New York 2006

Chapter 282 Chinese Culture in the Western World

Luo Ji's ability to act was very strong. Once he made up his mind, he would execute it quickly.

He quickly hired McKinsey, a well-known consulting firm in America, to analyze all its companies, and then adjusted the structures of all companies based on their suggestions.

For example, Multicultural New Media Company and Logic Personal Artist Management Company, these two companies are now very marginal in his business landscape.He only retains the decision-making power on major matters, and all other powers are delegated to the CEO.

And like movie companies, Marvel Entertainment, Logic Pictures.Music company, future records, electronic music records.Internet company, Holi game company, WeChat.and investment firm, Logic Investments.

These companies will be his most important business territory in the future, including movies, music, the Internet and investment.These will also be the most important directions in which he will devote his energy to development in the future.

For these companies, Luo Ji only retained the right to make decisions on major company matters, the right to transfer company executives, and the right to approve funds exceeding one million dollars.All other powers were delegated to the CEO, and then an internal supervision department was established to report any anomalies discovered by the company to Luo Ji and the CEO.

Of course, these are not the only things that have changed. The company's personnel structure, authority, financial discipline, etc. have also been adjusted.

After this major adjustment, the company basically broke away from the situation where Luo Ji controlled these companies alone and embarked on the path of modern management.The company's efficiency may not be as high, but the company's operating procedures have become more formalized.

Marvel Entertainment CEO Zhu Haowei, Logic Film CEO Yang Yanzi (producer of The Twilight Saga 2), Future Records CEO Jeff Basker (Luo Ji resigned), Electronic Music Records CEO David Guetta, Holi Games Company CEO Yang Jian, WeChat CEO Deborah Liu (poached from Facebook), Logic Investment CEO Xu Youyu, and Los Angeles Venture Capital CEO Erin Lee.

The CEOs of these companies all welcomed this major adjustment.In the past, everything they did had to be approved by Luo Ji, but now they finally had partial control over the company.

Of course, they don't have only advantages and no disadvantages.In the future, their option rewards will be linked to the company's performance.

The rewards for newly hired CEOs are not as generous as they were at the beginning. They are all "carefully" designed by McKinsey.

For example, Yang Yanzi, CEO of Logic Pictures after Zhu Haowei stepped down, now has a company valuation of 12 billion US dollars. She only received less than 0.5% of the option commitment this time. Whether she can fulfill it by then depends on the projects she handles. Performance.

And like Zhu Haowei, although he has resigned as CEO of Logic Pictures and went to work at Marvel, he still has interests in the company, so he is still a member of Logic Pictures' board of directors.

In short, this major adjustment was very complex in design, and it took two weeks to adjust the entire company's structure.

Among all the companies, the only one that has not been delegated power by Luo Ji is Logic Holdings, which he controls 100% of.

The status of this company is so special. Luo Ji's shares in the companies mentioned above are all held by Logic Holdings.

That's not all, the company also controls shares in other venture capital investments.

SB Brokerage Company 50%, SB Live Performance Company 50%, Xiyin Clothing 15%, SolarCity 10%, Tesla 15%, SpaceX 10%, Netflix 10%, BYD 5% and so on.

This company, like a spider web, connects all these companies together.

These are the results of Luo Ji's hard work in the past three years, relying on his "apocalypse", "intuition", his own wisdom, and his own judgment of reality.

"I should have lived up to the gift of "Apocalypse" to me!"

Luo Ji stood on the roof of the Marvel headquarters building, overlooking the night view of New York at seven o'clock in the evening. His heart was racing and he couldn't calm down for a long time.He stretched out his hand and felt the breeze blowing through his fingers.

At this moment, he had the illusion that he could control the world.

Da da da!
There was a sound of high heels hitting the rooftop floor. Without turning around, Luo Ji knew that it was his aunt Fiona who had come. She often stayed with him, and Luo Ji was already very familiar with the sound of her walking.

She came to Luo Ji and followed his gaze outside: "What are you looking at?"

"Enjoy the night view of New York." Luo Ji said, looking at the bright lights below.

"Yeah." Fiona, as someone who often accompanied Luo Ji, was keenly aware that her nephew was a little uneasy at this moment, so she just stood beside him silently.

A minute passed like this before Luo Ji got out of his excitement and asked, "What's the matter with you coming to see me?"

Fiona said: "Zhu Haowei just finished reading the synopsis of "Shang-Chi" from Los Angeles. He is a little dissatisfied. Let me discuss it with you first."

