Chinese Entertainment: Starting from 1996

Chapter 488 Jiahe th Anniversary Dinner
Just when "Let the Bullets Fly" was released and reaping huge box office revenue, an entertainment event also took place in the circle.

On February 28th, Golden Harvest Group grandly held a Golden Harvest 40th Anniversary Dinner and Charity Conference.

After Shaw Brothers ceased production, leaving aside those state-owned film studios, Golden Harvest can be said to be the longest-established film and television company and the most glorious film and television group.

From the establishment of Wrinkle Huai in 1970, to its listing in the s, to its complete decline after the new century, and finally to its acquisition by Liu Zhou, Golden Harvest became even more glorious.

Along the way, Golden Harvest has witnessed the rise and fall of Hong Kong films and will soon witness the prosperity of Chinese-language films.

Compared with other private film and television companies, Golden Harvest is far ahead in terms of historical heritage and corporate strength.

Although the Golden Harvest brand has been established and is even becoming more and more popular, the audiences grow up in batches, and Liu Zhou feels it is necessary to let the new audiences know about Golden Harvest.

After all, even in later generations, there are still people who think that Jay Chou is not popular.

If you don’t promote it, the new generation may not know about Golden Harvest.

So taking advantage of the opportunity of the 40th anniversary of Jiahe’s establishment, Liu Zhou also prepared to organize a grand event.

Moreover, at a time when the average lifespan of a company is less than two years, Golden Harvest’s 40-year history is indeed worth celebrating.

That’s why this Jiahe commemorative dinner was held.

In order to prepare for this dinner, Jiahe Group has started preparations since the beginning of this year.

The most important one is the guests who need to be invited. If such an entertainment event does not have a large number of big stars attending, it cannot be called a grand event.

However, with Golden Harvest's current influence, as long as there is no deep hatred, people will generally give face and attend if invited.

In order to ensure that those popular stars can make time, Golden Harvest Group starts inviting them half a year in advance.

Therefore, the excitement of this commemorative dinner was no less than that of the first Academy Awards ceremony after the reform.

At that Academy Awards ceremony, Liu Zhou, official departments in the mainland, and several giant film and television companies in Hong Kong worked together to invite almost all of the popular stars of the time.

The sensation it caused at the time is still talked about by some media and netizens even now.

The star lineup of this Golden Harvest dinner is equally impressive, and even better. After all, over the past few years, many people have emerged in the circle.

People like Qin Hao, Huang Xiaoming, Fan Xiaopang, etc., although they were somewhat famous at that time, they were still young and not as good as those veteran superstars.

But now, even those Hong Kong superstars may only be better than them in terms of seniority, but they may not be better than them in terms of fame and influence.

Of course, they are just a few of the more representative ones. In recent years, many popular male and female artists have emerged in the mainland, and they will be the protagonists of the entertainment industry in the future.

On the afternoon of the 28th, at the entrance of Sina Building, a red carpet nearly 150 meters long was laid from the entrance to the side of the road.

Sina Building is the building built and operated by Zhoushan Asset Management Company under Liu Zhou next to Liangma River in the embassy district.

Liu Zhou initially fell out with Ideal Group, the owner of Ideal International Building, where Sina's headquarters was located at the time, because of the acquisition of Sina.

In addition, as Jiahe grew larger, the factory and small building that Liu Zhou had purchased in the 798 Art District became a bit crowded.

So Liu Zhou decided to build a building himself and move his own companies such as Sina Group, Jiahe Group and Zhoushan Literature into it. It just so happened that they all had this need, and it would also make it convenient for him to handle the affairs of these companies.

Finally, they bought a piece of land next to the Liangma River in the Third Ring Road Embassy District and built a 120-meter-high, 28-story headquarters building.

However, although this building is named Sina Building, the ownership does not belong to Sina Group.

This building belongs to Liu Zhou personally.

In order to more conveniently manage his fixed assets, Liu Zhou established Zhoushan Asset Management Company.

Then the Zhoushan Repertory Theatre headquarters in 798 Art District, the old villa in Yan Family Garden in Shanghai, and some of the family's own properties in Guangzhou were placed in the Zhoushan Asset Management Company.

This company can be regarded as a guarantee that Liu Zhou provides to his family. Even if Sina and Jiahe both fail, the quality of life of him and his family will not be affected.

