"I don't quite understand!" Zhang Yingguo shook his head and said sincerely. Boss Huang opened his mouth, then said helplessly, "What I mean is, for the sake of sustainable development, we need to start hiding our strengths from now on."
"I understand that!" Zhang Yingguo nodded. "Boss, I actually understand your idea. You want to use the movie '2012' to tell the world that the United States' industrial manufacturing capabilities are still number one in the world, that the US is still the strongest king in the world, and that China only possesses ancient cultures. You want to use this to shape the impression of China in the minds of global audiences and portray it as a harmless nation!"
"But Boss, it's not a time for us to hide our strengths anymore. Our magnetic levitation railway technology, our chip technology, and our base-5 computer technology, these technologies have already led the world."
"How can we hide these things?"
"To take a step back, even if we truly hide these things. We still can't force the other companies in the China High-Tech Electronics Industry Development Alliance to hide their strengths along with us. Now, over 80% of the global electronics processing industry is concentrated in China, and even 41% of the global industrial capacity has moved to China. This is a figure that no country can ignore, and it's also a figure that we absolutely cannot retreat from, because once we retreat, it means an invincible abyss!"
"These things probably can't be hidden by just one movie!" Zhang Yingguo said very seriously. At this moment, he was no longer the Zhang Yingguo who was keen on flattering others.
"If one movie isn't enough, then let's make ten, a hundred, or even all future Hollywood movies have this setting!" Boss Huang said expressionlessly. "As long as there's money, this isn't a difficult thing."
"This is just a movie, after all. It can't fool intelligent people."
"It's enough to fool most people," Boss Huang said. "And our main target is only the United States. And the United States is actually very willing to accept such a setting. Just like the United States United Super Vacuum Pipeline Railway Company, even if they know the truth, they still have to go to great lengths to create the illusion that the United States is still number one in the world!"
"America is number one in the world; this is the key consensus that allows America to connect as a whole. Once this consensus is broken, the entire United States will almost certainly head towards complete decline! So I think Americans will also help us jointly create this illusion, unless they encounter someone who doesn't play by the rules!" Boss Huang's expression became somewhat strange as he said this.
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In the end, "2012" grossed $1.9 billion worldwide, ranking 4th on the global box office charts, just shy of breaking into the top three.
However, the film above it was "The Misty Journey 1," a film from the same studio, starring the same actor, so it didn't seem to matter much.
But the sustained effect of "2012" was very significant. First and foremost was the massive doomsday economy. The world was already filled with talk of the end of days, and with the promotion of "2012," various products and concepts related to the end of the world became rampant.
The most typical example was a US company that launched doomsday shelters, offering two different types of products.
One was a large doomsday shelter built by the company itself, constructed inside a former mine. It was stocked with a large amount of food and various living facilities, including a cinema, a gymnasium, and an opera house. Once the apocalypse arrived, this large doomsday shelter would be able to isolate itself from all external influences.
Even if there were floods or nuclear war outside, they could still enjoy a peaceful life. And the ticket price was not expensive, only $600 for a ticket to stay there, which was practically a steal.
However, this shelter also had a rule: the doors would not open until the end of the world arrived, and ticket holders would not be allowed inside.
Well, even Boss Huang, upon seeing this money-making scheme, couldn't help but give it a thumbs-up and praise its business philosophy.
In addition, this company could also help others build private shelters, which involved digging holes beneath the user's private land, constructing various underground rooms, and finally installing a ventilation port and a vault-grade door on the surface.
According to the company's promotional posters, a private shelter could allow a family of five to live underground for 20 years. It sounded impressive, but you had to have $300,000 for construction.
In addition to these shelters, there was another product that saw a surge in sales: various doomsday foods.
This food was marketed for its long shelf life and high calorie content per unit area, with a small bite providing a day's worth of caloric needs. Storing a room full of this food could sustain an ordinary person for 30 years.
The taste of these foods was also very distinctive; most people lost the desire to eat them after just one bite.
According to incomplete statistics, the movie "2012" alone stimulated nearly $20 billion in the doomsday market, demonstrating an unprecedentedly powerful influence.
Another significant impact was on Taoism.
Previously, the "Misty Journey" series had led to significant development of Taoism worldwide. In 2010, at the initiative of Longhu Mountain, the World Taoist Association was established to regulate and assist the development of Taoism globally. Now, almost every country in the world had its own Taoist association, and the number of native Taoist priests had reached new peaks.
For example, in the United States, the number of registered Taoist priests exceeded 100,000, making Taoism directly the third-largest religion in the United States.
And this was despite the fact that many Taoist followers dared not disclose their faith for fear of retaliation, otherwise, it was said that this number could have been several times higher.
With the broadcast of "2012," there was a surge of global interest in China's "I Ching." Various articles interpreting the "I Ching" appeared in media outlets worldwide, and Taoism successfully attracted a new batch of followers.
However, to be fair, the "I Ching" is not a Taoist classic but a Confucian classic. Among the Confucian Four Books and Five Classics, the "I Ching" is one of them.
Unfortunately, most Chinese people consider the "I Ching" to be a Taoist classic, and Taoism, naturally, silently accepted this, not offering any explanations, and thus gained more followers nationwide.
And the best development of Taoism in the United States was not elsewhere but in Silicon Valley. The groups with the most prominent figures were the owners of major technology companies in the US.
After all, the president of the US Taoist Association was Steve Jobs, and the vice president was Mark Zuckerberg.
With the promotion of these two individuals, many people within their companies, whether sincere or not, gradually became Taoist priests. Furthermore, with the base-5 language, rooted in Chinese, gaining strong traction in the entire tech circle, many tech professionals had to start learning Chinese. They were then drawn to the profound and extensive Chinese culture, eventually joining Taoism, and so on. This led to many people and caused some US media to outcry for the preservation of Silicon Valley's purity, which also caused quite a stir domestically.
But at this very moment, the founder of this Taoist Association was facing another life-or-death juncture.
On October 5, 2011, after practicing meditation and qi in the morning, Jobs suddenly fainted at noon and was rushed to the hospital. He was then diagnosed with a recurrence of cancer, and in the blink of an eye, his life seemed to be coming to an end.
This was precisely the day of Jobs's death in history, and also the mortal peril in Jobs's life.
However, fortunately, Jobs survived October 5th. Afterwards, with various advanced medications and with Jobs's master and his fellow disciples specially rushing from China and performing rituals and prayers outside his ward, Jobs's body miraculously began to improve, and he successfully managed to save his own life once again.
"Master, thank you for your kindness. Without you and my fellow disciples, I would be gone!" However, what made the doctors who had stayed up for over a week without sleep want to vomit was that when Jobs regained his mobility and consciousness, the first people he thanked were not the doctors who had worked tirelessly for him, but the Taoist priests who had performed a mysterious prayer ritual outside for less than two hours.