Xu was arrested in 2023 and one of the questions he was asked was: Which big shots have you conquered using members from your dance troupe? For some of Xu’s former friends, colleagues, and business contacts, life is quite restless as they worry about what Xu might have told the officials.
One day in October 2023, a dancer named Bai Shanshan cleared her Weibo account, attracting the attention of over 100 thousand online viewers. Bai was once the champion of the 20th Star Model Finals in Guangdong. She had posted various selfies on Weibo, in expensive cars, on luxurious yachts, and in one of China’s most expensive residences, Shenzhen Bay One, which has an average price of 100 million yuan. What drew people’s attention wasn’t her beauty or wealth but rather her title as the head of the Evergrande Dance Troupe.
Evergrande’s founder Xu Jiayin once said this about the dance troupe: “Those girls can nail down the things that I can’t!” A book called “Evergrande Legend: Decoding China’s Richest Man, Xu Jiayin,” reveals how Xu rose from poverty to become the country’s richest man.
In 1996, Xu was working for the Zhongda Group, earning a monthly salary of 2,000 yuan and helping the company make 200 million in two years. Xu asked for a pay raise but was rejected. He resigned and established Evergrande. He managed to acquire a 110,000 square-meter plot of land on Guangzhou Industrial Avenue and developed Evergrande’s first real estate project, Jinbi Garden.
At the time, Evergrande was only eligible for a 3-million-yuan loan, but Xu obtained 6 million. With that 6 million as leverage, he developed a project worth hundreds of millions. What’s more striking is that he completed land acquisition, construction, and sales and earned 80 million yuan—all in one year. The speed at which he made the money was unmatched at the time.
The book doesn’t mention how Xu got the loan nor how he managed to obtain the many levels of approval from banks and government agencies. Did Xu employ a magic weapon? We can only guess. The only clue from the book is that after earning his first pot of gold, Xu hastily established the Evergrande Dance Troupe in 1999.
For the first ten years, the dance troupe gave no public performances. Except for a few Evergrande employees, people knew nothing about it. But the troupe has been like a lucky star for Xu. Since the troupe’s establishment, Evergrande developed thirteen real estate projects, becoming a major property developer in China.
In 2010, Xu bought the Guangzhou Football Club and renamed it the Guangzhou Evergrande Football Club. The next year, his team won the Chinese Super League championship. To celebrate, Xu invited celebrity performers and held a big party. The audience erupted in excitement when the Evergrande Dance Troupe performed two dances specially created for the football team, “Prosperous Times” and “Peacock in the Rippling Waves.”
Under dazzling lights, the dancers looked stunning, each boasting fair skin, a beautiful face, long limbs, and a curvy figure, coupled with well-trained dance skills. After the troupe made its public debut, its leader, Bai Shanshan, posted on Weibo, “Being unnoticed for 10 years, one appearance makes the name known to all.”
After that, the Evergrande Dance Troupe appeared at various high-end ceremonies and events and won awards, including the Excellence Award at the 7th CCTV Dance Competition and the Gold Award at the Ministry of Culture’s National Dance Competition. The group also performed at international events such as the 2016 G20 Summit in Hangzhou and the closing ceremony of the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games. Xu Jiayin proudly told the public that his dancers are the image of Evergrande and an important part of his company.
Although the Evergrande dancers are attractive, their dancing is more stimulating or provocative than artistic. According to some of the training photos released on the internet, the dancers like to take group pictures in strange formations and provocative poses that serious artists would object to. In my view, these images aren’t compatible with those of high art.
The troupe has stringent requirements for its dancers. According to a recruitment notice in 2020, candidates must be beautiful and captivating as well as professionally trained in Chinese dance. Xu picked Chinese chance because he understands that the big shots he needs to conquer with his dancers are older and don’t like fast-paced modern dances.
