A Night Out In Shanghai

A topic that will be of interest to a lot of you out there, and also a topic that offers a lot of interesting aspects to get into, seeing as the nightlife in Shanghai is as multifaceted as the city itself.

Let me start by saying that the nightlife there is unlike anything you'll ever experience, for a variety of reasons, beginning with the price of alcoholic beverages and ending with the awesomeness of the people you can meet in Chinese clubs. There is literally no other place on earth where partying is in itself a voyage into another world like it is in Shanghai; seeing the city by day and then comparing it to what you see at night comes close to trying to compare fruits to vegetables. It's incredible how the vibrant day-time energy of this metropolis is just fused into those Friday and Saturday night extravaganzas, how exhilarated the people are when partying, and how the togetherness is really brought back to the city folk in those long, drink-fueled weekends.

But let us begin with a broad overview of the nightlife in Shanghai is like. Imagine driving about thirty kilometers in a cab for only about eight Euro, already in a cranked up mood, and then getting out near a huge skyscraper whose windows are banging against their frames because of the heavy bass from the building that seems to be emitting the music you can already hear on the other end of the street. You then walk to the entry of the club, where you're greeted by bouncers; and normally that's it, seeing as there are no degrading strip searches, and, unless you look like you're thirteen, you won't have to show your I.D. either. You proceed to enter an elevator, go up a number of stories, and are then looking at a black square filled with laser and stroboscope lightning, which after a second of adjusting your eyes turns out to be the entrance, through which you go after having paid about ten Euros for an all-night open bar. Upon entering the venue, you will quickly be invited to sit down at a table by someone, or be invited to a drink, dance, or a cigarette. The people are extremely open-minded and looking to make new friends for the night, which is why you could easily go out alone and still leave the club drunk, happy, and with a bunch of newly-met people.

And there's more; there are barely any fist-fights or your typical annoying, angry asshole. They exist of course, and there's always a risk of getting in an altercation, but it's so much less common than in European clubs. It's just a generally more cheerful scene, with a sense of togetherness lingering in the exhilarated atmosphere, encompassing each and every individual in the disco, unifying the party-goers in dance and happiness. It has happened to me on numerous occasions that I stumbled out of some downtown venue, realized I didn't have any cash to get home, and still got to share a taxi with complete strangers that were kind enough to take me along even though I was entirely out of cash. And there have also been a couple of times that I was so drunk I had to resort to sleeping on the sidewalk, and was not robbed or anything. Try doing that in Berlin, or New York. It's possible, but much less likely to leave you harm-free and non-mugged. Generally speaking, going out is a lot less of a health hazard in China than it seems to be to me in Europe and America. and the clubs themselves are a lot bigger and more futuristic when compared to their Western counterparts, especially when taking the price class of these venues into account. You can go to a huge-ass disco filled with the newest lighting technology and audio equipment, and pay only about ten Euro for entry and drinks. Try doing that in Europe or America.

I am not trying to belittle or demean the Euro-American party scene here though, I have myself been active for almost a year as an event reporter for a German party organization and therefore seen that partying can also be of the utmost exhilaration in the Western world, but there are still those minor details that make the nightlife in Shanghai that extra little bit better; starting at the bouncers, that are just not your typical, bald, mean-looking guys, but nice people that you of course wouldn't want to mess with, but that at least don't have this unfriendly approach to guests as their European counterparts, and ending at the sheer endless amount of invitations to drinks, seats, and smokes, which just do not exist in Europe. For that to happen, you have to know the underground localities which are only accessible to hardcore heads whilst in Shanghai that feeling is still prevalent even in mainstream venues, and that is just awesome if you ask me. The people still go out to actually have fun, and not just to prove to everyone else how cool they think they are or just how much they can drink. As if that's of interest to anyone. We should be going to parties to meet kindred spirits and like-minded souls, so that we may all benefit from this pastime to some extent. Selah.

Mark.

The Chinese rural-urban conundrum

I have hinted at the differences inherent to the clash of rural and urban mentalities in China in the previous posts a bit already, and therefore decided to take an entire entry to get to the bottom of it, because it is quite fascinating to see just how much the life and mindset of the people differ when traveling from the city center over the outskirts all the way to the countryside.

Let's go step by step then, starting in the very center of urbanity, the core of the city. What we see here is akin to what can be seen in Europe or America, except for the velocity in which it takes place; people are rushing from subway stations through Starbucks to their offices, the traffic is barely moving but honking heavily, everyone is just sort of minding their own business and trying to get from A to B with as little conversation as possible, the people look stressed, angry, and annoyed, and there is close to no communal feeling, it's essentially like any modern-day metropolis you could imagine. But then, in the midst of all this hectic and commotion, there are beautiful gardens and green areas in which a whiff of the traditional Chinese calm is still in the air, and besides the speakers that are installed all over and either mimic nature's noises or play bad music, these places are one of the final bastions of tranquility in the ever-increasing stress that China's approach to the Western way of life is bringing on.
The people living in the city center however have for the most part completely lost sight of the relaxation that life can bring; they're usually stressed out, with a behavior bordering on the arrogant, and have this highly individualized, egomaniac Western approach to all things in life. Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for individual fulfillment and freedom, but that should not come at the cost of a communal feeling, that should not come at the cost of decency, it shouldn't come at the cost of generosity and togetherness.

The next step takes us to the outskirts and the countryside, which I am grouping together for convenience. The air is still vibrant with life and the hustling of those trying to get by on day to day basis, but it has a smell of community in it that largely differs from anything you can see in the Big City life. The people are more prone to helping each other out, and I have seen countless examples of shop owners going out of their way to help their neighbors or even complete strangers whose car had broken down in their vicinity. I have been to farms in the middle of the night and got invited to sit down, eat, get drunk, and smoke cigarettes with the farmers living there. I just set up a tent in the middle of nowhere with a friend of mine, and instead of being woken by an angry face complaining about us setting up camp on their field - which we unknowingly did - like it would have happened in Europe, we were greeted by friendly and curious Chinese farmers. And of course the countless times that my electric scooter broke down and complete strangers helped me push it to a store where they would fix it for a small amount of money whilst asking me about my origins and how it happened that I came to China; the atmosphere was always extremely friendly and vibrating with joyous life, and the people there just were not concerned with everyday hectic all too much. Of course they're also busy and worried about making their daily income, but they don't go about it with this insane stress that city folk develop when tackling their daily tasks.

The conundrum here is the reason behind this shift in mentality. I believe that it can be at least partially traced back to the growing Western influence on Chinese metropolises; the economy in China is booming and it is therefore opening itself more and more to the West, which in itself is a good thing, except for the sad fact that our selfish, capitalist culture is being exported to China in the process. The people's mentality in the urban center is slowly drifting towards the excessive, egomaniac individualization that the Western civilization is suffering from. Which is mostly the reason behind this at first rather puzzling difference in way of life between the urban and rural population.
I do not want to say that the trade between China and the West is all negative or anything, but it definitely brings on an ugly shift in mentality in the affected urban centers.

Mark