may 16 '07
saturday night was party night for the foreign teachers at songyuan "waiguo yue xuexiao" (foreign studies college). the actual turnout was smaller than the crew expected, but it was always going to happen - you've always got your pikers. so it was harry (switzerland), tanya and sheila (canada), dell (u.s.), lisa (china) and andy and i that joined forces for the night. we headed to a club called FLS. apparently one of only two nightclubs in good old songyuan city. this was the first time we'd been to a club in china, after being here for about 2 and a half months. on the way to FLS we stopped by at KFC where the canadians and americans bought some nosh which we BYO-ed to the club. yes, a bag of fast food is aparently allowed. the club entrance was located in a seedy back alleyway, complete with rotting open rubbish piles. with a few stares and light-hearted but mockulatory "hello!" greetings from peeps hovering around the door, we walked in with no ID check at all. you don't need a passport to get into their clubs if you're from a foreign country - not like in australia. actually, i don't even recall seeing a bouncer at the door.
so once inside, my first glances around gave me a lasting impression. a heck of a lot of coloured lights on the walls. no designated dancing floor save for the pathways between high glass tables, where people were dancing on the spot. on some of the tables were baskets of popcorn, sunflower seeds and platters of fruit. a few lounges were against the perimeter walls, in front of which more people were dancing on the spot. flashing green laser lights. a stage attached to a catwalk-like extension which jutted out into the nightclubbers' dancing space. on the stage was a dj box and two podiums on either side with one scantily-clad chinese girl perched on each, dancing some funky moves and often utilising the vertical pole behind her for sex-factor. the music playing at the beginning sounded like techno crossed with chinese bubblegum pop. it was pretty catchy and danceable. it didn't take much time for us to get into the dancing. and we were the most animated dancers in the venue. i think the club-owners strategically placed us foreigners in the table nearest to the stage, so everyone could watch us for extra entertainment.
we ordered beers. what came were these gross-tasting light "beers", in cans that looked almost exactly like diet coke. it even tasted like soft drink. unbeknown to andy, he added vodka from his hip flask, thinking it was diet coke. so he ended up pretty off his face after downing his vodka/beer concoction. the canadians and americans got hungry and started gorging on their burgers and wraps right in the middle of the nightclub.
some of the more memorable sights from the FLS experience included lots of men dancing shirtless together (not necessarily young men, nor with toned bodies). men in china are obviously very comfortable with their sexuality and it didn't appear as though any of them were gay. many of the shirtless men tried to dance with tanya, who reciprocated the dancing out of politeness the first few times, but then started to get uncomfortable and tried to phase them out. another funny sight was the many young women unashamedly dancing with their own reflections in the mirrored walls.
halfway through the night a chinese pop-rock band with some quirky-looking characters appeared on stage. they were pretty good. they sang english and chinese songs, including YMCA which was accompanied by gestures only from our foreign contingent at the front of the room. absolutely everyone else stared and absolutely no-one, or so it appeared, knew what the fuck we were flailing our arms about for. at about 12.30, while the night was still young by western standards, the club's population was dwindling. at this stage most of our group was up on the stage dancing with some shirtless chinese men. we decided to call it a night because there was nowhere else to go. and so our first real saturday night out in china, or in songyuan at least, ends at a meager half 12. a little disappointing. but the club experience was fun while it lasted.
i'll put more pics from the clubbing night on my photobucket soon (when i get around to it!)
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