Andrew Field Talk: Nightlife in Shanghai

In the 1920s, Shanghai became known world-wide for its nightlife as the city learned to dance to the rhythms of the American jazz age. The war years of the 1940s and the Communist Revolution of the 1950s put an end to the city’s dance halls and cabarets, but the reform era of the 1980s saw the revival of dancing in the city. By the 1990s, more sophisticated discos, bars, and lounges arose in the city as it internationalized. More recently, a caste of super-wealthy Chinese known as fu er dai (“wealthy second generation”) has taken over the most exclusive club spaces in the city, spending thousands of dollars per night, and signifying the growing gap between wealth and poverty in China.