Stripping is illegal in China.

So when we saw a listing for a burlesque show in Beijing, we HAD to go.

How would they perform burlesque, where one of the main tenets of this performance style is – as Miss Indigo Blue would say – Performer enters the stage with some clothing on, something happens, and performer exits the stage with less clothing on?

Well, this is how. You host a cabaret and just call it burlesque. In fact, the host of the show plays like Joel Grey from Cabaret, singing songs from the film and in general recreating a character from Weimar Republic Germany. The girls are beautiful and mostly sing songs or dance (some of the singing was so good, we couldn’t figure out if they were actually singing or if they were lip-synching). And a few of the girls remove a couple of articles of clothing (a pair of gloves …) and curtsy sweetly before running off stage.

But it was all in good fun and definitely the most Rated G stripping I’ve ever seen. The club (LAN) was sumptuously decorated with the most amazing bathrooms. The mixed crowd was fancy fancy and Jack was happy because he could get a proper martini and smoke cigars right at the bar.

You can strip yourself raw in Seattle, but you can’t smoke a stogey at the bar. Nope.