selling mar-ket is a small one that is domi-nated by the big players. As of 2015, the market had fewer than 80 companies, a result of the government regulations introduced in 2005 to clamp down on the misleading and manipulative sales tactics by many companies. Ever since, only licensed businesses were allowed to engage in direct sales of their products.

“One of our key strategies is to keep our roots in big Chi-nese cities, including Shanghai and Beijing, while expanding our presence and enhancing our service level in lower-tiered cities,” said Mak, who leads an all-female sales team of more than one million.

“Our biggest advantage is the people. They help us to rap-idly penetrate the lower-tiered cities with our products with-out shopping malls or sales counters, which is crucial in a large and segmented market like China,” he added.

Mary Kay has also cho-sen to stay clear of both the online and offl ine markets in China, a strategy which Mak said is aimed at channeling the focus to its salespeople. This emphasis on the human element can be seen at Mary Kay’s showroom in Shang-hai — the brand’s only one in China — where a sales agent has to be involved every time a customer requests to test or buy a product.

Looking ahead, Mak revealed that the company is eyeing a piece of the health supplements market and plans to launch its fi rst product in that category in the coming years.

“To be in the health industry, I am pushing myself and my staff to stay healthy. Personally, I have lost 15 kilograms over the past two years,” said Mak.

“Everyone is talking about having a healthy lifestyle these days, but there still is a huge head room about how to keep healthy in the country,” he added.

In for the long haul

Experts say that Shanghai's skyline still lacks depth despite decades of development. GAO ERQIANG / CHINA

DAILY

Mary Kay China CEO Paul Mak. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

426buildings

in Shanghai are on the protec-tion list