The richest person in Chinese entertainment

Chapter 66 Zhang Chen's Castle

There were many photos of Zhang Chen hanging in the airport lobby.

There are some of his Grammy Award-winning ones, and some of his photos taken by the media.

"Mom, Warner Records has extended all its promotions to Ying Country?" Zhang Chen asked Sun Fangping in surprise.

"Well, he discussed with me that if you hold a concert next year, then Yingguo is also a huge market, so it would be good to increase your popularity as soon as possible."

"Let's go quickly, don't get stuck." Zhang Chen took Liu Yifei's hand to prevent her from getting lost.

With so many "reference pictures", Zhang Chen would easily be recognized by people at the airport, so the best solution was to leave as soon as possible.

After picking up their luggage, they boarded several cars that had been prepared by Chenguang Entertainment employees in advance.

"Brother Chenchen, where are we going?" Liu Yifei looked at the surrounding scenery curiously as it became more and more desolate. They had been driving on the road for nearly an hour, and the direction they were heading did not look like the way to the city center.

"Your brother has a lot of money to burn, so he bought an ancient castle in the suburbs." Sun Fangping complained unhappily.

“It wasn’t expensive when you bought it, right? It’s just that the maintenance cost is relatively high.” Zhang Chen said embarrassedly.

In fact, there are castles for sale in some European countries, with prices ranging from 1 pound to tens of millions of pounds.

Compared with commercial housing in the city center that costs hundreds of millions or even tens of millions, Zhang Chen is still keen on buying residences with a large enough area, such as Beverly Hills in the United States.

As for why the prices of castles vary so greatly, or why such a large piece of land costs so little?

In fact, the selling prices of these castles are not in line with their huge area because most of these castles are very old, and most of them have a history of hundreds or even thousands of years.

After buying a castle, you have to assume the responsibility of repairing and maintaining it. This is also the method that countries such as Britain, France, and Italy have come up with to protect ancient buildings.

The castle purchased by Zhang Chen covers an area of 40 acres and is surrounded by a "moat". However, inside the moat are fully open lawns, gardens, woods, stables, horse farms, golf courses and other facilities.

The central building is surrounded by a wall that is three stories high.

The internal buildings are arranged in a "crescent" shape. The main building in the middle has 5 floors, the two auxiliary buildings next to it have 4 floors, and there is also a 30-meter-high bell tower outside.

The building contains more than 50 rooms, 3 living rooms, and a study with an astonishing collection of books, or it should be called a small library.

While many of the interior decorations have been modernized, other decorations have maintained the ancient Western style.

The main reason is that no major changes can be made to the building, and the overall style of "ancient architecture" needs to be maintained.

The selling price was just under 200 million pounds, but its renovation and maintenance since last year cost nearly 400 million pounds.

At the same time, maintaining the normal sanitation of the castle and maintaining the vegetation every year requires a group of professional personnel, and the annual salary of these personnel is also a considerable expense.

If he has money but doesn't have a large vacation estate, then what's the point of making money?
What's more, the manor also has income.

When he is not living there, he can also provide venues and services in specific areas to people who need to hold banquets, and the rent collected can cover most of the annual maintenance costs.

Having a place to stay in Yingguo will also be convenient for his team to live during the filming of the Harry Potter series. You know, the Harry Potter series of movies took more than ten years to shoot. Now there is a castle. Although it is not as good as the prototype of the Hogwarts Castle, the Alnwick Castle, if necessary, some scenes required for indoor scenes can be shot in Zhang Chen's castle.

"Come in and take a look. This is my first time here too." The convoy drove across the stone bridge over the "moat" and passed a hundred-meter-long stone road with lush lawns on both sides. Not far away, you could see well-grown and carefully maintained woods and gardens.

"Welcome to my castle, beautiful lady." Zhang Chen said to Liu Yifei in authentic London accent.

"Why do we have to speak English?" Liu Yifei answered in Chinese. Her English was not as rich as Zhang Chen's, who had practiced English since childhood and had rich communication experience.

"Although it's very frustrating, I want to tell you that if a star wants to go global, it's better to speak fluent English."

Which Chinese star who has made it to the international stage has not studied English hard for a period of time?

Currently, only Hollywood has the ability to distribute movies worldwide, so these films are mainly in English.

Another weakness of English is that people in English-speaking countries generally do not read subtitles. The main reason is that English is a phonetic language. As long as the actors' lines are good, the viewers can clearly understand the meaning of each sentence just by listening.

However, Chinese is a ideographic language, and there are also some homophonic puns and polyphonetic words.

This has led to the fact that even Chinese films in China will be equipped with subtitles. Over time, domestic movie fans have formed the habit of watching subtitles while watching TV and movies.

Then the problem is that people in English-speaking countries don't read subtitles.

If you make a Chinese movie and the dialogues are more important than the plot and images, foreigners will be confused or simply won't understand it.

So if you want to have a movie that can be sold to the Western world, there are two ways:

1: Even if no one in this movie speaks, the audience can still understand the plot.

2: Use English dubbing directly, or the actors speak the lines directly in English.

Why did Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, but Hero didn't?
The simplest reason is that Westerners can only understand the connotation of the movie "Hero" through subtitles, while the plot of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is relatively superficial, allowing the audience to feel it intuitively.

But in the final analysis, it is because of their strong strength that English-language films have become mainstream in the world.

The situation may change in the future, but it will not happen overnight, nor is it something that Zhang Chen, a cultural and entertainment worker alone, can accomplish.

"Xixi, let's set some rules." Zhang Chen said to Liu Yifei with a smile on his face.

"What rules?" Liu Yifei frowned slightly and asked curiously.

"During our stay in Ying Country, we communicated in English throughout the entire process." When Zhang Chen said this, he had already switched to English.

"Why? I don't want it~" Liu Yifei wailed.

"Listen more and practice more. It won't do you any harm." Zhang Chen answered in English regardless of whether she understood or not.

　Please give me some monthly tickets and rewards to comfort me.
　　The most important thing is to keep reading. I beg you to read it every day during this period, and then start reading it after it is put on the shelves. Please!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)