I was always curious as to whether the nightlife culture of Shanghai was carried over to the city of Chongqing, which became the wartime capital for the Nationalist government after they retreated from Nanjing in 1937. These articles offer a curious glimpse into a hidden world of underground dance clubs, which seems strikingly similar to occupied Paris in the same era—which is where the concept of the discotheque was born. For the newspaper that I searched online to find these articles, see this link.

Latest Wartime Vice —20 Dancing Clubs!

From the Chungking Edition, Shanghai Evening Post and Mercury (1944 16 June)

CHUNGKING—Night life in wartime Chungking is not so dull as it appears. For those who are tired of cinemas and theaters, an alternative of more exciting variety is now available.

Believe it or not, said the Nanking Wan Pao recently, dancing has become the favorite pasttime among bored rich Chungkingites and more than 20 private dancing clubs are in existence. Most of these places are scattered through the downtown areas and the South Bank, while a few are hideouts on the North Bank. The equipment of these resorts is rudimentary and consists chiefly of jazz music supplied by radios and gramophones.

Opened very secretly to dodge the moral uplifters, the dancing clubs are known only to selected few whom the operators consider reliable.

Turpitudinous Terpsichore

Shanghai Evening Post and Mercury (1944 7 July)

Bootleg dance clubs are Chungking’s latest. Twenty such establishments are reported to be secretly operating at various points, mostly in downtown areas and on the South Bank. If you “know Joe” you can get in for an evening of hopping to jazz phonograph records and the strains of radio tuned in on something headier than exhortations to moral uplift.

This is indeed a new version of the “New Life Movement.” Possibly it proves once more the essential kinship between Americans and Chinese, and the dissimilarity of both to the Japanese (who, when dancing was forbidden, meekly acquiesced). Prohibitionary edicts seem to work best in countries bound in the wrong direction.