Chinese business: Beijing’s mogul
中国传媒“大腕”黎瑞刚
广州传媒翻译公司：黎瑞刚在传媒界有很大影响力，他能从中国国企拉来资金、也能吸引外国投资者。他的成功源于能够脚跨政商两界。
Li Ruigang is universally described as the most connected individual in Chinese media, and for good reason. His China Media Capital fund holds big stakes in Imax China and Oriental DreamWorks, has a television station in Hong Kong and has joint ventures with Warner Bros and other major studios, and owns 13 per cent in the holding company of Manchester City Football Club.
黎瑞刚是中国传媒界公认的人脉最广的人，这是有充分理由的。他的华人文化产业投资基金（China Media Capital,以下简称CMC）在IMAX中国(IMAX China)和东方梦工厂(Oriental DreamWorks)持有大量股份，在香港有一个电视台，与华纳兄弟(Warner Bros)等多家主要制片公司都有合资企业，并在曼城足球俱乐部(Manchester City Football Club)的控股公司持有13%股份。广州传媒翻译公司。
But for a man whose partners include Hollywood luminaries such as Jeffrey Katzenberg, the chief executive of DreamWorks Animation, he is hardly the showbiz type.
但对一个合作伙伴中不乏好莱坞大亨——比如梦工厂动画公司(Dreamworks Animation)的首席执行官杰弗里•卡岑伯格(Jeffrey Katzenberg)——的人来说，黎瑞刚的行事作风不像是娱乐圈中的人。
Flamboyance usually does not go down well in China. But it is especially perilous in the politically sensitive media business.
在中国，枪打出头鸟，而在政治敏感的传媒业，高调就尤为危险。
Beijing has long projected its soft power, at home and abroad, through state-owned media such as China Central Television and the People’s Daily. But the landscape is changing quickly — and in ways that the government may find difficult to control.
北京方面一直通过中国中央电视台(CCTV)和《人民日报》(People’s Daily)等国有媒体在海内外投射其软实力。但形势正在迅速发生变化，而且中国政府可能发现很难控制这种变化。广州传媒翻译公司。
A land grab for the content and the channels that carry it has been going on for years in mainland China. At the same time, leading internet groups such as Tencent are using their reach in social media to win the hearts and minds of the Chinese people.
中国内地传媒业多年来一直在拼抢内容和渠道。与此同时，腾讯(Tencent)等主要互联网集团正利用它们在社交媒体上的影响力来赢得民心。
Many observers see an inevitable clash between the private media companies and the government.
许多观察人士认为民营媒体公司和中国政府之间爆发冲突不可避免。
“Clearly [private media groups] are taking influence away from the official media,” says the founder of one major investment company in China who has partnered in a venture with Mr Li. “You can’t force people to watch official media. The internet has become a force of nature. You can’t stop it.”
“显然（民营媒体集团）正在抢走官方媒体的影响力，”中国一家主要投资公司的创始人表示，该公司与黎瑞刚在一个项目上进行合作，“你不能强迫人们看官媒。互联网已成为一股自然的力量，你无法阻止它。”
Knowing Beijing’s mind
了解上头的想法
A wave of Chinese investment into global entertainment and sport assets has demonstrated the rising demand for films, games and other diversions in the world’s second-largest economy.
中国人大举投资于全球娱乐和体育资产表明，这个全球第二大经济体对电影、游戏以及其他娱乐的需求日益上升。广州传媒翻译公司。
“China Media Capital may not have the magic ring of Alibaba or present the wall of money image of Dalian Wanda,” says Variety, the US entertainment magazine, adding that CMC is “one of Hollywood’s most advanced investors and partners from China”.
美国娱乐杂志《Variety》表示：“CMC或许没有阿里巴巴(Alibaba)的魔戒，也不具备大连万达(Dalian Wanda)那种财力雄厚的形象。”但它补充称，该基金“对好莱坞来说是最有水平的中国投资者和合作伙伴之一”。
Mr Li has become the public face of media in China, in part because he has the mixture of qualities necessary to survive on the mainland while making deals outside it. He may soon list his media empire, according to partners and business associates, which would further boost both his prestige and his financial clout.
黎瑞刚成为中国传媒界的公众人物，一定程度上是因为他具备在内地传媒界站稳脚跟同时在海外开展交易所需要的综合才能。据其合作伙伴和商业伙伴表示，黎瑞刚可能很快让其媒体帝国上市，这将进一步提升他的名望和金融影响力。
What makes him so effective is his ability to keep a foot in both the ruling Communist party and the business world. Mr Li is a rare combination — a cadre and a capitalist, a successful entrepreneur and a former bureaucrat. At a time of transition, as the private sector wrests influence away from the official sector, his double backing is a source of immense strength.