Later, when the headquarters building was to be built, Liu Zhou also purchased the land in the name of Zhoushan Asset Management Company and then hired someone to design and build it.

This building has no special features. It is just square, which makes the best use of the space. However, the glass curtain wall makes this square building shine.

The land for the building cost more than 100 million yuan, and the design, construction, and decoration cost nearly 500 million yuan in total.

But now, even if you spend 500 million, you may not be able to buy the land at the foot of the building.

This is the advantage of buying land early. In a few years when the domestic real estate market is at its craziest, this building within the Third Ring Road will be worth at least tens of billions.

Sina and Jiahe are both listed companies, so Zhoushan Asset Management Company has clear accounts with them.

Not only does Sina Group have to pay rent, but it also has to pay for the naming rights of the building.

Originally, Liu Zhou wanted to name it Zhoushan Building, but Zhoushan was not very famous. Compared with Jiahe Group, Sina Group had greater influence and more wealth, so he named the building Sina Building.

Although Golden Harvest has taken advantage of the rapid development of the domestic film and television industry and its market value has continued to soar after its listing, and now has a market value of nearly 100 billion yuan, there is still a big gap between it and Sina.

Sina Group has also developed rapidly in the past two years, with a market value of more than 20 billion US dollars, equivalent to more than 170 billion RMB.

Sina is currently the largest Internet company in China after Penguin, Ali and Baidu.

In addition to the front desk, the first floor of the building also houses the exhibition halls of Sina and Golden Harvest. However, as an emerging Internet company, Sina does not have much to display, so it mainly showcases Golden Harvest’s history and honors.

On the second floor, there are several auditoriums of different sizes and a large banquet hall.

The auditorium is mainly used by the three companies for events or small and medium-sized press conferences, while the grand banquet hall is also used by the company for large events and press conferences.

This year's Jiahe Memorial Dinner was held in the grand banquet hall on the second floor, and the two adjacent auditoriums were connected.

From the third floor up are the office areas of the three companies. When Liu Zhou first started designing, he felt that the 28th floor might be too empty and that so much space would not be needed at all.

Fortunately, there were no adjustments, as so many floors would not have been needed at the time, but now the three companies have filled up the entire building.

The development plans of Jiahe and Zhoushan Literature have been roughly completed, and in the future we only need to deepen our existing business segments.

But Sina still has a lot of room for development. When the mobile Internet business develops in the future, the building will definitely not be enough.

ByteDance was a relatively late starter. When they started to develop, the land prices in Beijing were too high, and there were no suitable plots for them to build buildings. At that time, they rented several office buildings. Even if they did not rent the entire building, the combined space was definitely larger than the Sina building.

So Liu Zhou is already asking Zhoushan Asset Management Company to buy another piece of land and build another building.

This was the first time that the entrance of Sina Building was so lively. Even when the building was opened, it was not so lively.

The red carpet was lined with media reporters and surrounded by several circles of fans. For this reason, Golden Harvest had to ask the traffic police to come and maintain traffic.

Amidst the flashing lights and cheers, it took the celebrity guests more than two hours to walk the red carpet.

You should know that there were no interview sessions on the red carpet this time. After walking more than a hundred meters, you entered the building, and all the people who came were first- and second-tier artists in the circle.

After the red carpet event, some media were invited to enter the banquet hall, while others could only continue to wait at the door.

Looking at his colleagues who walked in with their heads held high and full of smugness, a photographer from the Beijing News said indignantly:
"Damn it! We are a big media outlet, and we always stand in the front row when we attend other events. But now we can't even get into the venue, and can only stand here in the cold wind."

A reporter colleague next to him sighed and said:
"Who caused the falling out between our newspaper and Liu Zhou? The lawsuit is not over yet.

They are rich and powerful and are not afraid of us, the Beijing News, at all. Our influence as the uncrowned king is of no use to them at all.

I think our newspaper can no longer hold on and will soon be defeated.”

Because of Liu Zhou's deliberate targeting, not only did the Beijing News have fewer interview opportunities in the entertainment and even Internet circles, but even the newspaper's credibility was affected.

Liu Zhou's move is not just a simple lawsuit, it can be said that it is an all-round attack on the Beijing News, and now the Beijing News can no longer afford it.

In the past, when disputes arose between them and celebrity artists, they always forced the celebrities to bow their heads and reconcile.

If you meet Liu Zhou, he is not afraid of you at all.

At this time, the media who had already entered the venue naturally did not know about the complaints of the Beijing News. Even if they knew, they would say that they deserved it.

It was well known that Liu Zhou and the Beijing News had a bad relationship before, but as media colleagues, it was also clear that they cooperated well.

But who made the Beijing News go so far as to cross the bottom line and spread rumors that Liu Zhou was not of Chinese nationality?

As such a large newspaper, it is impossible that it could not find out Liu Zhou's nationality, but they still dared to spread rumors. Either they were too proud to take Liu Zhou seriously, or they received greater benefits from others.

But no matter what the reason is, this time the Beijing News has offended Liu Zhou. This is a matter of principle.

Under the public opinion environment at that time, it could ruin a person.

Only the Beijing News would be so arrogant as to break off relations with Liu and Zhou, so they deserve to be unwelcome now. Just look at how well-off the China Youth Daily and several southern media outlets, which have always had close ties with Liu and Zhou, are doing.

After entering the banquet hall, the media didn't think much and immediately got to work.

Register according to the instructions, then go to the second floor of the banquet hall where the event is held and sit down in the media area.

Some familiar reporters greeted us, and some photographers took out their cameras and took pictures of the banquet hall stage.

It says today's activity theme -

Golden Harvest 40th Anniversary Celebration & Golden Harvest Charity Gala!

"Golden Harvest is becoming more and more awesome. A company actually organized such a grand party." A reporter exclaimed.

"Can you find a more impressive film and television company than Golden Harvest? Its market value of over 90 billion is right there. I believe it will exceed 100 billion in no time.

Who would have thought that a film and television company could have such a high market value? "

"You know what, Jiahe not only held a celebration, but also a charity gala, which is quite positive."

"Indeed, Golden Harvest is now a dominant force in the entertainment industry. It would be a shame if there were no activities for its 40th anniversary. However, if it were too extravagant, it would easily cause controversy. So it would be a natural thing to hold a charity gala. The bigger the better."

"Haha, this is indeed a clever move."

"I don't care about other things. I'm just curious about how many big guys can come today."

"Given Liu Zhou's status, it will definitely not be a small event. I think those celebrities who just walked the red carpet are just appetizers. There will definitely be more influential people coming."

Watching the people from Sina busying about, a reporter said jealously:

"The people at Sina.com must have known which bigwigs would be in attendance, but they kept their mouths shut this time and didn't reveal anything."

Although this evening party belongs to Golden Harvest, Sina is also doing its best.

Not only did Sina.com broadcast live text and pictures, but Sina Weibo also made a connection and opened a special section to provide various pictures, text information, and highlights. Netizens can also chat online.

But the most important thing is that Sina Video will broadcast the entire event live, which is a big test for Sina Video given the current basic conditions.

Because no one knows how many people will click into the live broadcast room to watch, in order to avoid any accidents, Sina Group has gone all out for this live broadcast and attached great importance to it.

During the red carpet segment just now, the celebrities who appeared one after another have already made the majority of netizens scream with excitement through Sina Video, Sina.com and Sina Weibo.

"Oh my god!" a reporter suddenly exclaimed.

"what happened?"

"I was wondering why Liu Zhou didn't go to the red carpet. He even ignored those entertainment industry bosses and handed them over to Zhang Zhao, President Zhang, to deal with. It seems that he is entertaining the big guys here."

"Boss? Who?"

"Look over there. Penguin's Xiao Ma Ge, Ali's Jack Ma, Baidu's Li Yanhong, Sohu's Zhang Chaoyang, NetEase's Ding Lei, Shanda's Chen Tianqiao, half of the Internet's industry is here."

"I was there and it was true. But there were more than just those people. Isn't that Wang, the boss of Wanda, sitting over there? There were also the heads of Vanke, New Oriental, Haier, Gree, Midea, Suning and other big companies. I didn't expect Liu Zhou to have such a close relationship with the bigwigs in the real economy."

"He's the richest man, and he has so much influence, who wouldn't want to make friends with him?"

Looking at Liu Zhou who was busy serving food and drinks at several tables near the stage, the reporters realized that this dinner was more grand than they had imagined.

(End of this chapter)