迪士尼的魔法 在中國依舊有效

LOS ANGELES — Disney theme parks have always been about trading an imperfect world for a perfect one. There is no trash blowing down Main Street, U.S.A. It’s nothing but happy trappers and singing bears over in Frontierland. Dream big, and the gleaming technology of Tomorrowland just might come true.

洛杉磯——迪士尼主題公園一直致力於把不完美的世界置換成完美世界。“美國小鎮大街”(Main Street, U.S.A.)上看不到垃圾。“西部拓荒世界”(Frontierland)裏只有幸福的獵人和唱歌的熊。立下遠大志向，“明日世界”(Tomorrowland)中熠熠生輝的技術就有可能變成現實。

In case the castles are too subtle, Disney outright promises escape from the real world. The welcome signs at Disneyland in California and Walt Disney World in Florida quote Walt Disney’s words from 1955, “Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy.”

唯恐自己建的城堡太過含蓄，迪士尼乾脆公開承諾要帶人逃離真實世界。加州迪士尼樂園和佛羅里達州華特·迪士尼世界的歡迎標語源自迪士尼本人1955年的一句話，“在這裏你將離開現實的今日，進入一個昨日、明日和夢想的世界。”

Lately, however, it has become harder for Americans planning a Disney vacation to buy into the company’s utopian theme park concept. The horrific mass shooting at a nightclub in Orlando, Fla., cast a shadow on nearby tourist destinations, including Disney World. Then word leaked that the gunman had also scoped out a Disney shopping complex. Next came an incident that was shocking enough to kick the nightclub carnage off some front pages: A toddler was dragged by an alligator into a Disney World lake and drowned.

然而，最近一段時間，越來越難以動員美國人去規劃自己的迪士尼假期，爲該公司帶有烏托邦色彩的主題公園概念埋單。佛羅里達州奧蘭多一家夜店發生的大規模槍擊事件，給附近包括迪士尼世界在內的旅遊目的地蒙上了一層陰影。後來有消息稱，槍手也曾到一家迪士尼購物中心踩點。接着就發生了驚人程度足以把夜店裏的血腥屠殺擠下報紙頭版的事故：一個孩子在被鱷魚拖入迪士尼世界的湖中後溺亡。

“Is Disney’s Image Tarnished?” a headline on an investment website asked on Monday, with the alligator attack — the first such accident in Disney’s 45-year history in Florida — as a particular source of concern. The funeral for Lane Graves, the 2-year-old victim, was held Tuesday in Nebraska.

“迪士尼的形象黯然失色了嗎？”一家投資網站在週一的一篇文章的標題中如此發問。這種憂慮主要源於鱷魚襲人事件——佛羅里達州迪士尼樂園開業45年以來，還是第一次發生這樣的事情。遇害者是2歲的萊恩·格雷夫斯(Lane Graves)，其葬禮於週二在內布拉斯加州舉行。

Whether last week’s events reverberate for Disney in a business sense (beyond a possible lawsuit stemming from the alligator attack) is a question that will only be fully answered in the months to come, peak season for theme park vacations. If families cancel reservations or the pace of reservations noticeably slows, then the answer is yes. If they do not — as most analysts predict — then Disney will power forward, recovering from this spate of bad publicity as it has from others.

上週的事件是否會給迪士尼造成揮之不去的商業影響（除了鱷魚襲人事件可能引發官司之外）？這個問題的確切答案得在未來幾個月尋找，那是遊客前往主題公園度假的高峯期。如果許多家庭取消了預訂，或者放慢了預訂步伐，那麼答案就是肯定的。如果像大多數分析人士預測的那樣，他們並未這麼做，那麼迪士尼就會勇往直前，從這一連串負面新聞造成的危機中恢復過來，就像擺脫其他負面新聞的影響一樣。

The company’s stock price is already improving, climbing about 3 percent since Thursday, when authorities discovered Lane Graves’s body. Blockbuster results for “Finding Dory” at the box office helped, as did the opening of Shanghai Disneyland.

公司的股票價格已經有所回升，自上週三當局發現萊恩·格雷夫斯的屍體以來共上漲了3%左右。《多莉去哪兒》(Finding Dory)票房大賣和上海迪士尼度假區開業都對股價回升起到了促進作用。

Theme parks, zoos and other tourist destinations have survived tragedies before. One-time incidents tend not to undermine well-run businesses, and Disney parks are definitely thriving.

以前，主題公園、動物園及其他一些旅遊目的地，都有過在悲劇發生後挺過來的先例。一次性事件不大可能破壞經營狀況良好的企業的根基，而迪士尼樂園無疑正在蓬勃發展。

But even without recent events, Disney was having to work harder to pull off its “not a worry in the world” magic trick. Record crowds have made the experience less joyful. So has technology: Never mind their cynical parents, American children, babysat by iPad from the time they were in diapers, are not as easily mesmerized by analog rides like It’s a Small World and Autopia, with its little cars putt-putting along a track.

不過，即便近來的事件並未發生，迪士尼也必須更加努力，才能施展它那“令人無憂無慮”的魔法。破紀錄的客流量讓遊客的體驗變得不那麼愉快了。科技也帶來了同樣的影響：先不說吹毛求疵的家長，美國的小孩還裹着尿不溼的時候就與iPad爲伴，他們可不那麼容易對“小小世界”(It’s a Small World)、“馳車天地”(Autopia)——可以讓人駕駛小車在軌道上走走停停——之類的模擬類遊樂設施着迷。

More aggressive safety procedures have become a fixture of modern life; metal detectors are now routine at baseball stadiums, concert arenas and even some movie theaters. In response to increased security concerns, Disney, Universal and SeaWorld began using metal detectors in December, the first time the companies deployed such measures on a large scale.