他之所以能有这么大的影响力，是因为他有能力脚跨政商两界。黎瑞刚是一名干部，也是一名资本家，他是一名成功的企业家，也当过官——这是比较罕见的。在民营媒体从官媒抢走影响力的变化时期，双重背景是他强大实力的根源。广州传媒翻译公司。
“He is deep with the government but he doesn’t flaunt it,” says the founder of one digital media platform who secured money from Mr Li in a recent round of fundraising for his own start-up. “He knows how to balance relationships.”
一个数字媒体平台的创始人表示：“黎瑞刚与中国政府关系密切，但他并不炫耀。他知道如何平衡各方面的关系。”这位创始人在自己初创企业最近一轮融资中获得了黎瑞刚的投资。
“I worked in the system,” says Mr Li. “Most [Chinese] fund managers studied abroad. They don’t have this kind of experience. I do. I spent so much time in state media.
黎瑞刚表示：“我在体制内工作过。大多数（中国）基金经理都留过学。他们没有这种经历，而我有。我在国有媒体呆过很长一段时间。”
“It’s not only knowing people. I know the mindset of government decision makers . . . [and] what kind of things they approve.”
“不仅仅是认识人。我知道政府决策者的想法……（以及）他们会批准哪些事情。”
From his long experience in state media and government, Mr Li understands where the regulatory constraints are — but also that they cannot keep pace with the fast-changing industry. Any foreign investor, and even most Chinese ones, looking for a back door into television or radio ownership may be asking for trouble, and authorities have also moved to restrict local portals such as Tencent and Weibo from generating their own news content.
黎瑞刚从他在国有媒体和政府的长期任职经历中明白哪些东西会受到监管限制，他也明白这类机构不可能跟上传媒行业日新月异的步伐。任何外国投资者，甚至大多数中国投资者，如果想通过什么隐秘途径拿到电视或广播所有权那都是在自找麻烦，当局也着手限制腾讯和微博(Weibo)等国内门户网站自主生产新闻内容。广州传媒翻译公司。
But a webcast panel discussion on a hot topic can generate millions of viewers — most of them millennials who prefer internet videos and have probably never watched China Central Television’s main evening news bulletin.
但如今一个热点话题讨论的网络直播就可能吸引数百万观众点击观看，其中大多数是喜欢上网看视频、可能从不收看央视晚间新闻的千禧一代人。
“In China there are a lot of lines,” says Mr Li. “Some of the lines are definitely clear — there are documents telling you what kind of things you cannot touch. And there are some grey areas you have to sense. As long as we are smart and conscious, we can keep a balance between different parties.”
黎瑞刚表示：“在中国有许多条条框框。一些限制非常明确——有文件告诉你那些事情你不能触碰。还有一些灰色地带你必须去察觉。只要我们聪明敏锐，我们就能在各方之间保持平衡。”
Second-city rise
崛起于上海
Mr Li started his professional life at the state-owned Shanghai Media Group and became its president at the age of 33, supervising deputies who were two generations older. He served briefly in the Shanghai provincial government, rising in the party hierarchy — and walked away from a prestigious position on the city’s standing committee.
黎瑞刚在国有的上海文广新闻传媒集团(Shanghai Media Group)开始职业生涯，33岁成为该集团总裁，副手们都比他大两辈。他曾短暂任职于上海市政府，在体制内升职，然后辞去了上海市委的一个重要职位。广州传媒翻译公司。
It was “a position he got that every other bureaucrat in Shanghai would have killed to have,” says the investor. “He chose to reform the system from outside rather than inside. He is very unusual.”
“他坐的那个位子是上海官场上几乎人人梦寐以求的，”那位投资者称，“他选择从外部而不是内部来使体制发生改革，他非常与众不同。”
The trust with which the current government regards him is exceptional not only because he turned his back on a government role but also because his roots are in Shanghai, rather than the capital — and in the city’s constellation of power around former president Jiang Zemin and his son Jiang Mianheng, who invested alongside Mr Li in Oriental DreamWorks.