"Okay, let's go then."

…………

It took Luo Ji 10 minutes to roughly read the synopsis of "Shang-Chi" sent from Marvel Studios. He then put it on the table and raised his head to look at Zhu Haowei who was working in front of the computer.

As the CEO of Marvel Entertainment for more than a month, he is very eager to find out everything about the company.He has been working very hard recently and often works late at night.

Luo Ji said: "Haowei, stop working and tell me what you think of "Shang-Chi"."

Zhu Haowei stopped what he was doing, looked at Luo Ji and said seriously: "Since we officially announced that we would launch the superhero movie "Shang-Chi", it has caused a great response among the Chinese community around the world. This comic is It was created based on Bruce Lee's template in the last century, and it is relatively positive. But the villain in it, the Mandarin, has a very bad impression among the Chinese community, and everyone is very repulsive to this character. And this character is in the outline."

"I didn't expect that this character didn't appear in "Iron Man" but instead appeared in "Shang-Chi." Luo Ji said with some displeasure, "Do those Marvel creators not care about my opinion at all?"

"Maybe it really isn't." Zhu Haowei explained seriously: "In the eyes of white people, this character is normal. There is nothing special at all. He is just a simple villain. However, this is precisely the scariest thing."

Luo Ji thought about it carefully and said, "Indeed! This kind of thing that they take for granted is unbearable for us."

The protest voice of Chinese Americans has always been relatively weak, and it is difficult to attract the attention of mainstream media.Although the Chinese are economically stronger than blacks, they are much worse than blacks culturally.

Children who cry are fed by milk. In today’s politically correct America, who will care if you don’t cry?The same goes for Japanese, Korean, and Indian Americans.These have been ignored by the American cultural circles for a long time.

Only the black people who make the most noise are doing better in the entertainment industry.Of course, there are even worse ethnic groups, namely the Middle Easterners who have been hostile to the West for a long time because of religion, and the East Slavs who have been hostile to the West because of geopolitics.

Zhu Haowei looked at Luo Ji and said, "Then what's your opinion?"

Luo Ji thought for a while and said: "Well, you can also participate in the Shang-Chi project. Aren't you a comic fan? You can make an outline according to your ideas. Find a few more Chinese people and make sure to complete the entire project. It has to be beautiful.”

"Okay." Zhu Haowei nodded, and then said: "Actually, there are some merits in the outline. You said that you asked them to improve the protagonist's ability, so they introduced the concept of "qi". Shang-Chi in the comics is much more powerful.”

"Yeah." Luo Ji nodded.

Qi, or should be Qi.

This is an important concept for the Western world to understand Eastern traditional culture.This is the meaning of "Qi" in Shangqi, which is Chi in English.

They believe that Qi is "life energy", "vital force", and "material energy".The expressions in Chinese culture are internal strength, spiritual energy, immortal energy, etc.Qi can be obtained through exercise. As long as it is exercised, it can provide stability and longevity. You can become powerful, become a hero who can fly over walls, and even make people become gods.

Zhu Haowei continued: "They also introduced the "Kunlun" and "Heaven" from the comic "Iron Fist"."

Luo Ji said in Mandarin: "They should be talking about 'Heaven'."

Zhu Haowei nodded: "Yes, it comes from Chinese mythology."

Luo Ji suddenly had an idea: "Thor is a Norse mythology, and "Heaven" belongs to Chinese mythology. Can we introduce the concept of "Heaven" into Thor? Let the two interact, and then introduce the character Shang-Chi. ?”

Zhu Haowei touched his chin in thought, and then said in surprise: "It's really okay. Marvel is just worried about how to connect the character Shang-Chi in other movies."

Then a thought came to Luo Ji's mind: "Remember, there must also be a plot of interaction between modern times and mythology. For example, some mythical creatures use mobile phones and Wi-Fi."

Zhu Haowei thought about it for a moment, his face suddenly became filled with surprise, and he looked at Luo Ji dumbfounded: "How did you come up with this plot? This is so creative!"

Luo Ji immediately started boasting: "Don't my ideas come at any time?"

"Hahaha, of course." Zhu Haowei smiled and complimented: "You are the best!"

…………

Three days later, Luo Ji saw the latest Marvel Phase [-] layout.And a new synopsis about Shang-Chi.

Luo Ji obviously had some misunderstandings before. He asked Kevin Feige to add Shang-Chi and Black Panther to the first phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and also to make independent movies.
Obviously, rushing into two characters would be a bit tight on time.

