China officials halt Playboy club

[SunWuKong]

damn, what's the big fucking deal? like Shanghai doesn't already have hundreds of seedy "nightclubs".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4082773.stm

China officials halt Playboy club

Business regulators in Shanghai have turned down an application for a Playboy nightclub complex in the city.

Playboy Enterprises had signed a deal with Shanghai Entertainment to open the site in China's commercial capital towards the end of 2005.

But Shanghai municipal government said the application did not comply with corporate law and other regulations, Chinese news agency Xinhua reported.

China bans Playboy and similar titles but some volumes are sold as art books.

Playboy's once famous clubs - complete with Bunny girls - were synonymous with the swinging 1960s but they went out of fashion long before the last one closed in 1991.

The US company however announced earlier this year that an entertainment venue would be built within the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas.

This month, it said had reached an agreement with privately held Shanghai Entertainment to open the club in China.

Playboy magazine is published in 18 countries.

[Chester]

damn, what's the big fucking deal? like Shanghai doesn't already have hundreds of seedy "nightclubs". There's definitely more seedy places all over. But my guess is that the government tolerates them so long as they keep things relatively discreet. To allow a famous company to come in and open up a club -- even if it were tame compared to the more underground places -- would be an act of legitimizing the whole sector. The fact that the company in question is as famous as Playboy only exacerbates the concerns they have, I'd imagine.