MY LIFE BEHIND THE ELITE CURTAIN AS A GLOBAL SHERPA
THEODORE ROOSEVELT MALLOCH
“Ted Malloch—bon vivant, scholar, diplomat, businessman, sportsman... brings us along on some of his greatest adventures.” — LINDA BRIDGES, Editor-at-Large, National Review
Quintessential WASP and Philadelphia native Theodore Roosevelt Mall...
The Dalai Lama
Everything is progressing, changing nearly overnight. Building continues apace following the historic 2008 Beijing Olympics. Massive and dramatic changes are underway everywhere, in every corner of China –from the gilded skyline coast to the remote far west.
What is China becoming? How exactly is it advancing? How are religion and spirituality now viewed in a country with a communist government and a capitalist economy? President Hu has held a number of summits over the past few years with Western leaders. They have been meetings of significant proportion, ripe with historic opportunity.
There is potentially a win-win plan that appears to be emerging, all sides willing. Arguably, nothing is more critical to the project of the 21st century than Western-Sino relations. China is now woven into the global, interdependent economy. How can formerly tense relations be so improved? Is it possible to build a new dynamic that would give both sides a boost, improve economic conditions, allow more freedoms, stabilize political relations and effect the future of the world for good? Will China step up to the task, away from the Orientalist trappings of the past and its ensnarled bureaucracies and outdated ideology?
China boasts one of the longest single unified civilizations in the world. Its 5000 year history is characterized by dramatic shifts in power between rival factions, periods of peace and prosperity when foreign ideas were assimilated and absorbed, the disintegration of empire through corruption and political subterfuge, and the cyclical rise of ambitious leaders to found each new empire. But for the last three hundred years China has more or less been asleep. The error and mistake of Mao’s disaster are all too evident today. But the sleeping dragon empire is now reemerging in a vibrant dynasty. China is attempting changes on a scale never before achieved and at break-neck speed. A new ‘harmonious’ society is the objective and today nearly everything is in a constant state called: transition.
Twenty-five years after Deng Xiaoping’s reform and opening policy allowed the West back into China, the country remains as mysterious and undiscovered as it was in the 19th century when gunboat diplomacy forced the last tottering dynasty to open up the country to trade and exploration. China’s vast population has grown from 400 million to over 1.3 billion in less than a century. This has driven a boom in consumerism most evident in the cities where advertising abounds and an entrepreneurial and materialistic China is literally, bubbling up.
There are four gigantic transformations happening in China, simultaneously. No country has ever in all of human history been involved in such dramatic change. But in this case, given China’s size, power and integration into the global economy, the risks and rewards involve the entire planet.
The four transformations or transitions are:
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The West would be well prepared to comprehend and ponder each of these concurrent transformations in attempting to understand modern China.
The emerging China, surely involves combating rampant corruption, enforcement of intellectual property laws, assistance by way of expertise on reforms, an open admission that Maoism is both wrong and dead (a museum to this effect, is in the making), and realization that consumers increasingly come first in China’s emerging “harmonious society.”
This is not to suggest that there are no problems in or with China or that it magically can assume an instant superpower status; becomes our keen rival or eventual enemy. It is simply time to recognize the facts and seize the day. There are many hard questions we will ask, some of which include:
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The Executive Committee of the China: In Transition project includes:
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Donegality Productions LLC is a media company that develops books, films, and other cultural projects that promote human flourishing and the common good. Donegality Productions will oversee the project in partnership with Wheelhouse Productions and distribute the film and curriculum through Thomas Nelson, the leading Christian publisher.
The director, screenwriter and producer of the documentary is Randall Wallace, President of Wheelhouse Productions and producer and author of the award-winning feature film, Braveheart and many other hits, including PBS documentaries and a series for The History Channel.
The budget for the film is $2.5 million, which incorporates both a traditional and viral marketing strategy with a global audience in mind.
Outline
The following is a concept outline of the documentary. There may be slight changes in settings and locations as the script is developed and completed. But these are the four themes that are explored and illustrated in the film. Each theme will be examined by a dramatic narrative story designed to reach both an elite/intelligent and a younger generation of emerging viewers curious about China.
