In pictures: The changing face of China’s underground club scene

China’s club scene has been shifting for years. The energy once held together by dance floors, tight-knit crews and cross-city connections is now splintering under the pressure of mounting closures. It’s this changing ecosystem that photographer Sokol has been tracing, moving from club to club to document the communities still showing up for, and on, the dance floor.

Sokol’s first immersion into the scene came during a visit to Chengdu’s .TAG club in 2021, in the depths of the pandemic. “The whole world was wrapped in uncertainty, not knowing when it would end. But here on the 21st floor, life was pulsating,” he recalls, taking in the venue’s famed panoramic view over the surrounding residential blocks. “That night, I felt as if nothing in the world had happened at all. Everyone was dancing, happy, welcoming the gentle rays of sunrise right on the dance floor. It was a moment I had to capture.”

From there, Sokol began documenting club spaces across China, moving between Shanghai’s sticky, neon-lit floors in clubs like Exit and Abyss, to smaller, makeshift industrial spaces like Urumqi’s Rich Club and Lhasa’s Ill Club. As he compiled his project, titled A Night, he noticed differences in the rhythm of the spaces across China. “In Shanghai, people come to socialise,” he says. “But in smaller cities, people don’t worry as much about how they look or what they wear; they go wild. That’s what creates the special vibe in China that everyone has come to love.”

Those contrasts are visible throughout the project. In some clubs, the rooms are packed with sweating bodies, painted by overhead neon panels and hyper-saturated in Sokol’s shots. In others, the dancefloors are smaller, housed in makeshift industrial spaces and clouded with pooling cigarette smoke. “Some spaces speak for themselves – in those moments, I’m just a documentarian, capturing what unfolds in a second, without interference. In others, I wait for the right moment – when the light feels true, when the energy peaks – and return again and again to build a complete and honest portrait of the place,” he explains.

When China reopened its borders in 2023, Sokol captured the nightlife landscape shifting once more. “Everything has changed, and keeps changing every single day,” he observes. “While China was closed, there was this strong sense of solidarity; DJs toured between cities, and everyone supported each other. Now, with international lineups booked almost nightly, local DJs often play to smaller crowds, and that tight-knit support has faded. It’s entered a new phase, a kind of survival mode.”

Amid the raucous clubbers captured in A Night, a few familiar faces appear: Raf Simons at an after-party, Rick Owens and Michèle Lamy at Shanghai’s ABYSS. Their presence speaks to the post-pandemic wave of brand-backed events that has swept across China’s nightlife, bringing international DJs and high-production parties with them. “I’d say it has fundamentally reshaped the whole scene – especially in Shanghai. Why go to a regular club when there’s practically a brand event happening every day, complete with its own after-party?”

While some of these brand-backed events removed the charm he had once captured on the dancefloors, not all were lifeless. “Some parties break through and actually nurture community. Like the huge NTS × Diesel event in Beijing in 2023, featuring only local DJs. Or the Rick Owens parties in Hangzhou last year,” he says. “You could literally find yourself dancing next to Raf Simons or Demna on the dance floor. It’s that kind of time.”

Even as new events and brand-backed parties surged, many of China’s beloved venues have disappeared, leaving holes in the nightlife ecosystem. In Shanghai alone, iconic spaces like Elevator, System, All Club, Dada, and 44KW have shuttered. .TAG in Chengdu closed after nearly 12 years, while Hangzhou’s Loopy Club ceased operations after nine. “It’s been a wave of endings,” Sokol says, “each place taking a piece of the night with it.”

It’s what makes documentation like this so important. “From the very beginning, I understood this was unique material, something that would preserve our memories, the memories of my youth spent here,” he explains. “There’s a responsibility to witness, when things are transforming so quickly – before the real story gets lost or forgotten.” While A Night feels complete for now, it’s a project Sokol wishes to return to, with the aim that more clubs will begin to open rather than close, and that the communities he’s documented will continue keeping the scene alive.