Dalian is a coastal city, surrounded on all sides by water, thanks to the Yellow and the Bohai Sea. Its location on the Liaodong Peninsula provides several miles of beachfront to walk along. The mountains are high, and the air is relatively cleaner.
In the city, there remain memories of Russia’s occupation with colonial-era buildings surrounding the main square, Zhongshan Guangchang (Sun Yatsen Square). It has a population of about 1.3 million, and is striving to become a booming economic region.
I was invited by a friend of a friend of my mother’s to go out to the local “disco,” or nightclub. At first I was hesitant. Although I am Chinese, my grasp of Mandarin isn’t what it should be. I become painfully shy when I am alone and I am forced to speak Mandarin. But I had seen these “discos” all over the place in other cities, and my curiosity won over. This might be my only chance to truly experience Chinese Techno, so I agreed.
We walked into The New JJ’s Disco Club soon after it opened its doors, around 9pm. I was with Chang, the friend of a friend of my mothers, and Wanda, Chang’s girlfriend. Before we made it up the stairs and around the corner, we could hear the music pumping. JJ’s was spacious, with room for maybe 200 people on the dance floor, plus a bar and balcony seating. Before me lay what looked liked just another club in the US, although most American nightclubs do not have military personnel posted on the balcony. This one did.
It was dark and smoky, as a majority of the men lit their cigarettes (in my two weeks in Asia, I only saw one woman smoking, and I think she was a foreigner). The lights on the dance floor turned the room red, then blue, then red again. My friends and I found a place to sit, and we ordered a round of Coronas.
The dance floor was still fairly empty as we finally made our way towards it. Music is universal, and I felt myself more at home than ever, amidst the Chinese crowd. There were no pretentious dancers, turning their noses up like I had seen so many times before in the US. There was no meat market, no 45-year old men trying to make their moves on a 21-year old. And before my eyes, 15 people on the dance floor became 150. Everyone was moving to the beat, some more wildly than others. Girls dancing in groups, guys dancing in groups, just having a good time with their friends.
After about 45 minutes, I decided to take a break, and it was what I saw just observing that amazed me most of all. The girls to the left of me were wearing mini skirts and spaghetti straps. They were showing skin! There were couples holding on to each other, hugging, leaning against each other for support. I passed one couple on the dance floor kissing passionately, oblivious of anything else going on around them.
From what I’ve learned growing up in a Chinese family, PDA (Public Displays of Affection) are not something “Chinese People Do”. Sure, it is quite appropriate, and often seen, for girlfriends to walk around the city arm in arm. On occasion I had seen a couple of guys, probably around my age, doing the same thing, and thought nothing of it. On the other hand, it is a rare occasion to see a man and woman, boyfriend and girlfriend, husband and wife, do the very same thing in public.
Here was the future of China, moving to the beat on the dance floor, on the stage, in their seats. Here in JJ’s, these kids were not under the thumb of their parents, or their bosses, or their school professors. Instead, they were under the thumb of the music. And from the corner of my eye, I noticed that Wanda had dreamily placed her head on her boyfriend’s shoulder, as they watched the dancers sway to the beat.
I had to admit; this was definitely more interesting than the clubs I frequented in the US.
