Sometimes, though, it pays to stay hidden. Gay culture is decidedly unwelcome around China. Shanghai is more tolerant. There are a few gay clubs, but they move often, part of the same cat and mouse game played with authorities as the most outlandish discos. Still, the gay scene fares much better than other areas of the underground.
Rock clubs are few, and there is no real punk scene.
Rave clubs come and go quickly, thanks to the ongoing hassles between Beijing and Shanghai. Shanghai has always been the best city in China. Ron Gluckman is an American reporter and former rock critic who has been roaming around Asia since 1991, when he was based in Hong Kong. For the past year, he has divided his time between Hong Kong and Beijing, writing for a wide variety of media, including Asiaweek, which ran parts of this story in a special package on Shanghai in March 2001.