这届政府给予他的信任是特殊的，不仅因为他放弃了公职，还因为他的根基在上海、而不是北京——而且是在以前国家主席江泽民及其子江绵恒为核心的权力圈。江绵恒和黎瑞刚共同投资了东方梦工厂。
In 2009, while still at SMG, Mr Li won official approval to create China Media Capital, a specialised media investment fund. There were no funds dedicated to the sector before CMC’s establishment, so media companies relied on banks for funding. But as a growing urban population found itself with more leisure time and higher incomes — and less interest in party-controlled content — the time was right to invest in media.
2009年，还在上海文广任职的黎瑞刚得到了政府批准，准许他创建专门进行媒体投资的CMC。在那之前，中国没有专注于该领域的基金，媒体公司依赖银行获得融资。但是随着不断增长的城市人口拥有了更多的空闲时间和更高的收入——并且对中共控制的内容兴趣减少——投资媒体的时机到了。广州传媒翻译公司。
Companies such as Sina.com and Wang Jianlin’s Dalian Wanda — which started as a real estate company — were adopting a new financing model, securing money from investment funds and then going public.
当时新浪网(Sina.com)和王健林的大连万达（以房地产起家）等公司采取了新的融资模式：从投资基金获得资金，然后上市。
While no longer a state media executive or bureaucrat, Mr Li has been able to draw on his public sector experience to court capital from both the party-state and foreign investors, many of whom do not have any experience of doing business in a country like China.
尽管黎瑞刚已不再是国有媒体高管或政府官员，但他能够利用自己在公共部门任职的经历从体制内及外国投资者身上吸引资金。很多外国投资者没有在中国这样的国家做生意的经验。
He raised Rmb2bn the following year from state-owned enterprises — including his own — and the investment arm of China Development Bank. Three years later, he raised a US dollar fund with the backing of Japan’s SoftBank, WPP, Time Warner and a group of institutional investors including an arm of Singapore’s wealth fund Temasek, AlpInvest and Partners Group.
次年，他从一些国企（包括他自己所在的上海文广）和中国国家开发银行(China Development Bank)旗下投资机构总共筹得20亿元人民币。3年后，他在日本软银(SoftBank)、WPP、时代华纳(Time Warner)和一些机构投资者（包括新加坡财富基金淡马锡(Temasek)旗下投资机构、AlpInvest和Partners Group）的支持下，募集了一只美元基金。广州传媒翻译公司。
Government relationships are vital in China because the state still exercises significant control over content, although what the rules are for the private sector remain murky. Even a company as large as Tencent can only aggregate, edit and distribute news, as it has no licence to source news independently. If Beijing determines that a company has violated the rules, it can close down the entire business.
在中国，政府关系至关重要，因为政府在很大程度上仍然控制着内容，尽管针对私人企业仍然缺乏清晰的规则。即便是像腾讯这么大的公司也只能聚合、编辑和发布新闻，因为它没有独立采编新闻的许可证。如果北京方面认定一家公司违反了规定，它可以把这家公司整个关掉。
Competition and co-operation
竞争与合作
Chinese media companies are now especially focused on Hollywood. Mr Li’s commitment to developing content led him to tie-ups with Warner Brothers Entertainment and a $100m minority stake in Imagine Entertainment, the studio established by director Ron Howard and producer Brian Grazer.
中国媒体企业如今格外关注好莱坞。黎瑞刚致力于内容的开发，并因此与华纳兄弟结盟、以1亿美元收购了Imagine Entertainment的少数股权。Imagine Entertainment是导演朗•霍华德(Ron Howard)和制片人布赖恩•格拉泽尔(Brian Grazer)创办的制片公司。
Almost all the major studios, including Twentieth Century Fox Film, Walt Disney, DreamWorks Animation, Imax, Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios and Warner Brothers, have some Chinese investment. Many Hollywood insiders believe it is only a matter of time before joint productions lead to more purchases of the major studios.
包括20世纪福克斯(Twentieth Century Fox)、沃尔特•迪斯尼(Walt Disney)、梦工厂、Imax、派拉蒙影片公司(Paramount Pictures)、环球影业(Universal Studios)和华纳兄弟在内，几乎所有主要制片公司都引入了一些中国投资。很多好莱坞业内人士认为，合作拍片导致中国企业更多收购主要制片商只是时间问题。广州传媒翻译公司。
For US studios, Chinese partners can provide the keys to an entertainment market that is set to become the world’s largest by box-office receipts, according to IHS. Last year, the seventh instalment of The Fast and The Furious franchise reaped Rmb2.4bn in China. On the other side of the coin, investors such as CMC get a share of the profits generated by Hollywood’s unique storytelling magic. The Kung Fu Panda movies, for example, have thrilled and embarrassed local audiences who ask why such a successful spin-off of a Chinese national symbol was made in the US.
