Illustration: Chen Xia/GT

A recent article by clashmusic.com claims that "Shanghai is one of the most cutting-edge clubbing destinations in the world." But is it really, though?

"With a burgeoning young generation occupying its inner-city areas and lining their pockets with that wealth, you'd imagine Shanghai might spawn the sort of nightlife that's all table service and CO2 cannons," the article says. "While those spaces do exist for minted businesspeople, there's an increasing amount of venues that cater to a more diverse crowd with an appetite for more experimental sounds."

The article goes on to contrast two new but starkly different clubs in Shanghai: ALL and SOS. The former, run by the now-closed Shelter's co-founder Gaz Williams, is a concrete-chic space that focuses on interactive performance art, while the latter is a typical trendy tuhao (young money) megaclub.

However, the author, Felicity Martin, only visited two clubs and fails to do the subject matter justice in terms of taking count of the number of dance venues in Shanghai - and then breaking them down by genre. The fact is, unfortunately, that there are far more Shanghai clubs catering to the mainstream pop-chart-music crowd than those who prefer experimental sounds.

The Shelter might have offered a much-needed mashup of less-shiny EDM and indie-hop, but it was just one among dozens of prefab, plug-and-play nightclubs where crazy rich Asians go to be seen - not actually dance or listen to good music. M1NT, MYST, M2 and other massive venues that place more importance on light shows and bottle service outnumber underground spaces such as Arkham, Dada and the aforementioned Shelter.

The other great myth of Shanghai is calling it "the city that never sleeps." Search-engine that tired cliche + Shanghai and you will pull up dozens of articles calling it so. But the fact is that Shanghai literally loves to sleep. Except for a handful of clubs who have a license to stay open until dawn, everything else here, from restaurants and bars to public transport, promptly shut down by 10 or 11 pm.

A recent cgtn.com article titled "Exploring Shanghai: 72 hours in the city that never sleeps" lists off tourist sites such as Nanjing Road shopping street and Yu Garden - which all close early in the evening; not a single attraction in that article is an after-hours venue. South China Morning Post did a similar article, "Sleepless in China," where they wrote "Midnight is the peak hour for condom orders in Shanghai, likely due to Alibaba's Hema supermarket on-demand deliveries."

Getting back to Shanghai's dance music scene, it certainly doesn't help when venues and EDM festivals get closed or canceled. That's magazine announced that underground dance space Elevator on Xinle Lu is, um, "going down." Budweiser Storm failed to return this year, and Time Out magazine recently reported that Ultra Shanghai 2018 will not be happening, the icing on Shanghai's bland EDM cake spoiled by an all-around lackluster summer except for maybe Transmission.

Meanwhile, whatsonweibo.com wrote an insightful article on August 26 titled "The Rise of China's Electronic Dance Music Scene" revealing that, "because of the high costs and small commercial appeal, music-focused nightclubs can also find it hard to find finance, unlike their money-focused counterparts."

But the real reason for the decline in Shanghai's experimental nightlife options is explained in a September 2017 Shanghai Daily report. "Shanghai wants its citizens to enjoy food and music at night, but not the noise, drunks and fights of the past. As a result the city is promoting nightlife - but in a more regulated way than has been in the case in the past."

According to the article, to stimulate a more orderly evening culture, the city's commerce commission said that it will build up several "nightlife demonstration zones." Found 158 on Julu Road is one such new zone that has become quite popular. Arkham is based there, but Found 158 needs a few more alternative clubbing options before it can truly claim the mantle as Shanghai's new nightlife epicenter.

The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Global Times.