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Playboy's Shanghai 'Lifestyle Club' plan may stall
December 7, 2004
Shanghai - Playboy Enterprises Inc.'s plan to open a "lifestyle club" in
Shanghai next year won't be approved, the Beijing Morning Post newspaper
reported today, citing an unidentified official from Shanghai's Commerce
Bureau.
Michael Nussbaum, the head of Shanghai Entertainment Ltd., which hopes to
operate the club under license from Chicago-based Playboy Enterprises, said he
wasn't aware of any objections. The Shanghai bureau did not respond to repeated
requests for comment.
"We will adhere to the rules and regulations of applying" for approval,
Nussbaum told a Shanghai press conference. The club would be the world's only
Playboy venue.
Playboy Enterprises is seeking to open a seven-story nightspot in western
Shanghai with three restaurants, a boutique, cabaret, disco, spa, wine and
cigar bars -- and the signature Playboy Bunny waitresses. Communist China,
where Playboy magazine is banned, isn't ready for such Western openness,
according to Chinese investor Ma Jun.
"The idea of such a club goes against the society's morals and customs," said
Ma, who helps manage $100 million at E Fund Management Co. in the southern
provincial capital of Guangzhou. "It won't be so easy to get approval."
Playboy's flagship club in Chicago was shuttered as far back as 1986 after
being attacked as demeaning to women. The company's last Playboy haunt, in
Manila, closed in 1991.
China last year lifted a 54-year ban on beauty pageants, formerly deemed
decadent by the Communist Party.
'Sex Sells'
Hainan province hosted its second Miss World pageant at the weekend in the
seaside city of Sanya. The city also will stage next year's event, according to
pageant organizers and Sanya Mayor Chen Ci.
The Shanghai Playboy club is planned for Hongqiao district, which also is home
to a franchise of Hooters. The restaurant chain, owned by Atlanta-based Hooters
Inc., is known for waitresses who wear low-cut T-shirts.
"Sex sells around the world and China is no different from any other country in
that regard," said Timothy Condon, the Singapore-based head of Asian markets
research at ING Groep NV.
Work already has started on the Shanghai club, Nussbaum said. Joint-venture
partners Shanghai Entertainment and Shanghai Times Supermarket Investment &
Construction Co will operate it. A members-only section will be included.
The venture, 60 percent owned by Shanghai Times, has registered capital of
$12.5 million, Nussbaum said. He plans to open in the fourth quarter of 2005.
'High-Margin, Low-Risk'
The venture's agreement with Playboy Enterprises doesn't include rights to
Playboy magazine for men or the company's television networks or Web sites.
Playboy Enterprises in October signed a licensing agreement with Palms Casino
Resort in Las Vegas and the Nine Group to develop a nightclub and casino in the
U.S. gaming capital.
The Shanghai and Las Vegas plans "represent a new high- margin low-risk growth
business for the company," Christie Hefner, the chief executive of Playboy
Enterprises and daughter of the founder, Hugh Hefner, said in a statement.
Annual revenues from the two clubs will total about $5 million, starting in
2006, when the Las Vegas property is due to open, the statement said. Playboy
Enterprises' shares have fallen 22 percent this year.
Nussbaum is an associate publisher of New York-based News Communications Inc.,
according to the statement. News Communications prints 23 weekly publications,
many of them free.
Hugh Hefner opened the first Playboy Club in Chicago in 1960 -- a time when
China was still closed to the outside world.
Fishnet Tights
The members-only clubs were known for their Playboy Bunny waitresses, who
dressed in corsets with fishnet tights, rabbit ears and fluffy tails. Members
carried their own keys -- complete with a head in the shape of the Playboy
rabbit symbol.
The Shanghai club will have Playboy Bunnies, the company statement said.
China still deems pornography off limits. Besides banning publications such as
Playboy, the Communist Party censors content in newspapers and magazines.
The government also has blocked access to hundreds of Web sites this year
because of pornographic or violent content. Between February and August, 1,600
Internet cafes were closed for allowing children to play violent or adult-only
games, according to Xinhua, the state-run news agency.
Companies such as Playboy and Hooters are expanding into China as economic
growth lifts incomes. China's per-capita income in urban areas topped $1,000
for the first time last year as the economy grew 9.3 percent. The economy grew
9.5 percent in the first nine months of 2004.
The wealth gap between China's rich urbanites and poor farmers is growing, said
Thomas Wong, who heads the sociology department at the University of Hong Kong.
"The fact that there is a going to be a Playboy Club in Shanghai underlines
this inequality," Wong said.
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Playboy
to open club in Shanghai, a first for China
12-5-2004
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