Show Business: What Makes Run Run Run?

All over Southeast Asia, an emblem with the gold initials SB on a dark-blue shield is as familiar as the U.S. dollar sign. It stands for the Shaw Brothers, sole owners of the largest show-business empire in Asia. Their chain of 120 moviehouses and ten amusement parks in a half-dozen countries draws tattooed headhunter warriors in Borneo, svelte Chinese beauties in Hong Kong, betel-chewing peasants in Cambodia, wisp-bearded mandarins in Viet Nam, combative Sikhs in Singapore. No one knows better than the SBs how to turn a profit from this varied audience. At...

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