As this UK article points out, the similarities between the Chinese Beijing Shijingshan Amusement Park and Disneyland are striking. Of course the park’s owners don’t see it that way. As the manager points out, their Cinderella looks Chinese, not European. And the castle in the middle of the park looks familiar as well.
Deputy general manager, Yin Zhiqiang, said: “The characters in our park just look a little bit similar to theirs. But the faces, clothes, sizes and appearances are different.”
“We do not have any agreements with Disney.”
Despite the striking similarities to foreign characters, Yin insisted the Beijing park’s are all locally designed.
“Take our Cinderella as an example. The face of Disney’s Cinderella face is European, but ours is a Chinese. She looks like a young Chinese country girl,” he said.
Of course, seeing is believing. Here is a great video of about 30 western characters being used at the park.
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