Feeding the Dragon: Inside the Trillion Dollar Dilemma Facing Hollywood, the NBA, & American Business

by Chris Fenton

Book/Author   CBS This Morning ,  New York Times , Washington Post , BBC , NPR , Wall Street Journal ,  Tucker Carlson Tonight, Fox News, CNN / Smerconish, Bloomberg, Fox Sports, Maria Bartiromo, Fast Company, Los Angeles Times, South China Morning Post, SALT Talks, Sky News, VOA, Greta Van Susteren, War Room, Adam Carolla Show, Keiser Report, CNBC, VOA, Outkick, The Bulwark, Fox Business, & more....

A deeply revealing memoir of big wins and hard lessons from a seasoned executive caught smack in the middle of the trillion-dollar soft power struggle pitting China against Hollywood, the NBA, and American business.

Genres: Politics, China, Nonfiction, Economics, Audiobook, Film, Business

288 pages, Hardcover

Published July 28, 2020

About the author

For seventeen years, Chris Fenton served as president of DMG Entertainment Motion Picture Group and GM of DMG North America, internationally orchestrating the creative and business activities of DMG—a multi-billion-dollar global media company headquartered in Beijing. He has produced or supervised twenty-one films, grossing $2 billion in worldwide box-office, and packaged sixty-three others. As an author, Fenton chronicled much of that work in FEEDING THE DRAGON: Inside the Trillion Dollar Dilemma Facing Hollywood, the NBA, & American Business.
At present, he speaks regularly on China and the important exchange of culture, commerce, and filmmaking globally. Fenton also serves as CEO of Media Capital Technologies, having concluded a successful term as Senior Advisor to IDW Media Holdings focused on streamlining operations, expanding international film and television business, and restructuring investments.
Additionally, Fenton hosts US Congressional member delegations on diplomatic missions to China and ASEAN countries focused on trade, media, culture, and investment. He is a Trustee of the US-Asia Institute, Advisor to the Canadian Trade Commission and US-Saudi Business Council, and board member for both Wasabi Cloud Storage and WatchMojo.
Fenton, a contributor for RealClearPolitics, South China Morning Post, OUTKICK / Fox Sports, The Federalist, C-Suite Quarterly, Bleeding Cool, and The Wrap, regularly appears on Bloomberg, Tucker Carlson, NPR, Fox Business, BBC, France 2, CNBC, Fox Sports, Adam Carolla, and VOA. He is also a member of the Producers Guild of America and the Academy of Television Arts and Science.
He started his career as a motion picture agent at the William Morris Agency after obtaining a BS in Engineering from Cornell University. Currently, Fenton resides with his wife and two children in Manhattan Beach, CA.

Reviews

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

Look At Me - I Did't Learn
-Fenton

This was an upsetting book.

Whereas similar books such as Red Carpet: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy tackled the problems with these multi-million US conglomerates dealing with China, this book was more of a biography of Fenton and how he prevailed in spite of USA trying to meddle with his dragons.

This book was not the type of side on China I was expecting.

He describes all these accounts of propoganda he had to allow into his films, but then cowers to the fact that the companies were better off with all the new cashflow he spearheaded.

This was a truly strange and unacceptable book.

Essentially a memoir, this book proved that Fenton didn't really learn, and wasn't able to see through the big plan of China.

I still did enjoy some of the stories behind the movies - namely in this book are Looper and the Iron Man series particularly heavily mentioned.

If you want to read an actual book on the side of Hollywood and China from someone who wasn't brainwashed by propoganda, I recommend instead you read Red Carpet: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy.

3.3/5

[Magdalena · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good grief, the whole thing has been written like a pitch. It’s full of interesting anecdotes and fascinating details, but it really shows that the author has built his career on convincing people to invest in his projects with well-crafted business messaging, because there were whole sections of the book that felt eerily like an introduction to some company’s annual report. I don’t mind that the author chose to present a lot of information in the form of dialogues, but that really meant that we got a lot of pure business pitches, I assume close to verbatim.

It doesn’t help that the author got over attached to certain phrases and descriptors and used them all the time – I have no idea how the editor has allowed this book to get through to printing with the author’s wife being referred to as “going into tiger wife/mother mode” 5 times in a row in the span of about 3 pages, but this shouldn’t have happened.

Two starts is all I can give because of that. I got really tired of the style half way through.

[Terrible Book Club · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hollywood agent Chris Fenton promises a "deeply revealing memoir" with Feeding the Dragon, but it seems to be more of a glossy, dimensionless jerk-off session with a shoddy Chinese backdrop instead.

It's difficult to trust Fenton's assertions that he is an expert on China when he doesn't speak Chinese and does not meet with Chinese officials. The article Debunking Hollywood Agent: Is Chris Fenton ‘Feeding the Dragon’ or Feeding His Ego? by Andrew Rossow, Esq. provides some important context that Fenton has left out, including his current legal battle with DMG entertainment and his former client/partner Dan, both of whom are prominently featured in the book.

Content Warnings: sinophobia, extremely brief mentions of drug use and suicide

[Thomas Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chris Fenton’s narrative of making Iron Man 3 and navigating the challenges of making a film in partnership with by China is insightful and thought provoking. Avoiding a cold or even a hot war with China depends, in part, on our ability to wage cultural detente.

[Brendan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The topic interesting topic but it wasn't well written. Instead of describing the events it is written like dialogue, which mostly sounds like 90s frat boys talking. It also only describes one man's experience and only one movie. A larger exploration would have been better.

[Yen-chun Chen · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is very important that we understand China's POV. And I belive Chris provided very good points about it as following quotes,

"Since the days of Mao, the goal of China is, and has always been, keep the population, now a whopping 1.4 billion people, just happy enough so that they don’t revolt.

You cannot do anything that makes either the Chinese government look bad or the people unhappy. Once you understand this concept, it makes everything else much clearer."

"First, the Chinese government wants their 1.4 billion people just-happy-enough that they don’t revolt. Second, the CCP can achieve that by creating jobs and a larger middle class through strong economic growth. And third, they can foster populace contentment by orchestrating strategic public narratives through the Propaganda Ministry."

[Steve Peifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an ominous book about the increasing economic power that China has and how it is using that power to dictate policy to American businesses. There are implications when the huge amount of potential monies cause companies to compromise their principles and their patriotism. There is too much about the author to make this five stars, but it is revelatory and very much worth the read.

[Scott Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really compelling first hand account. 4/5 as Fenton sometimes comes off a little too much like a stereotypical ego driven Hollywood type to also be credible in foreign affairs and diplomacy. Still very compelling despite that very slight drawback

[NewooweN · Rating 2 out of 5]

Never finished. Thought it would be cool but was dumb

[Adam Hasner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fast Paced and Energetic Read

Don’t necessarily agree with all his conclusions and observations - but a fascinating peak into the world of doing business in China.