Most people in the bar/club business can agree on one thing. The lifespan of the typical club is not long in Shanghai. Only in a few rare cases do clubs last longer than the 3 year mark.

A lot of clubs are opened by local Chinese with too much money on their hands. They go into a club, and think, “hey this is cool, I’ll open a club too! I can make money and have fun!”. Unfortunately this spells ultimate doom for these clubs that are supposed to somehow magically just work. It takes more than money and hope to run a successful business guys!

For those few that have made it, like Guandii and Babyface, they have hit a goldmine. Though, even established places like Park 97 are feeling the strain these days.

Anyhow, the newer clubs in Shanghai are getting more and more ambitious. With the new Pier 1 complex, Wynn Wins or whatever it’s called and the like, these clubs are getting outrageously large and expensive. Can Shanghai sustain these clubs? I doubt it, but time will tell.

Keep an eye out for Arena club-house and Juli-Anna Bar/Club/Music Place, two new clubs which, like all the others claim to have “something different” that will attract hordes of customers.

Shanghaiist had featured an interesting article about a potential Playboy club in Shanghai. It looks like they may be trying to open up a casino as well, but that remains to be seen as gambling is not sanctioned in the mainland. Looks like we might have to just settle for a good ol’ fashion Playboy club.

It seems that Internet cafes have been deemed as “unfit and potentially corrupting environments” for China’s youth. Yes, it seems they are right down there with the illicit massage parlors, gambling mahjong houses and unfiltered search engine results. It seems China’s Government is going insane over elevating computer games to the level of tobacco and alcohol. In short, these “dens of villainy and corruption” are no longer open to teenagers. Yes, we have finally reached the day, when the bouncer IDs you at the door so you can go in and play Bubble Bobble.

This is of course hot on the heels of the major net companies coming under fire for seceding to government demands and blocking certain content within the mainland. China is a stickler for controlling what their citizens see and do:

…the establishments will be prohibited from displaying “audio and video products and electronic games” that threaten national security or disparage other nationalities or races. Specifically, the entertainment may not “damage China’s unification, sovereignty, or territorial integrity,” referring to the dispute over the status of nominally independent Taiwan.

Does this sound like big brother to you? I am sorry how my control over fictitious characters slaying monsters and demons using magical powers threatens the very basis on which the motherland of China was founded.

The next targets of threat to the state we can expect to be McDonalds restaurants, old age homes, and churches. Yes, Big Macs are a threat to national obesity! You must be an adult to realize the consequences of ingesting such food!

I mentioned before about the rivalry between Shanghai and Beijing on who gets to build the mainland’s first Disneyland. Now it seems even Disney is denying involvement in this. Many conflicting reports state that a deal between Shanghai and Disney is imminent, while others show Disney as saying no deal!

Disney’s official statement by spokeswoman Allanah Goss says:

There is nothing new to report on the progress of Shanghai discussions. The Walt Disney Co has not reached an agreement with Shanghai to build a second theme park in China. If we were to reach an agreement for a second park in China, it would not open before 2010.

China is a priority for the entire company and we have a continuing dialogue about a variety of Disney initiatives, including television, motion pictures and consumer products, of which theme parks are only a part.

Television, motion pictures and consumer products? Sounds like we will be seeing a lot more Disney movies made in Shanghai as well as Disney stores. This is yet another big plus for Shanghai’s entertainment industry, as with big players such as Disney in town, Shanghai might regain some of it’s lost luster.

Disney’s Hong Kong Disneyland has been doing well but not well enough for some. It seems Disney is biding their time and plans their next park in 2010. Whether Shanghai is the lucky city still remains undetermined, but where else would you put it?

Shanghai wants to be the first city in Mainland China to have a major amusement park, such as Disneyland. This is of course a direct threat and competition to Hong Kong’s recently opened Disneyland. The proposed plan sees the new park opening in the Pudong area. Now it seems that Beijing want to muscle in on this opportunity and has announced plans of their own to build a Disneyland theme park by 2010.