更加激進的安檢程序逐漸成爲現代生活的標配；如今，在棒球場內、舉辦演唱會的場館中，甚至一些電影院裏，金屬探測器都是常規設備。由於人們對安全日益擔憂，迪士尼、環球影城(Universal)和海洋世界(SeaWorld)從去年12月開始使用金屬探測器。這是三家企業首次大規模推行類似舉措。

But these measures, while appreciated by most tourists who might feel less safe without them, work against Disney’s singular efforts to create what it advertises as “the Happiest Place on Earth.” It’s awfully hard to forget the real world when you’re being wanded.

這些舉措雖然受到離了它們可能就會感到不安的大多數遊客的歡迎，卻和迪士尼打造它在廣告中宣揚的“地球上最快樂之處”的特殊努力背道而馳。當你接受安檢的時候，絕對難以忘記現實世界。

Shanghai Disneyland, formally unveiled on Thursday, also has rows of metal detectors at its graceful front gates. But the mood at this newest Disney park — the first on the Chinese mainland — was utterly joyful last week, even as the grim news from Orlando made its way to visitors’ smartphones. Spending time in the park on four different days, three of them with paying guests, I was struck by how fully intact that classic Disney sense of wonder really seemed.

於上週四正式開業的上海迪士尼樂園，也在雅緻的大門那裏安放了一排排金屬探測器。不過，上個星期，這家新開業的中國大陸第一家迪士尼主題公園內的氛圍非常歡快，儘管遊客們的智能手機接收到了來自奧蘭多的悲慘消息。我在那裏呆了四天，其中三天是和購票入場的遊客呆在一起。令我觸動的是，經典的迪士尼式奇蹟竟然得到了如此完整的呈現。

Without question, the excitement and pomp around the opening contributed to that feeling. But something else was happening at Shanghai Disneyland. I got the sense that this was what it must have felt like at the original Disneyland in the 1950s. Visitors were very obviously awe-struck — this fantastical place, smelling of fresh paint and new vinyl seat covers, was something they had never seen before. Chinese guests, having never confronted a 9/11 or repeated mass shootings, seemed free of the baggage that many Americans now carry to public gathering places. The spell seemed easier for Disney to cast.

毫無疑問，開業帶來的興奮與盛況更容易讓人產生這種感覺。但在上海迪士尼樂園，還有別的事情正在發生。我覺得，50年代位於加州的第一家迪士尼樂園肯定也給人以這種印象。遊客顯然有大開眼界之感——這個散發着新油漆的味道和新塑料椅套味道的夢幻之地，是他們以前從未見過的。中國遊客沒有遭遇過9·11恐怖襲擊，也不曾目睹大規模槍擊事件一次又一次地發生，今天的美國人在公衆聚集之處所揹負的那種心理壓力，看上去並未對他們造成困擾。迪士尼似乎不必費那麼大力氣便能施展魔法。

Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive, alluded to this fascination as we toured Shanghai Disneyland on June 11. “I grew up in the United States dreaming of going to Disneyland one day — unaffordable for us, by the way, and I didn’t go until I was a parent,” he said. “You now have that same dynamic here in China that existed in the ’50s and ’60s in the United States, as people started looking for more leisure activities. It’s palpable.”

我們在6月11日參觀上海迪士尼樂園時，迪士尼首席執行官羅伯特·A·艾格(Robert A. Iger)提到了這種吸引力。“我是在美國長大的，小時候一直夢想着有朝一日能去迪士尼樂園看看——我們負擔不起相關費用，順便說一句，直到有了孩子，我才走進樂園，”他說。“上世紀五六十年代存在於美國的那種嚮往之情，也存在於今天的中國，恰好遇到了人們開始把目光投向更多休閒活動的時候。這一點是顯而易見的。”

In Shanghai, Disney’s rides are fully updated technological marvels — no more jerky animatronics in Pirates of the Caribbean, which is now fully digital, with boats controlled by underwater magnets and Imax-style screens with video. In another difference from Disney’s domestic parks, even rank-and-file cashiers and hotel maids seem thrilled to be there. When they waved and chirped, “Have a magical day!” they appeared to mean it, rather than just repeating a corporate mantra.

在上海，迪士尼的遊樂項目是全面更新的科技奇觀——如今“加勒比海盜”(Pirates of the Caribbean)裏不再有不流暢的機動形象，而是完全數碼化，有水下磁鐵控制的船隻，還有Imax式的超大銀幕在播放視頻。與迪士尼在美國國內的主題公園相比，這裏的另一個不同之處在於，就連普通收銀員和酒店女服務員似乎也因身處公園內而異常興奮。當他們揮着手歡快地說，“享受充滿魔力的一天！”似乎是發自內心地送出這樣的祝福，而非只是重複一句企業口號。

On an especially difficult week for Disney in the United States, Shanghai proved that the company’s pixie dust still works the same way it used to in a more innocent age. Even if you have to go to the other side of the world to find it.

這一週，迪士尼在美國的日子極其不好過，上海則證明，這家公司的魔法還像在過去那個更純真無邪的年代裏那麼有效。儘管爲此你得去往世界的另一頭。