1985: Sisi Cult Reaches China

After the People’s Republic of China embarked on “reform and opening up” in the late 1970s, Ernst Marischka’s Sissi (1955) was one of the earlier non-communist European films chosen to be shown to Chinese audiences. Dubbed in Chinese and screened in 1985 and 1986, Sissi was an instant sensation. The rest of the Sissi trilogy followed quickly. Some sources claim that the aggregate Chinese viewership of the trilogy reached 800 million in just a few years. The films also become a regular part of the national broadcaster’s annual Chinese New Year holiday TV programming.

The Sissi films’ wild success makes Sisi the most popular princess, foreign or Chinese, in the contemporary Chinese popular culture. After thirty years of anti-Western, anti-feudal, and anti-bourgeois communism, many Chinese were ready for different values and visions for the future; the Romy Schneider-Sisi appeared at the right time and offered new images of womanhood, class, and splendor worthy of admiration and aspiration. Chinese audiences then project their hopes, desires, and fantasies on their “Princess Sisi.” Many girls are even named after her.

This popularity makes Sisi a versatile icon in the expanding Chinese consumer culture. Businesspeople use her name and images (often Romy Schneider-Sisi) to sell toys, hair accessories, handbags, women’s clothing, lingerie, skin care products, perfumes, beddings, sanitary napkins, online games, real estate developments, and even breast augmentation procedures and silicon sex dolls. Sisi is undoubtedly one of the top attractions for Chinese tourists visiting Central Europe. Many come to Austria for sites associated with Sisi. She has quietly become another Mozart-like, globally-recognized “Austrian.”

External Resources:
China: Feder Agency of Civic Education (BRD)