Flashback: Beijing’s hottest nightspots 20 years ago? Well…
Browsing the bookshelves at Le Petit Gourmand yesterday, I came across the 1987 edition of The China Guidebook, by Fredric Kaplan, Julian Sobin, and Arne de Keijzer. I flipped to the Beijing nightlife section and found this:
After the revolution of 1949, a curtain of Puritan prudishness descended on the once lively if seamy entertainment world of Beijing. The ubiquitous teahouses and wines shops disappeared, and not a trace remained of the pleasure houses of the past. Social dancing flourished briefly during 1979-1981, but was officially proscribed in late 1982. In 1983, discos were opened within the confines of the Jianguo, Great Wall, and Huaqiao hotels, but as “tourists only” establishments. Most hotels still maintain cafes for late night imbibers. In summers, the rooftop cafes at the Beijing (west wing) and Friendship hotels draw lively crowds of foreign residents, and these two venues have now come as close to “in” places for socializing as any place else in the capital.
That’s it.
By the way, Charlie’s bar at Jianguo Hotel is apparently Beijnig’s longest continuously running bar. Those who recall it from the eighties tell me the place was a business hot-spot because it had the first FAX machine in the city.
Previous posts: my one and only write-up on Charlie’s bar.
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A great reminder that someone could — and should! — write a history of China during these last 21 years through the evolution of its nightlife. Better yet, from the date of the first edition of that Guidebook, in 1978, an arc that would begin with the dim, flickering, bare-bulb lit evenings in stark, featureless hotel rooms reading and writing because it was the ONLY thing to do at night, to blogging and clubbing 24/7. From four revolutionary Chiang Ching Commie-flicks we’d all try to avoid to Jia Zhang-ke and his world-wide hits. Etc. Etc.
BTW, the other notable thing about the Jianguo that made it a “business hot-spot” was its role as the first foreign place in China where the local commissars/businessmen were allowed to come and be entertained. Unlikely as it seems, the origins of the western-style business lunch, dinner, and ‘power breakfast’ in China can be traced to that Holiday-Inn inspired place.
Here’s to a “somewhat young” China hand from a “somewhat old” one. Gan bei!
A. de Keijzer
You’ve come a long way, Boyce.
@ Arne,
Wow, what a nice surprise. Much appreciate your comment - it’s longer than the nightlife entry in the book!
The Beijing bar scene has changed so much in the three years that I’ve been here, I can’t imagine what it was like 21 years ago!
Cheers, Boyce
@ YXS,
Thanks… I think.
Cheers, Boyce