Successful people (business or otherwise) prefer to view club memberships as a sort of investment, rather than an outlay.
Networking with the moneyed elite can create more business opportunities.
More important, these huisuo provide successful or aspiring people the opportunity to foster ties with powerful government officials.
Comedian Zhao may have very humble origins, but he is reputed to enjoy great popularity, not just among the peasants and migrants, as illustrated by this anecdote:
On May 2, Zhao's private jet made an unscheduled landing at Changde in Hunan Province due to poor weather while en route to Guangzhou.
Upon hearing of the arrival, the mayor of Changde rushed to the airport to show his respect for the comedian.
The airport manager was also called in to take charge of the air-traffic control.
Although the real intention of these clubs is to cultivate ties that might lead to further accumulation of wealth, they tactfully mask these crude intentions by emphasizing the cultural elements on offer.
That's why such clubs are usually situated in scenic areas, or ancient buildings. Sometimes these clubs are described as gathering places for art aficionados.
A couple of years ago, the Hangzhou government launched a campaign of returning the West Lake to the people by pulling down illegal buildings.
At the end of the campaign, locals found to their dismay that the best lake side views have been monopolized by a cluster of expensive clubs.
Recently similar clubs have also been exposed in Beijing's Palace Museum and the former summer residence of the Qing emperors at Chengde, Hebei Province.
These blatant renovations could not have been carried out without the full knowledge or complicity of those departments entrusted with the job of protecting the relics.
The seeming paradox between the vaunted mission of protecting traditional Chinese culture and the real acts of destroying it can be explained by the all-consuming, national impulse to turn a good profit by monetizing whatever assets are at one's disposal.
Sadly, these impulses to make money have gained increasing political correctness and respectability in such slogans as "deepening the industrialization of cultural enterprises."
In the case of Zhao's club, the local relics protection departments stand to share in Zhao's profits.
That's why to avoid similar mistakes we must look beyond the comedian and the Dongcheng District government.
We must examine the policies that make state assets so vulnerable.
These policies are also responsible for the more damaging systematic pulverization of Beijing's many siheyuan that used to characterize old Beijing.