Funny thing is that Disney admits to be in negotiations with Shanghai, but denies any such talks with Beijing. Beijing thinks by filing some official looking documents they can supersede Shanghai’s plans.

Beijing’s competitive Mayor, Wang Qishan, is believed to be behind the Disney bid, which was part of a blueprint for a new entertainment complex in the southern suburbs released on Sunday at the opening day of the city’s week-long Municipal People’s Congress.

According to the blueprint, written by the city’s development and reform commission, the 10 billion yuan ($A1.6 billion) complex in the Daxing district is to involve five to 10 leading entertainment companies, including Disney, and is one of six new “cultural” hubs to be created in Beijing in the next five years.

Sure, The Disney theme park was always part of it’s plans and had nothing to do with the fact that Shanghai was in active talks. Land in Pudong had already been earmarked for use in the Disney project. This Shanghai-Beijing rivalry is nothing new. It seems to be ingrained in both cities, such as noted in this article:

The duelling reports and behind-the-scenes rivalry they represent would mirror a similar clash earlier this decade between Beijing, which calls itself China’s cultural capital, and Shanghai, which wants to recapture its past glory when it was known to many as the Paris of the East.

In that battle, separate groups announced competing plans to build Universal Studios theme parks, one in Shanghai and another in Beijing, within months of each other.

The Universal Studios plans went mysteriously awry when Shanghai failed to obtain the “necessary permissions”. How convenient for Beijing. Come on Bejing, you already have the 2008 Olympics, don’t be greedy! I think you just need to let the best city win and not pull rank on Shanghai because you are the seat of the Government.

One way or another, Shanghai could really use a big theme park or amusement park. I think it is just what this city needs to round off its entertainment offerings. Though, it could be 2010 before we see any open around here.

What better way to celebrate the Chinese New Year than to personficate 8 top Chinese celebrities in wax. Where can you find this amazing exhibition of Chinese nationalism made to celebrate the Chinese New Year and Chinese celebrities? Certainly not in China! That’s right, you need to head over to London, England to see these lifelike figures. Actually, there are some on display in Hong Kong too.

Not to fret though, the wax figure company, Madame Tussauds, will be opening in Shanghai this spring. This is sort of a sneak preview in a way, of what we can expect to see when they open up here. You can expect to see Chinese stars famous in the west such as Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee and towering Yao Ming.

I am really not sure how a wax museum would mesh with Chinese culture, but I guess we’ll just wait and see…

Yes, we have yet another newcomer to Shanghai. It seems Warner brothers got fed up with their London offices, or could not resist the lure of Shanghainese food saw the great potential of the Chinese market. Don’t get too excited, they are not moving and movie or television production here, simply their cinema construction design center. They have a bold figure of opening 6 new theaters each year. For 2006, they already have all of the locations selected and planned. The first is set to open this month in January Chongqing. Does anyone go to movie theaters in Chongqing? Oddly enough, there are no plans as of yet to open theaters in Shanghai, even though that is their base of operations. 

If you ever wanted a gauge by which to measure China’s interest in going to the movies consider this: the US has about 39,000 movie screens serving a population of less than 300 million, while China with 1.3 billion people has a measly 2940 screens. This means 1 screen per 7700 people in the US, while it is 1 screen per 442,000 in China. I guess China will be needing more seats!Warner Brothers is betting on technology as well, as they are planning to build digital theaters in Beijing.
Millard Ochs, president of Warner Brothers international cinemas commented about making Shanghai the Headquarters for their planned “invasion” of Asia: 

“We’ve been developing an operations program in China. We would like to pursue Vietnam and India, and it’s much easier to do that from China than London.”

He then went on to say something blatantly true, but seemingly out of the scope of many:
“Half the world population is there, so that’s our direction.” 

An interesting fact though: Their Shanghai office currently employs 46 people, only 12 of which handle cinema construction and design. The other 34 must be ayis, secretaries and personal assistants. Hey, labor is cheap in China.

Image credit: Mystery Science Theater 3000