Mickey Mouse vs Big Big Wolf: Disney's battle for Chinese wallets

An international visitor kisses a Mickey Mouse in a Chinese style outfit at Shanghai Disneyland.[Photo by Gao Erqiang/China Daily]

"Instead it's what is being broadcast on television, what they're seeing in their day-to-day life," he said. That means the Boonie Bears duo and mischievous, super-powered pig GG Bond, he said.

That's not helped by a ban on imported cartoons during the late afternoon "golden hour" peak viewing time for children.

China's attitude to Disney is ambivalent, reflecting a clash between nationalistic sentiment and the desire for American-style consumption among the growing middle class.

And Disney is still enjoying a banner year at the box office in China. Warcraft, Zootopia, Captain America: Civil War, The Jungle Book and Star Wars: the Force Awakens are among the 10 most-watched movies of 2016, reaping more than $690 million in ticket sales, according to Box Office Mojo. Characters from some of those films will feature at the Shanghai resort.

"There are people that love Disney and those that don't, for a variety of reasons," said Chris Yoshii, Asia-Pacific vice-president for AECOM and a member of the Themed Entertainment Association. He predicted China's theme park market will overtake the United States in the "not too distant future".

But that's by no means all Disney.