Chinese Bunnies

Hugh Hefner is proud of his company's growing presence in China.

From The Press Association:

Image from Shanghaiscrap.com

Hugh Hefner hopes his Playboy brand can help encourage democracy in China.

The 83-year-old said the bow-tied Rabbit head was a popular emblem in the communist country, adding that it represented freedom.

He added that this was the case despite the magazine not being permitted on the mainland.

Speaking during a Q&A session at the Toronto Film Festival, Hef waxed lyrical about the power of the Playboy brand.

He told the audience that in China "the rabbit is increasingly representing - for men and woman - personal, economic and political freedom. That is what I want."

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Playboy brand clothes are all over China. I'd always thought that the clothes were shanzhai and didn't have anything to do with the actual brand. But apparently Hef is down with Playboy's presence in China, so that must mean he's getting a cut of at least some of the products over there.

I just asked Qian whether Chinese people even know that Playboy is a pornographic magazine. She thought that many don't know. It's not as if the Chinese could actually access any Playboy material on the country's locked down internet. So I'm not surprised that many wearing the bunnies on their shirts don't even know what they represent in the West.

While Hef sees his company as a beacon of liberalism in communist China, he probably shouldn't get ahead of himself in what his bunnies actually represent in the country. It's probably more of a trendy label rather than an endorsement of his open lifestyle.