IHS表示，对于美国制片公司来说，中国合作伙伴可以提供进入这个有望成为全球票房收入最高的娱乐市场的钥匙。去年，《速度与激情7》(The Fast and The Furious)在中国狂揽票房24亿元人民币。另一方面，CMC等投资方也从好莱坞独特叙事风格所产生的利润中分得一杯羹。例如，《功夫熊猫》(Kung Fu Panda)系列影片让中国观众既兴奋又尴尬，他们问为何如此成功的讲述中国国宝的电影作品是出自美国。
Dalian Wanda spent $3.5bn to acquire Legendary Entertainment, while Alibaba chairman Jack Ma has been named as a possible buyer of Paramount, the studio owned by Viacom, which has been struggling amid turmoil in the Redstone family, which controls the conglomerate.
大连万达斥资35亿美元收购了传奇影业(Legendary Entertainment)，而阿里巴巴董事会主席马云被指为派拉蒙的可能买家。派拉蒙是维亚康姆(Viacom)旗下的制片公司，由于控股维亚康姆的雷德斯通家族(Redstone)陷入动荡，整个集团处境困难。
Huayi Brothers, a Beijing-based studio, and Tencent have relations with STX Entertainment, a Hollywood studio backed by private equity groups TPG and Hony Capital. State-owned Hunan TV and Broadcast Company has invested in Lions Gate Entertainment.
北京制片公司华谊兄弟和腾讯与STX娱乐(STX Entertainment)建立了关系，后者是私募股本集团TPG和弘毅投资(Hony Capital)支持的好莱坞制片公司。国有的湖南电广传媒投资了狮门影业(Lions Gate Entertainment)。
In addition to these purchases abroad, the big media players alternatively compete and co-operate at home. When Bona, a film studio and distributor, went private in April, Alibaba, Fosun and Tencent participated in the deal.
除了这些海外收购以外，主要媒体公司彼此之间也在国内展开了竞争与合作。当电影制作和发行公司博纳影业(Bona Film)于4月进行私有化时，阿里巴巴、复星(Fosun)和腾讯都参与了该交易。广州传媒翻译公司。
But even as they team up with the most prominent movie studios, mainland players are pioneering new approaches to delivering content.
中国内地媒体公司在与世界最知名的电影制片公司结盟的同时，也致力于开拓内容表达的新方式。
The prominence of China’s internet companies, particularly Tencent, suggests those that support original content will be far more important than they have been in the US.
中国互联网企业（尤其是腾讯）的卓越声望表明，支持原生内容的企业在中国的重要性远超同类企业在美国的重要性。
Some are seeking to develop a business model where production costs and distribution will be a small fraction of the Hollywood model, which relies on expensive marketing campaigns to drive audiences to cinemas.
一些企业正寻求开发一种商业模式，把制作和发行成本控制在好莱坞模式的一小部分，好莱坞通常依靠砸重金开展营销来吸引观众前往影院。
“The Chinese are extremely cost conscious and digitally orientated,” says Donald Tang, founder of Tang Media Partners. “They will put much more emphasis on digital marketing.” His company, which is based in Los Angeles and Shanghai, helps develop and finance films and it bought a majority stake in IM Global in June with Tencent and CMC’s backing.
“中国人极具成本意识和数字化导向，”Tang Media Partners创始人唐伟(Donald Tang)，“他们会更多地侧重数字营销。”Tang Media Partners的总部设在洛杉矶和上海，主要致力于为影视作品开发内容和提供资金支持。今年6月，该公司在腾讯和CMC的支持下收购了IM Global的多数股权。广州传媒翻译公司。
Mr Li’s ties with Tencent embody the perfect modern media marriage, the combination of Tencent’s online channels and CMC’s content. Mr Li and Tencent have many other joint investments, too, including We piao, an online ticketing service.
黎瑞刚与腾讯之间的关系是现代媒体联姻的完美范例，将腾讯的在线频道与CMC的内容结合在一起。黎瑞刚和腾讯还有很多其他的联合投资，包括在线订票服务娱票儿(We piao)。
The CMC chief is also investing in hardware devices featuring smart television applications, with backing from both Alibaba and Tencent — in part to get around state control of television stations, which makes it impossible to obtain the requisite licences.
