What’s the difference between a nightclub
in Beijing and in Shanghai? Superficially not
a huge amount, but the deeper I’ve dug (or
the harder I’ve danced), the clearer I’ve found
the differences. They reflect the different re-
alities of life in both places. This is the story
of one night in each of China’s biggest cities.
There are massive, gaudy clubs in both
Beijing and Shanghai, like Vics and Mix,
which have been around for more than a de-
cade. They’re massively popular, but less for
the music or anything particular to their host
cities, than for being a space for splashing
cash that also happens to pump out relent-
less, highly polished EDM. I’ve had nights in
similar places all across China.
None of this is the case for the markedly
different and more niche world of “under-
ground club music” and its venues. These
kinds of nightclubs are smaller, often just a
single dark room, with no VIP tables and
definitely no champagne. I’ve only found
them in the biggest cities, with foreigners
usually the owners. Lantern and DADA in
Beijing, Sector Underground in Shenzhen
and EchoBay in Chongqing, but Shanghai is
the epicentre, with another DADA, Elevator,
Arkham, and The Shelter, everyone’s favou-
rite.
So of course The Shelter recently shut.
When I heard the same people had opened
a new and more serious club – ALL – offer-
ing the potential for a shift in Chinese club
culture, I hopped on a morning train from
Beijing to Shanghai.
I should backtrack. I have a passion for all
things nightclub, so let that be something of
an excuse as I tell you that I had been out
clubbing in Beijing the night before. This Fri-
day DADA was full to the brim. When this
is the case you can be sure that the outside
smoking area-cum-entrance (not that you
can’t smoke inside and everyone does) will be
just as packed. It’s always surprised me that
a club this busy can survive in such a central
area of Beijing, a city that is increasingly infa-
mous for its raids and the closure of popularnightlife haunts; there was a collective hold-
ing of breath when two police officers entered
the club at 4am, but this time just to ask for
the music to be turned down.
When DADA closes at around 5am the
logical next step for many is Lantern. Strictly
for research purposes, I got the quick taxi
from Gulou to Sanlitun and had myself an-
other four hours of clubbing until well past
sunrise, noting that by 7am there were just
a few hangers on, obsessed by this particular
brand of music.
Architecturally Lantern is a great club, not
dissimilar from The Shelter’s staircase to an-
other world, while architecturally DADA is
by no means great, more like a bar that hap-pens to have some good electronic music. I
think Lantern’s case, especially its inability to
move beyond stale forms of electronic music,
says a lot about Beijing itself – scared of the
new, obsessed with the past – especially when
compared to Shanghai.
As I was saying, I was on a train to Shang-
hai to go to ALL. It’s another concrete box,
but better designed and no smoking inside.
On the night I’m there I head upstairs, greet-
ed by the sounds of a Swiss-Tibetan DJ, later
DJs from China, America and Japan would
all have their time at the controls. This night
was put on by the burgeoning art-music col-
lective Asian Dope Boys, with the help of
a Shanghai-based label. Here the audience
seemed to be 70 percent Chinese, versus the
70 percent foreigners I’d seen in Beijing. The
crowd were invariably dressed in outrageous
clothes with even more outlandish accesso-
ries. It all felt new, fresh and experimental.
At ALL I observed the experimentation
that facilitates performances from current
diasporic and LGBTQ DJs and producers,
who are a part of a more global trend that sees
dance music and clubs being re-appropriated
as spaces for hybridity. From what I’ve seen
at ALL, it’s letting a similar scene grow in
Shanghai. I felt strongly that ALL sees night-
clubs as spaces as much for dancing as for re-
sistance to dance music norms, as well as to
norms in culture and society.
Heading home I concluded that ALL is
leading a maturing of Chinese club music
that for the first time is growing a uniquely
Chinese style of music and partying.
So while Beijing seems to be taking two
steps back and one step forward with its
whitewashing of the city, seen especially in its
aim to take hutongs back to some unspeci-
fied moment in their past, its nightclubs re-
flect this: old, backwards and struggling to
find their place in today. Shanghai, with its
markedly more cosmopolitan outlook, is the
perfect petri dish for the growth of the fresh
and progressive scene that I had the pleasure
of experiencing.It’s always surprised me that
a club this busy can survive in
such a central area of Beijing,
infamous for its raids and
closures; there was a collective
holding of breath when two
police officers entered the club at
4am, but this time just to ask for
the music to be turned downessayA nighttime tale of two cities
By Thomas MounaIllustration by Liu Xiaochao