[Just so you know, if the heading hadn’t been “Crazy Horse Edition”, the line I would’ve picked out as the most WTF to use as the heading would’ve been, “They’re wary of disturbing this land of purity."]
“November’s just started, and we’ve had two explosive pieces of news. On the 1st, internet citizens found that Lisa’s Chinese weibo account and fan club accounts were both banned. Almost at the same time, big Chinese celebrities Angelababy and Zhang Jiani have also been banned all over the internet. It’s not just their accounts on various platforms, but their movies and reality TV shows have deleted their names from the cast.
Why would something like this happen? What does some entertainment circle event have to do with the struggle between nations? This all started with the ridiculous capitalist game that took place a month ago.
At the end of September, top Asian celebrity with over 100 million fans all over the internet, Lisa, announced she is going to perform at Crazy Horse in Paris. That shocked the whole world. Nobody imagined that a top celebrity at the height of her career would destroy all her future potential to attend a high publicised “artistic performance“.
What was even more shocking was that it was revealed that two Chinese celebrities, Angelababy and Zhang Jiani, showed up to watch the show live.
And after that, the banning of these three’s accounts took place just like I said.
A lot of people couldn’t understand why people would get banned as soon as they’re associated with Crazy Horse. What law did they break exactly? Is it merely because stripping is too trashy? Is there another reason?
Don’t worry, I’ll explain the complicated conflict behind this.
First, I’m gonna go into a brief history of Crazy Horse for people who are unaware.
Crazy Horse was founded by French man Alain Bernardin in 1951. It’s located on the most luxurious street in Paris, Avenue George-V. This street is surrounded by the headquarters of many luxury brands known all around the world, like Yves Saint Laurent, Givenchy, LV, Chanel, Hermes, Dior…A bunch of “royal brands” were created here, and people who hang out around here are all the most elite in Europe.
One of the main purposes that Alain created Crazy Horse is to open up the European nobility market, and create a connection to upper level society. In order to draw these noblemen’s attention, he found a bunch of beauties with perfectly proportioned bodies to perform artistic programs, to attract large amounts of European elites into his social circle. Some of them were indeed famous in the art circle. At the time, people were proud of watching Crazy Horse, because they thought it meant they understood art and had good taste. At that time, Europe’s opinion of Crazy Horse was mostly positive.
Until 1968, when something historical happened in France, the May 68 event that shocked the world. This is one of the most important things to have happened in modern day France, and has completely changed French and European history. Its influence is very expansive, so I’ll only pick out two most important points so you can have an idea.
First, it ended France’s de Gaulle era.
Second, it began a massive French feminist movement.
That’s right. Feminism is behind Crazy Horse too.
Before 1968, performances at Crazy Horse was relatively conservative.
But with the rise of feminism, radical feminists proposed the idea that women have the right to choose whether they do or don’t wear clothes, using the name of “freedom”. So in 1968, France abolished the rule that performances weren’t allowed to be nude. At that point, Crazy Horse began its nude history. And opinions about Crazy Horse began to become very divided too. Some people think that this is just art. Others believe that this is just a way to please men by selling women’s bodies.
No matter what people thought, so long as upper level elites still had a demand for degeneracy, Crazy Horse would never lack an audience. Every year, large numbers of wealthy people travel from all over the world to Paris for two main purposes. First, to admire the beauties at Crazy Horse, and second, to buy up luxuries around the area.
As time moved on, people started associating going to watch Crazy Horse with shopping for luxuries, because fundamentally, they’re serving the exact same crowd:
Extremely wealthy.
They’re beyond the need for material goods, and only things that are thrilling and unique raise their interest.
When people like this gather, they form a circle composed of exclusively Europe’s elite, and Crazy Horse became your ticket in to this circle.
As the European circle became saturated, Crazy Horse began to extend its influence over to America across the ocean. In 1991, Crazy Horse opened a second branch in Las Vegas. People there enjoy the thrill of gambling and the visual impact of Crazy Horse. That’s why at the time, white elite circles had a saying going around—Las Vegas is heaven on earth.
As Crazy Horse became more popular in America, rich people in America began to join in the European elite circle. And as a result, French luxury brands began selling better and better in America, making tens of billions of profits every year.
And so, we came to the 21st century. As China began its rise, and wealthy elites became more numerous in the East, the European luxury tycoons were obviously unwilling to let this giant market go. So, they did what always worked. Break the ice with Crazy Horse, and see how the Asian market reacts.
But because of obvious reasons, they didn’t dare to just open up a Crazy Horse in China, so they had to beat around the bush a bit. First, they opened a Crazy Horse branch in Singapore which has many Chinese people. Then, in 2011, they put on travelling performances in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
So, Crazy Horse went all around China in their shows, but never dared to actually come in. Because European elites know that China has zero tolerance for such trashy performances. They’re wary of disturbing this land of purity.
Until 2022, a piece of news kicked their ass into gear. Just last year, China became the biggest consumer market for luxury goods in the world. Based on western capitalist statistics, this is just the start. As China continues to develop, in the next 10-20 years, even more rich people will appear out of China. Whoever can draw the attention of Chinese people at this moment in time is buying the seed of money. Trillions of dollars of profit is on the line. No luxury brand could let go of this piece of fat meat.
