The Wind of China Entertainment 2005

Chapter 688: Thai Fear and Chinese Fear
Lu Yuan only stayed in Thailand for three days.

On the first day, he was invited to the TV station for a face-to-face interview with a Thai host.

In the studio, we discuss some behind-the-scenes details of the filming of "My Love from the Star" and respond to gossip circulating on the Internet.

Because of the language barrier, it was difficult for both parties to resonate with each other's sense of humor, making the entire conversation process a bit dull and awkward.

The next day, Lu Yuan held a fan meeting in Bangkok.

The meeting was scheduled for the evening, and the location was chosen with full consideration of transportation convenience and capacity.

It was eventually decided to hold the event in a large theatre in central Bangkok.

At the event, a huge LED screen played classic clips from "My Love from the Star", and the atmosphere was extremely warm.

It was not until the end of the event that Lu Yuan learned that the number of fans in attendance had exceeded five thousand.

Many fans even came from other places just to see Professor Chen in person.

In fact, five thousand people is not the limit. There are still people who haven’t bought tickets and are waiting outside.

Lu Yuan felt a little ashamed.

He is not an all-round artist who can sing and dance. He can't dance and is not good at singing. He can only greet his fans in Thai as fluently as possible, with some clumsiness.

But just these few Thai words that he quickly learned made the audience scream and burst into tears.

He deeply understands the feelings of Korean stars going to mainland China, and they feel inexplicably superior when surrounded by fans.

Fortunately, he has been famous for a long time and has long been accustomed to all kinds of big scenes and is calm and composed.

In the subsequent interactive session, Lu Yuan shared interesting stories from the drama with fans and talked about the differences between Chinese traditional culture and Thai culture.

You can feel the strong Chinese culture in Thailand.

Because the Chinese community in Thailand occupies an important position in Thai society, they have not only preserved their traditional culture, but also integrated it into Thai society.

But in Lu Yuan's opinion, this integration or combination was in a strange direction.

For example, on the day he arrived in Bangkok, the Tourism Bureau carefully selected and arranged for him to stay in a Thai-Chinese themed hotel.

The interior decoration and layout made him feel uncomfortable.

To enter the hotel lobby, one must pass through a long corridor. There is a shrine in the corner of the corridor entrance, with a tablet, incense, candles, and fruit offerings on the shrine. The lighting in the corridor is warm yellow and a bit dim, and at the end of the corridor there is a huge portrait.

Usually it is a woman, wearing red clothes, staring at the guests in the corridor.

Although the woman is beautiful, the atmosphere is quite creepy.

The hotel's front desk is located behind the portrait and is also not very bright.

The elevator is hidden in a dark corner.

I got on the elevator and it stopped at the target floor. The corridor was deep and dark, with a waxy yellow floor. The ceiling and walls were all red, and the corridor was lit with dark yellow palace lanterns.

After swiping the card to enter the room, there are a lot more lights, but there are always some blind spots, which makes it not feel bright.

Let’s not talk about the washroom and bathroom for now.

The cloakroom consists of two large red wardrobes. At first glance, they look like upright coffins, with a red paper lantern hanging in front of them.

They are all traditional Chinese elements, yes, but they are inexplicably eerie, and give off a horror movie vibe.

When Lu Yuan went to bed at night, he always felt that there was a pair of bloodshot eyes in the closet, watching him from behind. In the middle of the night, with a "swish", a pair of bloody hands pushed open the closet door, moved slowly on the ground, and then slowly crawled in from under the quilt at the end of the bed.

No wonder Thai horror films have been gaining momentum in recent years and have been a big hit in Southeast Asia.

Perhaps it is precisely because of this unique creativity and atmosphere that is deeply rooted in the cultural bloodline.

On the third day, Lu Yuan hosted a booth for vivo’s newly opened store in Bangkok.

Afterwards, together with Xu Weifeng and Lu Jing, he negotiated with members of the Thaksin family on cooperation matters.

Members of the Thaksin family represent AIS, Thailand's largest telecom operator, in which the Thaksin family controls the majority of shares.

This is a behemoth, and PPS is puny in comparison.

Cooperating with such an industry giant, especially when the other party has a strong background, is tantamount to seeking the skin of a tiger and is extremely risky.

But high risk often means high returns.

To this end, Xu Weifeng specially invited China Mobile, the "big brother", to provide support.

In recent years, China Unicom and China Mobile have both wanted to use the Thai market as a springboard to expand into Southeast Asia, and have contacted AIS in hopes of purchasing a certain number of shares.

Lu Yuan was not sure how the negotiations between the two parties were progressing.

But finally, with the witness of China Mobile, PPS and AIS reached a strategic cooperation.

The specific contents of the cooperation include: PPS will rely on its mature R&D capabilities, data storage and computing capabilities, and advanced video technology to jointly develop the streaming media platform SAP with AIS.

Among them, PPS will use some content and technology as the conditions for investment and occupy 43% of the shares.

AIS, with its strong user base and data support, holds a 52% stake and is responsible for providing Thai users with convenient VIP membership service activation channels, as well as providing content copyrights and local marketing power for Thai film and television dramas.

The remaining 5% of the shares were acquired by China Mobile.

The contract also specifically stipulates that if SAP's development is hindered due to changes in Thailand's political arena, PPS has the right to purchase all of AIS's shares at a low price.

This is a backup plan. If Yingluck steps down one day, PPS may be able to take advantage of it.

Of course, this contract also imposes a lot of strict restrictions on PPS.

For Lu Yuan, the SAP project is more like a pilot project in the Southeast Asian market, accumulating experience for PPS's future internationalization.

After all, at present, PPS does not have much energy to develop business in Southeast Asia, and the mainland market is still in a chaotic stage.

Later on, the next step will be taken after the love-hate relationship between PPS and platforms such as iQiyi and Tencent comes to an end.

In addition, Lu Jing also took advantage of this cooperation opportunity with AIS to purchase the copyrights of a large number of Thai horror films at a relatively low price.

Data shows that horror movies are effective in attracting new users.

Thai horror films and Korean romance films are both among the best in Southeast Asia.

If PPS wants to develop long-term, it must have cooperating film and television companies in both countries to provide content for the platform.

Taking this opportunity, Lu Jing signed cooperation agreements with several Thai film and television companies that specialize in producing horror films.

This idea didn't come out of the blue.

After filming "Soul Ferry", Li Guang developed a keen interest in horror films.

Bought the copyrights of several horror novels on Qidian and other platforms, such as "The Years I Was a Yin-Yang Master" and "Miaojiang Gu Shi".
These are some of the most popular supernatural horror novels currently.

On this basis, we worked with the company's screenwriter team to polish out several scripts.

These scripts were not intended to be shown in theaters or on television, but were originally planned to be broadcast on PPS in the form of online movies and web dramas.

At the same time, we also considered that if the domestic policy on streaming media suddenly tightens one day and horror films fail to pass the review, we would move to Thailand for filming and release them in Southeast Asia.

In fact, this trick will not work at all. Unless Li Gen no longer works in the domestic entertainment industry, he will not be able to escape the ban.

This will only work if the director is not a Chinese citizen, such as Chen Kexin, whose films "Seeing a Ghost" series and "Three Watches" series were big hits in Southeast Asia.

If a Chinese director dares to do this, he is courting death. This is the same as why the sixth generation directors were banned back then.

Therefore, cooperation with local Thai film and television companies becomes a more feasible option.

PPS provides the subject matter, and the other party provides the production team. As for the director, a pseudonym can be used.

(End of this chapter)