The Whore Paris Times Square of the East

Bloomberg reports that Focus Media -- responsible for many of the flat LCD screens airing ads throughout the city -- has plans to turn parts of Shanghai into Times Square. Actually, not just Shanghai. Focus Media will "install giant screens of light-emitting diodes in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou." The first such illuminated advertising wall, 16 stories tall, appeared in Shanghai in 2003 on the Aurora Building, a skyscraper that appears in many a Pudong skyline photo. Focus Media's LED screens wouldn't be 16 stories, but they would be huge -- 500 square meters, costing 50,000 RMB per square meter.

That is small money for NASDAQ-traded Focus Media, whose stock has tripled since July and now has a market value of $2.2 billion. The company was founded three years ago by Jason Jiang, now 33, who graduated from Shanghai's East China Normal University with a degree in -- of course -- Chinese Literature. "I want to retire early with enough money to enjoy my life and write poems,'' Jiang said.

Don't we all. Don't we all.