Our case analysis is based on the commercial communication. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Culture Spark. Today we'll be focusing on Shanghai Legoland, which opened on July 5th, and is also the world's first Legoland featuring Monkey Kid. I'm the host, Helen.

We're pleased to have two guests with us. This is Simon, a LEGO designer from Denmark. Thanks for having me. This is Wen Xiaodong, a cultural accountant of LEGO Group China. Great to see you. Great to see you both. As a statistics show, the newly opened Shanghai LEGO Land Monkey King Dome has drawn nearly 600,000 visitors from home and abroad in a month.

That's rather impressive. As I know, the Monkey King Dome was based on the animated series you made years ago. So how come you came up with the idea to create the animated series Monkey King in the very beginning? Well, the idea was from Monkey King. You know, Journey to the West has been translated into 16 languages, so Monkey King is quite popular around the world, which makes it easier for audiences all over the world to understand the character and decrease the cultural discount for LEGO's Monkey Kid.

And Monkey Kid's identity has been reinforced through films and media. For example, the animated film Monkey King Hero is Back introduced him to a new generation. The global popularity of Dragon Ball draws on his archetype has made audiences around the world more familiar with Monkey King. Clever. It seems that the image of Monkey Kid himself has already been well received.

That sounds like a good start, but I heard the team ran into a few little hiccups early on in production. Yes, the first step is the hardest. In the very beginning, our idea was to design some Asian martial moves for Monkey Kid, but Xiao Dong pointed out that we had mixed up some Japanese moves with Chinese martial arts. Right. While Simon's team tried to capture the surface, they missed a key idea in Chinese martial arts, the balance between hardness and softness.

Japanese martial style leaned more toward power. We often see people confusing the two and relying on stereotypes, treating Asian culture as a whole. They focused on surface symbols while failing to convey the characters' inner values. Wow, it's really not easy to represent Monkey King's image with all the challenges. How did you overcome this? We tried to mix and integrate Eastern and Western cultural elements through the story and the character.

For example, Monkey King's later transformation reflects the East-West difference in how people relate to nature. Early on Monkey King still carried that Western heroic mind of conquering and controlling the world But Xiao Dong reminded me that in Chinese Taoist and traditional thought it more about living in harmony with nature following the rhythm rather than trying to dominate it Neither side dominates the other. We let conquest and harmony coexist.

Monkey Kid shows courage and action, but also reflection and restraint. Like Lego bricks, different pieces come together to form something new. Yes, as we worked through the animated series, we also had another dispute. When shaping Monkey Kid, I focused on giving him a strong sense of technology. From my western eyes, I wanted him to gain power through high-tech gear, moving forward to the future.

But I am more concerned with the tradition, because in China, we value cultural treasures which continue to shape the present. So one side is more future-oriented while the other values historical continuity. Right. I kept thinking faster and stronger. But Xiao Dong made me realize that Monkey Kid's transformation shows how his journey also draws on historical lessons and reflection.

So the path-oriented perspective is integrated into Monkey Kid. That's awesome. It seems that the integration of content has made the story and character more layered and vivid. And I also found something interesting. Some of the humor feels quite different from what we usually have in America. American humor is often more direct and punchy. Well, that's something you had to balance carefully as well. Honestly, our early scripts has a lot of irony and exaggerated humor. It works naturally in English, but it felt a little out of tune in Chinese. So we guided the team to converge, making the humor subtler and more context-based.

That way, Chinese audiences could still laugh but feel culturally comfortable. Wow, this narrative adjustment really gets the audience. But cultural integration definitely involves more than just polishing the story itself. From an industrial perspective, what strategy can help it truly take root in practice while balancing domestic and overseas markets? We co-branded with Shanghai Animation Film Studio to create a series of cultural products.

The project combines commercial goals with cultural heritage. We added Chinese traditional costumes, iconic posts, and myth-inspired storylines while keeping LEGO's block-building system and creative play style. Yeah, this integration strategy actually not only integrates the animation content on a virtual level, but also extends it into your real world, making the products resonate in China and stay easy for global audiences to understand and enjoy.

It creates a win-win for both culture and commerce. So this integration isn't just a simple mix of Chinese and Western elements, right? Absolutely. The traditional Chinese culture and Western animation styles mutually influence and reshape each other. MonkeyKey's image, values, and symbolic functions are reinterpreted, creating a version that is neither fully Western nor fully Chinese.

Right. In the process of integration, it actually creates a third space where cultural signs are reinterpreted beyond their original context. Within this space, audiences engage with a redefined Chinese culture, experiencing Chinese culture as a dynamic and hybrid form interacting with global animation and branding Excellent These integration strategies do spread the brand further And I also noted that Monkey Kid is quite different from Journey to the West I read before.

How did it shape then? Yeah, we did make some innovations. The content of Monkey Kid is quite different from the original Journey to the West. New elements such as the female character, urban adventures and technology are added. This makes it more inclusive and contemporary, so both young people and other groups can find a sense of resonance. Additionally, we've implemented a multi-line production.

Lego bricks that people built with their own hands. The animated series turns these brick figures into a complete story world. And the Monkey Key Zone at Shanghai Legoland directly transforms the story into an immersive experience space. With these three interconnected product lines, Lego combines tangible interaction, imaginative engagement, and immersive experience all in one.

Brilliant. It can also enhance brand value and deepen emotional connections. But beyond innovations in content and production, what else did you do to make Monkey King more accessible to people from different cultures? Actually, Monkey King has a negotiable identity, combining collective traits like responsibility and loyalty with individual traits such as bravery and independence.

This balance of local and universal traits allows audiences from different cultures to understand and relate to him naturally. Exactly. Based on Monkey King's negotiable identity, we innovated Monkey Kid to carry that same openness. He keeps the spirit of Chinese culture, but he also gives audiences around the world a room to read the value in their own way.

In that sense, he became a cultural ambassador rooted in China, yet open enough for global reinterpretation and exchange. Hearing all this, I feel like LEGO becomes a language of culture. Each brick carries a story, and they are actually communicating beyond words. So, in today's discussion, we noted that LEGO has gone through three key stages.

internationalization, integration, and innovation, successfully integrating the Western brand with Chinese elements. At the United Nations party, real progress comes when cultural learn from and integrates with another. And that's our story. Thanks for joining us. Thank you, group number 45.