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| What a perfect place to up your guanxi! |
I just learned about the concept of guanxi (关系) in Chinese culture and knowledge of it plus the whole concept of saving/giving face in Asian cultures is making a lot of behaviors in Asian culture make a bit more sense. It also adds fuel to my crazy conspiracy theory about the Showplace (AMC) movie theater in Westfield Valley Fair.
First, let's talk about guanxi, In Chinese culture there is something called guanxi which is basically the concept of having important working relationships and trust with people. If you have good guanxi you are well connected, bad guanxi you are not. This is not unique to China - society in general places a lot of importance on networking - but China's sometimes loose rule of law apparently means that guanxi has a big effect. One thing that happens is businesses will often offer exclusive lounges and clubs to their members in order to give them an opportunity to up their guanxi.
(I'm actually not even sure how to use guanxi in a sentence, so any or all of this may be a gross misunderstanding of guanxi)
Now back to the theater. This Showplace ICON theater has an oddly conspicuous stratification between the plebeian bottom floor tickets and the exclusive top floor tickets that grant access to a bar and lounge. I noticed the design immediately when the theater opened to the public recently. It would be hard to miss! The luxurious glass encased steps to the second floor lounge are the most prominent design feature of the whole place.
AMC is Chinese owned, and there is a lot of Chinese culture in Silicon Valley, mostly due to many Chinese immigrants and nationals in the area as well as a general push toward cosmopolitan globalization. When I saw the peculiar layout of this theater, it immediately struck me as being somehow Chinese in nature. To be clear, I was not unnerved or upset. I was curious why this theater, which seemed to be a normal theater aside from its second story, felt sort of Chinese.
Well what do you know, owing to guanxi, it is apparently not uncommon for businesses in China to offer exclusive lounges for their customers to schmooze it up in luxury and get in some good networking. This movie theater is CLEARLY designed just for that.
Now, I would not say this is necessarily a bad thing. It's nice to pay a couple extra bucks for some extra luxury every so often. However, it does come off as anathema to the more egalitarian designs I've come to expect from American movie theaters, with all seats and customers' tickets being treated essentially equally.
While I still don't think it is all down to the mere fact that this theater's design may have been influenced by the company's Chinese owners' culture, to be honest, I am vaguely unsettled. I suppose it is vaguely unsettling for any person to be exposed to any new culture, especially when they aren't expecting it. Still, America is all about adopting aspects of world culture, although I suppose whether this sort of conspicuous social stratification will catch on is anyone's guess.
I, for one, am a fan of subtle luxury, billionaires who drive Hondas, and general restraint and moderation as a virtue. I don't really like seeing businesses draw attention to the differences in the wealth of their customers (airlines and their different seating options ranging from first class to economy come to mind) and I don't think that practice does anything to ease cross-class resentment. However, from my experience playing in and attending orchestra concerts, I also can appreciate the joys of dressing up and going out to an extravagant, expensive, and luxurious show.
What I am not sure about is whether mixing the customer stratification of airlines with the egalitarian nature of American movie theaters, is a good idea; in general the whole practice of separating customers into different wealth-based classes really seems like a concept straight out of the era of the Titanic.
I've heard that movie theaters are struggling to attract customers as home streaming becomes more and more attractive. Perhaps this movie theater's design is just some guy's idea of a way to attract more people. Perhaps it has nothing to do with Chinese influence and guanxi.
Or maybe... the CCP has a secret plan to take over American movie theaters in order to indoctrinate the American people through cinema and this theater's design is just the tip of the iceberg. There's probably a way to tie this post up nicely by linking that iceberg part with the Titanic part I mentioned before, but it's late and I've got work to do. So instead here's the recent trailer for Death Stranding, which is so cinematic , it might as well be shown in theaters:
