Spot the "Disney"

Disneyfication refers to the transformation of historical site, local customs etc into trivial entertainmennt for tourists. 

One of which i have spotted woulc be Suoi Tien Theme Park located at Ho Chi Minh City. It is a cultural theme park and also known as one of the top 10 most exotic theme park in the world. Being a cultural theme park, it features cultural theme of Buddhism as well as Vietnam's four sacred animals, the dragon, unicorn, tortoise and phoenix, areas of the park have been designated for the different animals and zones. Eg: Giant dragon underground aquarium, Unicorn palace and garden.

The theme park has a fairy tale theme which is suitable for it to be located at the Suoi Tien area, as this is a place that gathers sacred legends and is the home of Fairy stream where fairies can be spotted.

All the names of the attractions and restaurants are given a name complementing the theme like the entrance named as fairyland gate, the thousand trees and hundred fruit gate open air restaurant which has a Buddhist cultural meaning behind. The parades, mascots are also according to the cultural theme, such as Golden Monkey (孙悟空) & Dragons. These satisfied the first dimension of Disneyization- theming.

This unique theme park only supports attractions for entertainment and leisure, they also have food and beverages services, as well as accommodation such as open air camping. They also supports educational programs such as one of its attraction is animal conservation, as well as study of plants like the many gardens and nature areas preserved and they caters to the needs of learning more about the culture, animals and plants. Last but not least festivals such as fruit festivals are held and celebrated in the park, as well as events like private weddings are held. This is a place with hybrid consumption where they do not just cater to one form of consumptions, but to many different kinds and are still evolving and being introduced into the theme park concept. 

Lastly, the theme park also covers the dimension merchandising. It has a retail shop for people to bring back a tangible item of their experience such as souvenirs and mugs, shirts as well as stationaries printed with Suoi TIen theme park logo. These goods are specially produced under the license of the company and mass produced for sale, but not anywhere else outside its territory. Four sacred animals look-alike goods are also being produced to match the theme of the park and tangible for the fond memories spent there.

Certainly those mascots in performances and parades are not real dragons, superpower monkeys or fairy god mothers in your fairyland. They are just part of the performative labor for the audience, they are only humans like you and me. But they are indeed part of the front line service crew whereby they have to put up a staged front for the audience like pretending to be the holy pig saint by wearing its yellow robe and putting on a pig nose. They are deliberately staging a mood, in Suoi Tien Theme Park case, the festive mood, with all the traditional cultural dances and holy statues people looked up or prayed to during festivals.

 

This can be a big question mark to the authenticity of such performances, yet it can be preserving its culture and tradition in some way by tangibilizing them so that they will not be lost over time and sharing its culture to more people. It also supports the comfortability of the guests which sometimes will appreciate staged fronts more than the wild, authentic change that they cannot adapt to.