Evergrande also requires the dancers to remain single and not in a relationship while employed. It means that they cannot date while dancing for Evergrande. Age is between 17 and 20 years old. After multiple rounds of screening, candidates must be interviewed personally by Xu Jiayin before being hired. I don’t think there’s a performing arts group in the world that doesn’t allow its artists to date or get married. The Evergrande Dance Troupe’s unusual requirement gives us room to suspect its purpose.
In 2017, Xu Jiayin moved his headquarters from Guangzhou to Shenzhen and rented twenty floors of the Excellence Seaside Center. This building has forty-two floors. Senior staff can access up to the forty-first floor, where there are restaurants, tea rooms, gyms, KTV rooms, and banquet halls. As for what the clubhouse on the forty-second floor looks like, 99.99% of Evergrande employees are clueless. Only Xu’s most trusted aides and Evergrande’s super VVVIP clients can go to the forty-second floor. But, members of the dance troupe can freely access the forty-second floor. There is a rumor that Xu Jiayin’s wife once visited the forty-second floor and left with a stern face.
The first director of the dance troupe was named Lin Dandan but she left after a few years. Bai Shanshan replaced her. The group’s deputy director was a Harvard-educated young woman named Qian Xiangxiang. According to Evergrande’s information, Qian joined the Dance Troupe after returning to China because of her passion for dancing and her love of the arts.
The names of the directors all have duplicate Chinese characters or syllables: Lin Dandan, Bai Shanshan, and Qian Xiangxiang. They sound more like pseudo-names. So, verifying Qian Xiangxiang’s true identity in Harvard’s alumni directory is impossible. According to internal rumors, Bai Shanshan and Qian Xiangxiang were Mr. Xu’s most capable assistants. As long as these two were involved, Evergrande had no problems in securing financing and obtaining projects. Bai Shanshan’s annual salary is rumored to be around 7 million yuan or 1 million dollars.
At its peak, the dance troupe had over 100 performers with an annual cost of around 30 million yuan. The troupe performs for large events for free, so it’s a money-losing business. But Xu has his way of getting the money back.
In 2014, Jack Ma invested 1.2 billion yuan in Evergrande’s football team. Ma’s exact words were, “I don’t know football, nor do I have an interest.” So why would Jack invest in a project he neither understands nor is interested in?
From a video widely circulated on the internet, perhaps we can get an idea. At an Evergrande celebration event, Jack Ma sat next to Xu Jiayin, watching a performance. Bai Shanshan, dressed in a form-fitting costume, swayed her curvaceous body provocatively on stage. In the audience, Jack Ma appeared restless, anxiously rubbing his hands. Xu, sitting next to him, certainly noticed his reaction. After the performance, Bai Shanshan posted a photo of herself with Jack Ma on her Weibo, with a caption saying, “Showing gratitude is the most basic premise of success.”
In the end, Jack’s 1.2 billion yuan investment went down the drain as Evergrande’s financial problems worsened, and he wasn’t alone. Zhang Jindong, the owner of Jiangsu Suning, invested nearly 20 billion yuan in Evergrande, and it all came to naught, leading to Suning’s bankruptcy. These billionaires may have lost a few billion but still have plenty of money left. The most tragic victims, however, are the ordinary shareholders and homeowners who lost everything they had worked day and night for.
In 2021, the public suddenly discovered that Evergrande had 1.6 million unfinished housing units due to financial problems. At this point, people realized their investments had vaporized. However, even after Evergrande’s financial trouble came to light, Xu didn’t disband the dance troupe. It wasn’t until a year later, in 2022, that the group was formally disbanded. After Xu was detained in 2023, Bai Shanshan clarified on social media that she was only a dancer, had never been involved in any unethical activities, and that all the money she earned was clean. But the question is, do people believe her?
How Bai Shanshan and her dancers helped Evergrande become the biggest real estate bubble of our time is Xu Jiayin’s top business secret. This is what Xi Jinping wants to know as well. It’s said that Xu has remained silent when asked the question. The truth about the role the Evergrande Dance Troupe played in the rise and fall of China’s real estate market may forever remain a myth.
Watch Lei’s full video here:
