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Those Were the Nights
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Stories told by laobaixing -- ordinary people -- provide valuable footnotes to the development of New China.
Trying to describe "night life" proved really tricky for the elderly. Beyond certain household chores and of course studying the works of the great chairman, memories of life at night remain quiet and dim.
The modern concept of "night life" in truth didn't really exist until the reform and opening-up process of the 1980s.
1950s: Sticky Dancing
"Although the floor was sticky and the room was filled with the smell of dinner leftovers, students and teachers would try their best to dress up for the dance party. Girl students almost all wore Lenin dresses, and tied exaggerated knots in their hair."-- Liu Xiuzhen, 67, retired cadre
Liu was at university in Beijing by the beginning of 1950s. The popular thing to do then was to have a dance party at night. Every evening after supper, there would always be somebody to clean away the tables and chairs in the dining hall and convert it into a dance floor. Girls' favorites were a Lenin dress and boys would shine up their hair with special oil.
The most popular dance partners were PLA soldiers invited from the local army. Liu met her husband, then an army officer, at her university's dance party. Now they are dance teachers for a dance club for the retired.
1960s: Good Clean Healthy Fun
"Maybe this way of playing is too simple, but I think it's much better than the electronic games now. It was good for the health, and it saved money."-- Liu Fangcheng, 39, worker
In the 1960s, Liu lived in a big compound. The children then were not like children today, who tend to go home straight after school.
Liu recalled kids didn't have many games, but they enjoyed playing so much that they were very reluctant to come home. A popular game was a Chinese hide-and-seek called "Telegraph (dian bao)".
In the darkness, one child counted to 10, and all the others found a place to hide. Then he tried to find them.
He would shout "Dian bao!" each time he caught sight of someone in the darkness. It was just simple stuff like that, but the children enjoyed it so much.
There was only one thing that stopped them from playing -- listening to the radio. Every evening at 6:30, it was the time for a story told by Grandpa Sun Jingxiu about the Monkey King. This was always the quietest time in the courtyard.
1970s: Battles in the Cold
"In winter, the movie was shown in the open air at minus 40 degrees Celsius. After one film I remember the bench was frozen to the ground."-- Ge Changhe, 49, cadre
A village anecdote provides a telling observation of the times. One day, a film projector was brought to the village to show a film. But come showtime, the villagers found the best places were always taken by families of cadres from the town.
The village chief stood up and declared to the people in the good seats, "Cadres and comrades, our peasants have no entertainment at all besides making love at night. It's not easy for them to get to see a film."
The people in the good seats blushed and then made room for the villagers. This story may sound like a joke, but peasants' lives were really like this.
Ge was born in the city, but he, like millions of urban youngsters during the Cultural Revolution, went to Inner Mongolia as a zhi qing -- intellectual youth. He went to . Only a total three or four films were shown each year at that time, and they were always the three official films, namely the three battles -- "Battle of the Underground Canal", "Battle of the Underground Mine" and "Battling South and North."
Ge remembers they missed seeing "Battle of the Underground Canal". One day, he and his friends heard the film would be shown 20 miles away. They set off very early in the day on a horse-pulled cart. But the journey took hours as they had to climb several mountains. They could only see the distant glimmer of the big white screen as they heard the closing number of "The Sun Rises to Give Light to Everywhere". They spent several hours singing that song all the way home.
After Ge came back to Beijing in 1976, a few larger work units bought Tianjin-produced black-and-white TVs. As TVs appeared, it became the favorite activity at night. Ge's unit's TV was put in a table tennis room.
Every evening after dinner, a large crowd would wait at the door. Workers League Chairman Lao Li would open the door and the crowd would elbow their way in for a seat. Latecomers could only stand on the table tennis tables at the back. At the beginning, family members were not allowed in to watch TV. This rule met strong opposition, and so the Workers' League started to issue tickets to family members.
1980s: Strangers in the Night
"I heard dating was very hot in Shanghai. When darkness fell came, young people in love all liked to go to the Waitan (outer beach). I heard one guy made a mistake and got the wrong girlfriend."-- Li Li, 39, Self-employed
Entering the 1980s, it seemed that night activities suddenly became richer. For Li, dating was the most important thing. "Taking a girlfriend to a park and holding her hand was the happiest thing for me to do."
Li and his girlfriend were very keen on trendy things. They saw every new movie, even plays. Li and his girlfriend had a new place to go to at night. The first night clothes market appeared in Xidan, at the location of today's Xidan Scitech Plaza. Jeans and T-shirts there could not be found in large state-owned department stores.
Li's girlfriend also loved social dancing. Every weekend, Li's company had dancing classes. They often went around different places to try. Li remembers one of their popular hangouts was the second floor of the Dongdan Vegetable Market (today's Oriental Plaza). When the market on the first floor closed, the dancing party began on the second floor. It was also the first place in Beijing where people could go ahead and sing a song.
1990s
It is impossible to find a word or sentence to
sum up the night life of the 1990s. Everybody has their own idea of night life.
Karaoke, discos and night snacks are out of date already. Going to the movies is only one of the many choices. Many would rather buy VCDs and watch them at home.
Going to bars is a new activity for the 1990s. At the beginning of 1990s, many people had still never heard of them. At first, people called bars "black bars" -- dark inside, narrow gates, mysterious people, a foreign wine could sell for 1,000 yuan -- they were regarded as "a place unfit for a legal and upright person."
Bars kicked off in Beijing in 1993, when the first bar at Sanlitun was opened. Bar boss Hu still remembers one day in 1993, a person made a special trip from the suburbs just to find out what on earth was this newfangled "bar." The peasant couldn't help wondering aloud why a pot of tea sold in the bar for 15 yuan, but outside in the real world they charged 2 jiao.
Today there are 78 bars in Sanlitun, serving more than 1 million customers a year.