Photos

I am currently doing a photo-project about Shanghai's nightlife and the people operating in it. Inspired by anthropological and sociological theory on nightlife and the variety of rapid social transformations occuring in contemporary Shanghai, the basic idea is 1) that the nightlife may provide a scene, where people may play our different identities (social, gendered, sexual, occupational, etc.), which are not always possible in the daytime (perhaps especially in the still relatively restrictive Chinese society).
2) that the nightlife also constitutes an arena, where the more "traditional" realities of power and domination, poverty and social mobility are becoming very visible. An example is the glamourous bars and clubs catering to Shanghai's expats and Chinese middle- and upper-class people, which are surrounded by beggars, pushers, cigarette vendors, prostitutes, etc. A small space becomes a compressed arena for those who sell and buy, the poor and the rich, patrons and clients.
So far, I have just brought my camera to the streets of Shanghai in the nighttime, taking pictures of people and talking to them. If I get the chance, i would like to pursue the theme in a more comprehensive study at some point.

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The fact of "girlie bars" - places, where men buy women overprized drinks in order to receive the rights of chatting (and sometimes maybe more) with them - is widespread in Shanghai, albeit they are concentrated around a few "entertainment areas". This bar is close to Hengshan lu, which hosts a variety of bars and clubs, which are especially popular among local Chinese.
I have been hanging around some of the bars at nighttime, observing, taking pictures and chatting with workers and clients. Usually, the clientele are middle-aged foreign men, while the working girls are young, Chinese migrants from other provinces than Shanghai.
I talked a bit with this girl, and she gladly posed for my pics, even without demanding a drink! (we downloaded the pics to the computer in the bar afterwards, that was a way to reciprocate, I think). Being 30 years old, she is relatively old for the job. Originally from Anhui province, she came to Shanghai for this job 4 years ago, after working as a factory worker (dagongmei) in Guangdong province for 4 years. She finnd this job better than the factory work, which was monotonous and physically tiring with 12 hours daily on the assembly line for an electronic company. Here, she likes the fact that she can learn and use English and "personal communication skills". Her narrative mingles with the ones, I've heard from other migrants in Shanghai's service industry, as it tells about "person development". Still, she hopes to find another job soon, as she thinks she is becoming too old for this job.

I've experimented with a blue flash-cap here. In the background are two middle-aged Western men, who entered the empty bar with two young Chinese girls. They ordered a drink, and threw the girls onto the pool table, where they started fondling and kissing them. In the pic, they are just leaving. A behaviour, which obviously would only be possible in certain bars and at certain times, (i.e. at nighttime).