黎瑞刚还在阿里巴巴和腾讯的支持下，对智能电视应用相关的硬件设备进行投资——此举部分是为了绕开政府对电视台的控制，由于这种控制，取得必要许可证是不可能的。
Chinese companies are also investing heavily to develop technical skills in film and television, with Oriental DreamWorks employing 300 animators. The bulging coffers of major Chinese players means they can buy both assets and talent.
中国媒体公司也在大力投资开发影视技术，比如东方梦工厂聘请了300名动画师。中国主要媒体公司的雄厚财力意味着它们既能收购资产也能延揽人才。
But Mr Li and other media executives have greater ambitions. They dream of the day when Hollywood and the rest of the world seeks content from China in a two-way flow. That, however, is still likely to be some way off.
但黎瑞刚等中国传媒行业的高管怀有更大的野心。他们梦想着有一天，好莱坞和世界其他地方也会从中国引进内容，从而形成一种双向流动。然而，达到这个目标可能还有一段距离。广州传媒翻译公司。
“Hollywood has talent; they can tell stories. They have a system. We can buy assets. But that doesn’t mean we have talent and expertise,” he says. “We Chinese have to be patient and modest.”
“好莱坞有人才；会讲故事。他们形成了一个体系。我们可以买入资产。但这并不意味着我们有人才和技能，”他说，“我们中国人必须保持耐心和谦逊。”
Additional reporting by Tom Mitchell
米强补充报道
Beijing may keep quotas despite end of WTO rules
中国可能不会完全取消进口片配额
Not long ago, the streets of Beijing were populated by sellers hawking illegal DVDs of the latest releases of popular Hollywood movies. Such rampant piracy was one of the main reasons for friction between Hollywood and China.
不久以前，北京的街头还尽是叫卖最新上映的热门好莱坞电影盗版DVD的商贩。猖獗的盗版是好莱坞和中国之间发生摩擦的主要原因之一。
Another was the fact that under the agreement granting China admission to the World Trade Organisation in 2001, Beijing was allowed to show 34 foreign movies a year in Chinese cinemas. Only films with a certain amount of locally made content were exempt. When film-makers began working in the country to get around these rules, it marked the beginning of the courtship between Hollywood and China.
另外一个摩擦原因是，在2001年准予中国加入世贸组织(WTO)的协议下，中国每年允许引进34部外国电影。只有包含一定比例的本地制作内容的外国电影才不受配额限制。外国电影公司开始在中国制作影片，以绕开这些规则，标志着好莱坞和中国之间“恋爱”的开端。广州传媒翻译公司。
The restrictions on foreign content are set to expire next February. Piracy concerns have largely faded, too, primarily because Chinese media groups such as Tencent now offer reasonably priced streaming services comparable to those of Netflix.
对进口内容的限制将于明年2月到期。令人担忧的盗版问题也基本消失，主要原因是腾讯等中国媒体集团现在提供可与奈飞(Netflix)相媲美的、价格合理的流媒体服务。
It is less clear what will happen to the quota system, which allowed the government to limit the import of foreign movies.
但进口片配额制度会发生什么变化就不太好说了。
“They will certainly renegotiate and relax the restrictions,” predicts one Chinese investor in Hollywood. “But I cannot imagine that they will eliminate the quota altogether. They will never allow a free-for-all open market.”
“他们一定会重新谈判，放宽配额，”好莱坞的一位中国投资者预测，“但我无法想象他们会彻底取消配额。他们绝不会允许一个自由放任的开放市场。”
Hollywood movies are generally seen as more attractive to mainland viewers than those churned out by government-owned studios with their unsubtle criticism of Japanese or western imperialism or glorification of the Communist party’s rise to power.
国有电影制片厂炮制出的电影大多是对日本或者西方帝国主义的直白批判或者对共产党掌权之路的赞颂。相比这些电影，好莱坞电影通常被视为更能吸引中国内地观众。广州传媒翻译公司。
Some Chinese investors expect that Beijing will try to offer incentives to Hollywood to make more movies in China, possibly by offering tax credits.
一些中国投资者预测，北京将尝试向好莱坞提供激励措施，吸引好莱坞制片厂在中国制作更多电影，可能的做法是提供税收抵免。
But even as the government ponders a loss of control over content, US lawmakers in Congress fret that Chinese money might subvert the Hollywood film industry.
然而，在中国政府思考它们对内容控制减弱之时，美国国会的议员们也在担心中国的资金可能会颠覆好莱坞电影业。
“Such ideas are too paranoid,” the investor says. “It isn’t as if we are talking about buying military equipment.”
“这种想法太偏激了，”这位投资者说，“我们又不是在讨论购买军事装备。”
