ABSTRACT
In 2004, Michael Eisner, then CEO of the Walt Disney Company, described Disney's sponsorship of the first NBA games in China as “an important cultural milestone for the Chinese people.” The “magic of Disney”, he continued, would “open the doors to entirely new worlds of fantasy, imagination, and adventure” (Walt Disney Company Press Release 2004). Such a statement revealed a naïve confidence that the Chinese people would unconditionally accept the magic of Disney. Moreover, Eisner did not take into consideration Disney's long, if controversial, history in China. By 2004, the company could look back on some 70 years of efforts to permeate mainland Chinese society.