Summary: People on the Move This story is filmed in China’s urban coastal cities and discusses the loss of innocence. It describes how the experience of living in modern China has reinforced new ways of thinking, living and working. We will follow a young man from a primitive state of subsistence farming in the distant countryside into the urban jungle, without his wife, children or traditions. We will demonstrate the effect and record the scale of massive demographic change over the last decade for some 300 million such persons.
Summary: Central Planning gives rise to corporations This story filmed in a Wal-Mart in Middle America and at various Chinese factories. It discusses how China is connected to the global economy. It traces a number of commonplace products back to their origin in China and documents the new industrial life that has come to define the Chinese economy. We will meet workers, CEOs and trace the route from factory to ship to store. The end of central state enterprise has brought a flood of new companies.
Summary: The power of the Communist Party is shifting to the all-powerful consumer This story filmed on Shanghai’s equivalent of Rodeo Drive discusses how the pursuit of the self and material gratification has given rise to the modern Chinese consumer culture. Old ideas about the soul, religion and character have been gradually replaced by the appearance of considerable wealth. It concludes with observations about the new celebration of self and ends in the collapse of self; but not before it becomes a surrogate divinity and the object of idol worship. We talk to Chinese celebrities, billionaires and members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party to gage their opinions.
Summary: From Official State Atheism to Spiritual Choice This story filmed in the five different faith communities in present day China discusses the way in which the object of spirituality has been changed from being something closed and persecuted to something open and respected, even valued for its contribution to a ‘harmonious’ society. Such views and forms of worship will be viewed from the temples, shrines and house churches where real believers live and pray. We will see first hand how spirituality is transforming China in every faith community.
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Outreach
The aim of this project is to reach emerging influentials both in the United States and abroad. Prior to the release of the film and companion book, we will be host town hall meetings in leading places across the United States on the thesis.
Development DVD Budget
| Production Personnel | |
| Executive Producer | 175,000 |
| Producers | 250,000 |
| Direction | 175,000 |
| Cast | 50,000 |
| Personnel Subtotal | 650,000 |
| Pre-Production | |
| Story Rights | 3,500 |
| Screenplay | 150,000 |
| Pre-Production Subtotal | 153,500 |
| Production | |
| Production Staff | 182,500 |
| Set Operations | 147,500 |
| Property | 20,000 |
| Wardrobe | 2,500 |
| Makeup and Hairdressing | 500 |
| Electric | 35,000 |
| Camera | 50,000 |
| Sound | 15,000 |
| Transportation | 165,000 |
| Location | 150,000 |
| Production Film and Laboratory | 8,000 |
| BTL Travel | 25,000 |
| Production Subtotal | 800,500 |
| Post-Production | |
| Editing | 125,000 |
| Music | 20,000 |
| Post-Production Sound | 7,000 |
| Post-Production Film and Laboratory | 7,000 |
| Titles | 2,000 |
| CGI | 15,000 |
| Post-Production Subtotal | 176,000 |
| Administrative | |
| Insurance | 85,000 |
| General Administrative | 65,000 |
| Completion Bond | 20,000 |
| Administrative Subtotal | 170,000 |
| Contingency | 50,000 |
| Marketing | 500,000 |
| Total | 2,500,000 |
Book and Bible
A companion book, China: In Transition, to the movie in popular style, written by the lead group but drafted by an award-winning journalist, will accompany the film documentary. The book will be aimed at a broad market with best-seller status and with deep praise expected. It will have incredible endorsements from renowned leaders.
Along side the film documentary and companion book is a new translation of the Chinese Bible. The 1909 version now in use is being redone and updated and will be ready for publication in about a years time. We have access to the Chinese translation team of scholars doing that Bible. We have had high-level discussions in China with the proper officials that suggest if we co-produced with a leading university we could co-publish it and sell it in bookstores and churches throughout all of China and of course in Asia through normal channels.
The combination of the best, thoughtful documentary on China, a companion book, and this new Bible make for a powerful group or ‘bundle’ of products that can be marketed and sold together and/or alone.