Marvel has no movies released this year. According to Luo Ji's adjusted plan, Marvel will try to release two special effects blockbusters every year from now on.

In 2010, "Iron Man 2" and "Thor" were released, and in 2011, "Captain America" ​​and "Shang-Chi" were released. 2012 "Avengers".It heralds the end of the first stage.

There are only two movies a year, so of course Luo Ji will give up the role of Black Panther and put Black Panther in the second stage.

The addition of Shang-Chi makes the characters in the "Avengers" movie tense.So the movie deleted Hawkeye, a small character who was supposed to appear in the movie "Thor", and replaced him with Shang-Chi.

Of course, Shang-Chi's ability is very powerful, on par with Iron Man and Thor, and he will definitely not be as frivolous as in Apocalypse's "Avengers".

When Shang-Chi was first mentioned, it was planned to be in the 2010 movie Thor.

In this movie, when Thor, the God of Thunder, was demoted to Earth, and Jane Foster, the physicist of Earth, who is the future female Thor and her assistant, they would talk about Norse mythology.

Then, Jane Foster, a Chinese intern next to her, suddenly asked: "Thor, if Asgard you mentioned exists, does the "Heaven" in the East exist?"

Thor immediately said: "Of course it exists. I was on a mission to that place 1000 years ago."

"Where is the heaven?"

"Just like Asgard, in the void."

"Then are there gods from heaven on earth?"

"Since their "Jedi Tiantong", they have rarely interacted with the earth. But when I came to the earth hundreds of years ago, I saw a god from heaven active on the earth. We also exchanged contact information. The last time we contacted It was 20 years ago. At that time, he said that he had a child and seemed to be living in a city called Los Angeles. Do you know where this place is? "

Jane Foster and the Asian intern all looked at Thor like he was a liar.Obviously not convinced.

However, what Thor said was obviously true. The god in heaven he mentioned was Shang Qi's father.That kid is Shang-Chi.This is the first time that the character Shang-Chi has been mentioned. There will also be an Easter egg from "Shang-Chi" at the end of the "Thor" movie.

Then there is the outline of the movie "Shang-Chi". The life experience is basically the same as in the comics, but with big changes.

When he was 14 years old, his family was suddenly visited by a group of dark forces. In order to protect his family, Shang-Chi's father forcibly teleported them away.Because the younger sister was naughty, she disappeared with her father before she could be teleported away.

Since then, Shang-Chi and his white mother have been living anonymously in a remote place in the United States.

By the time Shang-Chi appeared again, he was already 24 years old.He works in a company and usually does not fight with others. He is submissive and disguises himself with a smile. He is afraid of attracting the attention of the group of people. There is also a beautiful friend beside her.

He never forgot to track down his family's whereabouts, until one day, his family's contact code suddenly appeared in the newspaper.He hid the truth from his mother and acted alone, but because he was in a hurry, he didn't notice a beautiful friend following him.

Then there is the show-off, a common Hollywood routine.Accompanied by a beautiful woman, the bitter and resentful male protagonist embarks on a journey to find his family.

"Why did you suddenly become so powerful?"

"I've always been so powerful, haven't you noticed that my name has the word "qi" in it?"

"I am a child of God."

Later, there will be the Peach Blossom Spring, the strange beasts in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, some messages from heaven, mythical creatures, humans who are bewitched by dark creatures, dark creatures who want to take over the world, etc.

The theme basically revolves around family, fatalism, saving mankind and other topics. It can be regarded as a very qualified popcorn script.

Some of the plots also refer to scenes from Doctor Strange, such as fighting against monsters from the dark dimension.Luo Ji felt that the abilities of Shang-Chi and Doctor Strange overlapped very much.

After reading the outline, Luo Ji called Zhu Haowei: "What do you think of the outline?"

"Very good, how about you?"

"I think it's okay, too." Luo Ji continued, "It's just that there are some logic bugs in it, and there are some templates in the characterization. You can ask someone to improve it."

"Okay." After Zhu Haowei finished speaking, he continued: "But if this script wants to show the effect, it will probably require a lot of investment. You know, many Eastern biological special effects are not available in the United States, and they may need to be remodeled."

"It's okay, the key is quality!"

Luo Ji thought for a while and then said, "Perhaps Marvel can create its own special effects department to specialize in Eastern special effects. China's film market is developing, and maybe we can receive orders from China."

(End of this chapter)