So September of this year, the third heir of LV took his girlfriend, Lisa, onto the Crazy Horse stage, and the world was shocked. For the first time, large numbers of Chinese people heard about Crazy Horse.
At this point, I’m sure everyone has a lot of questions.
For example, if they want to open up the Chinese market, why don’t they just find a Chinese celebrity to market it? The answer is simple. China has a zero tolerance policy towards trashy performances. No Chinese celebrity would dare to put themselves in that position. Angelababy and Shang Jiani just went to watch the performance and they’ve been blacklisted. If someone actually dared to go dance, they’d probably be jailed for life.
So Lisa became the best target, as she had large numbers of fans in China. She’s just a Thai citizen who’s working in Korea, after all, there’s no way she’d be arrested. Plus, she’s the girlfriend of one of heirs to LV. That identity is very marketable in and of itself.
The second question, why would watching Crazy Horse mean opening up to the luxury market?
In order to understand this, people have to understand a concept in marketing, which is leaving an impression in your user’s minds. Why do people buy a certain product? The only reason is because people genuinely think they need that product. So every product has to do something before it’s sold—brainwash its consumers to make them believe that it’s crucial to their lives.
The typical case is “If you have to give gifts, give Nao Baijin [health supplement in China]”, or “Reduce inflammation with Jia Duobao [health drink in China]. And, of course, the best and most immediate example, capitalist brainwashing of women in the last couple of years.
Women need to be better to themselves.
Women deserve better lives.
Women deserve the greatest of beauty.
I’m sure you’ve seen this kind of promotional slogan all over the place. This is a classic case of leaving an impression in your user’s mind, to make women think that in order to pursue a better life, they have to buy more expensive make up. That’s how you get them to spend their money.
That’s not even the best part. The best part is creating demand out of nowhere, like “The first cup of boba tea in fall.” [something you’re supposed to buy for your girlfriend] That’s a case of using brainwashing to random connect two completely unrelated things like autumn and boba tea, to create a brand new consumerist demand.
Once you understand this, we can look at how Crazy Horse is connected to luxury brands.
China is a rising industrial country. Our rich elites haven’t completely accepted Western consumerism values, especially when it comes to trashy performances like Crazy Horse. Chinese people’s first instinctive reaction to it would be disgust or shame. How can they change this stereotype?
The first step is to have famous people in China go watch Crazy Horse. To have Chinese people discover that, “Oh hey, my idol went to Crazy Horse. That’s not something to be ashamed of at all.” And that’s how they subtly insert western values and morals into our hearts.
And that’s why Lisa, and Angelababy, and Zhang Jiani have all been banned. Because their behaviour would bring bad influences to their fanbase. They wouldn’t correct direct their fans. They’ll make a lot of young people think that Crazy Horse is a perfectly reasonable show.
So what’s the commonality between Crazy Horse and luxury goods?
The answer is, they’re all the product of Western consumerism and privilege culture. In western ideals, you can buy anything with money, whether it’s material luxuries or visual enjoyment. Luxury goods are actually incredibly cheap to produce. The only reason people believe it’s worth its price tag is because it represents class, a tasteful lifestyle, just like Crazy Horse. They’re your entry ticket into upper level society.
So long as they can insert these ideals into Chinese people’s minds, when rich people are born out of this generation, they’d naturally become loyal customers of luxury brands.
And finally, the third question: What exactly am I referring to when I talk about the conflict between Crazy Horse, capitalists, and China?
First, this is an allied effort between western capitalists to test out the Chinese market.
Second, through promoting Crazy Horse, they can promote ideals like freedom and feminism, and make Chinese people discuss whether women can decide whether or not to wear clothes. This is a battle over public opinion.
Third, many countries in the world are very open to pornographic industries. There is a vast network of powerful people behind this industry. It’s even the core industry to a lot of nations. Only China limits its spread with its laws and its morals. And so the west have never really been able to open this market. As a result, Crazy Horse used Lisa as the fishing line and Angelababy and Zhang Jiani as the bait, to try to open up public discussion about a pornographic market in China.
But western capitalists never expected that we saw through what they were trying right away, and banned all three people involved. We’re telling everyone exactly what is correct, what is wrong. And this resolute attitude has killed their conspiracy in the cradle.”
Comments say, “I’m just shocked that so many people don’t know what Crazy Horse is. You can really tell how closed off we are to the world.”
“They’ve already buried the seed. From this point of view, they’ve already succeeded. It’s just like how a ton of people are jumping out and teaching people what Crazy Horse is. That’s the seed that’s been buried. Now it’s just waiting for it to sprout.”
“This is capitalists testing out China’s boundaries towards sex work, gambling, and drugs. It’s all a Jew conspiracy.”
Angelababy and Zhang Jiani have also been banned from Weibo despite Crazy Horse claiming that they were not even present at the shows.
The argument is hilarious. China is the biggest market for luxury brands but neeeds to be opened up more by a thai kpop idol performing in Paris, which by the way had a famous cabaret industry a century before 1968 but the cabarets are now mainly a thing for tourists. All for the purpose of corrupting a chinese elite who despite their mistresses and brothel visits are very pure.
Damn feminists and their ... *shuffles notes* ... nude performances?