Chinese KTVs also known as karaoke bars are extremely popular in China. With fans at all levels of society, companies regularly plan parties at high priced KTV lounges, and students celebrate the end of school by singing at a local KTV. Unfortunately this entertainment has acquired a bad reputation amongst foreign tourist as being too noisy, too smoky and acting as poorly disguised brothels full of Chinese prostitutes.
History of Karaoke Singing
In the late 1980’s karaoke was introduced to mainland China by high class Chinese hotels first in Hong Kong and soon after Beijing and Shanghai. To differentiate itself from Japan where karaoke originated, it was renamed KTV and every karaoke bar from then on has been known as KTV.
As karaoke became more popular in China, large and small businesses spread throughout the major cities especially cities with a lot of foreign guests. A number of these Western tourists were and are interested in having sex with an exotic Chinese prostitute. Seeing a potential market many KTV owners helped meet this demand. When a visitor to China entered a karaoke bar he could choose from a group of Chinese women to spend a few hours with. This singing companion might only sing and spend a few friendly hours with the customer, but more often than not it didn’t stay so innocent ending up with the prostitute going to the tourists hotel room.
The growing popularity did have some good side effects to offset the rise in Chinese prostitution. Throughout the 1990’s KTV lounges became more affordable and started looking towards the Chinese market, instead of focusing on tourist dollars. More and more lounges became legitimate businesses providing places for friends to sing, have parties, and spend a night on the town. This more than anything spurred the growth of karaoke into every area of China.
Karaoke Bars in Todays' China
Today in most Chinese towns there is a small KTV for locals to visit as well as a booming industry of home karaoke machines. Many Chinese hotels also have KTV's attached to the building, in the larger hotels they may take up an entire floor. Almost every Chinese singer has at least one karaoke dvd’s and many bootlegged Western song’s have been turned into karaoke dvd’s as well. Foreign tourists will often be invited to a lounge for a night on the town.
There are many KTV’s, frequently in hotels, that still fit the old stereotype of being brothels in disguise. Male tourists often visit these places due to this stereotypes. A small percentage of tourists do visit China to spend time with the ladies, thus many Chinese think that all single Western men want to do this. So Chinese businessmen will take their new foreign partners to these brothels. Regular Chinese people will also assume that any questions about fun activities are related to sex.
The best way to avoid this stereotype is to look at the lounge closely before entering. If there is a picture of a half naked woman on the building it’s a Chinese brothel. The legitimate lounge will simply have a sign saying ‘KTV’ and its name on the building. The best ones will also have large windows and many men and women customers inside. In the evening especially on the weekend there are usually a large number of customers waiting in the lobby for space to open up. If there are only men waiting, there may be problem. Tourists should go with some friends and the understanding that they only want to use the karaoke machine.
What to Expect in a Chinese KTV
Visitors to China should know that the KTVs in China are different from bars in the West. In Chinese KTVs there are individual rooms capable of holding up to six people comfortably. Larger rooms that hold up to twelve and occasionally twenty people are also available but much more expensive. This keeps the singing more private and friendly, there is no embarrassment about singing in front of strangers.
At the larger lounges there could be fifty rooms on the same floor each one with microphones, speakers and noisy half drunk singers so the hallway and lobby outside are often extremely noisy. Fortunately the rooms in good KTVs are soundproofed keeping the outside racket from interfering with the karaoke singer in the room itself. Unfortunately if anyone decides to smoke the cigarette smoke will stay in the room as there is no way for it to escape.
Drinks especially beer as well as snacks are available, usually very inflated in price but of good quality. Staff members regularly walk down the halls to see if anyone requires anything and to let people know if their scheduled time is coming to an end. At legitimate karaoke bars the doors have small windows allowing the staff to look in and check to make sure everything is ok.
Chinese KTVs can be a lot of fun providing an extensive list of Chinese as well as Western songs for natives and visitors to China to choose from. The lounges are a good way to spend a night on the town with friends either singing or even just talking in a cozy room with good drinks and plentiful snacks. Just so long as the tourist goes to the right type of KTV, otherwise they may get more then they bargained for.
To learn about one popular Chinese singer who's songs can be found at all Chinese KTV's check out Jay Chou.
If you visit Nanjing make sure to go to Xuanwu Lake Park, the Massacre Memorial and Nanjings Haunted Martyrs' Cemetery
Or for tourists who want to go somewhere totally different visit Damascus.
Daniel Clarke - Dan Clarke is a freelance writer and English teacher living happily with his wife and daughter in Nanjing, China. He moved to China 4 ...
Join the Conversation