Here’s a sentence I wrote on Nov. 3, 2016, to describe perhaps the most surreal meet-and-greet I’d ever been invited to witness:
On a warm October Sunday in Beverly Hills, Wang Jianlin, China’s richest man and the chairman of Dalian Wanda Group, made his way to a conference room adjacent to the bar at the Montage hotel. Joining Wang and his Beijing entourage were executives of Dick Clark Productions, the prolific production company behind awards shows including the Golden Globe Awards, as well as several members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which puts on the Globes each year.
