Play and Power in Chinese Nightlife Spaces

"Nightlife" has reemerged in China since the "opening and reform policies" of 1978. Genres of contemporary Chinese nightlife include bars, dance clubs, karaoke clubs and saunas, all of which have been influenced by transnational flows of investments, ideas and people. Nightlife is an important space for the study of Chinese social stratification and the study of sexual subcultures in Chinese cities. Nightlife is thus an area in which we can study the transnational processes of cultural change in China, while examining the possibilities of individual agency, resistance and creativity within these organising structures.