In November 1999, HKSAR signed an agreement with The Walt Disney Company. Tung Chee-hwa, the first Chief Executive of HKSAR, stated that this was just the first step in the following series of the construction of large-scale tourist spots in Hong Kong. From the very beginning, Hong Kong Disneyland was involved in the domain of politics and power. With the joyful countdown and the powerful politicians’ negotiation, we are invited into the alleged Fantasy World.

The first shot is King Arthur Carrousel. When one asks people randomly about their impression on Disneyland, the first thing that comes to mind would probably be King Arthur Carrousel. Considering those architectures or facilities in Disneyland are simulations, offering an imagined reality, then in a dynamic setting people are always much more easily tempted to step into a constructed reality, where you are role-playing King/ Queen/ Princess/ Prince, and dancing with the court music.

The next shot aims at restoring the situation when Hong Kong Disneyland was under construction. Here we can see how the fantasy world is actually operated, that can hardly be perceived in Carousel. Undoubtedly, any bad or undesirable things are never allowed to appear in Disneyland; thus, all the necessary procedures of operation must be carefully concealed. Yet, during the video shooting period, we can easily identify the wires, the water pipes, electric motors and so on. Next, if we look down towards the entire Disneyland, what we see is merely the absolute control of space. To be detailed, the location of Hong Kong Disneyland was selected discreetly, where no airport noise can be heard, where no factory chimneys should be witnessed and where visitors can see nothing in relation to the outside real world. Happiness and harmony is the only them of the fantasy land while there is no pain and conflicts of the real world. What’s more, it seems that people around the globe flock to this highly purified, carefully selected and cunningly manipulated world in order to enjoy fantasy; nevertheless, the essence of the fantasy world is consumption and order.

Normally, accompanied by the music and the mini world in It’s a Small World, visitors become quickly indulged into the constructed fairy tale world, even if the display itself is unreasonable. That is to say, people visit the scenes by boat in fairly dim light, which not only has cut down people’s initiative, but also has limited the time of boat experience within Disneyland’s governance to ensure that everyone can get and experience a same fantasy. In a highly standardized assemble line, people consume no different simulations and gain no different experiences.

The sudden next shot is the It’s a Small World and other fairy tales with price tag densely but orderly settled on the goods shelves. People in the fairy tales transfer into a world full of products and consumption. We are surrounded by products and labels, which provide us with a large number of choices; however, in fact, we have no other choices. Then we go back to It’s a Small World and its fairy tales, whereas the shot suddenly cuts to the kitchen of one of the restaurants in Disneyland where the employees are repeating their work at a mechanized pace without expression. Their performance is to meet the standards rather than to provide services. Meanwhile, what they produce are only standard commodities.

Then, we are entering Adventure Land and Tomorrow Land. Maybe you hope that the following shot could meet your expectation. Nevertheless, I’m sorry to tell you that what we’ve recorded during our visit is order and consumption. Half of the time that people spend in Disneyland is queuing up, that is, to become a passive receiver. At the same time, visitors also remain under the surveillance of the space owner, such as in the working staff who preserve park order. Frankly, there’s no adventure or imagination at all in Adventure Land. Only rules, order and depressed social imagination exist. In Tomorrow Land, the cashiers become the only connection between tourists and fantasy with the elegant Disney background music. Well, the whole scene leaves us an indifferent sense of feeling, as the fantasy is materialized into various commodities.

In the end, I choose another comparison, flying but fastened balloons versus the falling “imagination”, implying that the fantasy constructed by Disney turns into broken pieces. (Written by Stan Zeng)