Katy Perry, Gigi Hadid Banned From China As Victoria"s Secret Fashion Show Unravels

As we reported yesterday, this year’s Victoria’s Secret fashion show, which is slated to take place in Shanghai in just two weeks, is unraveling like a cheap lace thong thanks to Chinese authorities’ refusal to cooperate with its producers, and Communist Party"s decision to deny visas to some of the biggest stars who were slated to participate in the show.

The latest update on the deteriorating state of affairs comes via the New York Post, which has reported that US pop sensation Katy Perry – who was slated to perform at the show – and supermodel Gigi Hadid, who was supposed to walk in the show, have been indefinitely banned from China.

Sources told the Post’s infamous Page Six gossip section that the “Roar” singer had tried applying for a visa to enter the Communist nation, but was denied by Chinese officials.

And while she was initially informed that she’d be able to gain access, the decision was apparently reversed after the government caught wind of a controversial incident from 2015, in which Perry donned a bright, glittery dress with sunflowers on it during a performance in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan.

Gigi Hadid

The innocent gesture wound up causing widespread outrage in China because the sunflower had been adopted the year before by anti-China protesters.

However, Perry also waved a Taiwanese flag during the concert in show of support for the country, which has been clashing with the mainland for years over its autonomy.

“She was initially granted a visa to perform at the VS show in Shanghai, then Chinese officials changed their minds and yanked her visa,” a source explained. “For every artist who wants to perform in China, officials comb through their social-media and press reports to see if they have done anything deemed to be offensive to the country. Maroon 5 was banned a few years ago because one band member wished the Dalai Lama happy birthday on Twitter.

Meanwhile, Hadid and a handful of other models were banned because of social media posts that apparently offended Chinese government officials.

Hadid, who was booked for the show back in August, was banned because of a February Instagram video — in which she held up a biscuit shaped like a Buddha and imitated the religious figure by squinting her eyes.

The clip was posted by the model’s sister, Bella Hadid, in February. It was later deleted following a storm of criticism as Chinese social-media users warned her not to come to Shanghai, calling her racist.

Apparently, Victoria’s Secret has decided that the show will go on, with or without Hadid:

 

I’m so bummed I won’t be able to make it to China this year. Love my VS family, and will be with all my girls in spirit!! Can"t wait to tune in with everyone to see the beautiful show I know it will be, and already can"t wait for next year! :) x

— Gigi Hadid (@GiGiHadid) November 16, 2017

 

Some of Victoria’s Secret’s biggest names have been denied entry to China, in addition to lesser-known models, such as Julia Belyakova, Kate Grigorieva and Irina Sharipova.

Model Adriana Lima’s visa has been held up due to an ongoing “diplomatic problem."

Harry Styles will reportedly replace Perry as the show’s performing artist.
 

How Much Space Does $1,500 Rent In The World's 'Most Magnetic' Cities?

New Yorkers who wince every time they slip a $1,500 rent check under their super’s door should consider moving to Shanghai, or maybe Berlin.

According to a new study published on RentCafe, $1,500 will buy you three times more space in Shanghai than in Los Angeles and twice as much in Frankfurt. Meanwhile, rents per square foot are five times higher in San Francisco than they are in Berlin.

Rentcafe used data from the Global Power Index and data on price-to-square footage ratios that it had collected for a previous study to compare how much space $1,500 will buy in the world’s 30 “most magnetic” cities - i.e. cities that are popular tourism hubs.

The study’s authors presented their results in an interactive graphic that allows users to compare costs between cities. Some of the most expensive markets include San Francisco, Manhattan and Zurich. Among the least expensive are Istanbul, Shanghai and Berlin.

Manhattan, for example, offers only 277 square foot (26 m2) for $1,500.  In Seoul, the same amount of money will rent you no less than a 1,389 square foot (129 m2) apartment, ample space for one person.

In San Francisco, $1,500 a month will rent you a 316 square foot apartment. Meanwhile, in Austria, $1,500 will rent you 1,009 square feet – almost three times as much. Rentcafe adds that, while SF has some of the most widely regarded cultural amenities in the world, Vienna - the City of Music – has plenty of entertainment options, from museums, vintage cinemas, live shows to recreational parks and hiking trails.

That is to say that one doesn"t necessarily need to pay sky-high rents to live in a fun urban environment.
 

Can't Afford A Shanghai Apartment? Try Sleeping In A "Shared Compartment"

Shanghai’s status as an emerging tech hub is bringing with it problems related to overcrowding experienced by US cities like San Francisco and certain parts of New York City – namely out-of-control rents and home prices.

But now, the cities’ mid-tier office drones, some of whom may not have enough cash saved to “commit” to an apartment, have a new low-cost housing alternative. They"re called shared compartments, and they"re are popping up in office buildings around Shanghai. Users pay to sleep in the compartments for a set amount of time. They’re given disposable bedding to make sleeping more comfortable, and the compartments are disinfected automatically by ultraviolet light after each use.

Photos of these compartments have been circulating on Chinese media:

People can enjoy a rest in the compartment by scanning the QR codes for payment.

A man experiences a shared compartment in Shanghai...

The inside of a shared compartment...

The disposable bedding...

They have been rising precipitously now for at least a decade, with an average 1,000 square foot apartment in Shanghai going for $725,000, or around five million yuan. Shanghai"s average salary per month is 7,108 yuan ($1,135) or 85,300 yuan a year. That puts local property in Shanghai at about 50 times median salaries in the city, according to Forbes. By comparison, housing prices in New York City are 32 times salaries of average New Yorkers.

With those figures in mind, showering at the company gym doesn’t sound so bad.

Chinese Black Swans? No Problem!

With bonds, stocks, and commodities collapsing amid a renewed wave of Chinese monetray conditions tightening, concerns over potential butterfly effects and potential "black swans" are beginning to appear. However, as The South China Morning Post reports, the people of Shanghai have a solution for that...

Two deliverymen have been accused of stealing a black swan from a park in Shanghai and cooking and eating part of it, according to a TV report.

Residents living near Xujiahui Park noticed that one of five black swans living in the area was missing, Radio and Television Shanghai reported.

Surveillance footage showed the pair grabbing the swan late at night.

The men, whose full names were not given, had originally planned to catch fish, but were deterred by security patrols in the park. The bird died before the men got it home and they then boiled its carcass and froze it, according to the report. The following day they cooked it with carrots, ate half, but threw the rest away because it tasted bad. The men have been arrested by the police for hunting and killing a protected species, the report said.

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On a serious note, we have come to expect this kind of behavior from the increasingly despeate Venezuelans, but if this is becoming the norm in Shanghai, then China"s problems run far deeper than collapsing capital markets.

A New "Anomaly" Emerges In Chinese Markets

The Shanghai Composite Index, notorious for its wild swings over the past two years, has gone 85 trading days without a loss of more than 1% on a closing basis, the longest stretch since the market’s infancy in 1992.

The last 4 days have highlighted the unusual effect in Chinese stocks.. each time the Shanghai Composite dropped over 1% (red dotted line) it was miraculously lifted to ensure it closed with a loss less than 1%...

As Bloomberg reports, authorities favor a steady stock market because it helps companies fund investment and repay debt by issuing new shares, which could help boost economic growth, according to Yin Ming, a vice president at Baptized Capital in Shanghai.

“The national team is behind it,” Yin said. “State funds will likely continue to be a market stabilizer.”

For some investors, it’s a sign that state-directed funds are putting a floor under daily market swings - a development that presents short-term buying opportunities when the Shanghai Composite dips more than 1%  during intraday trading - but when this happens in the US its completely normal and defended as animal spirits that mean "stocks just want to go higher."