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Knowledge meets cocktails: How academic bars in Shenzhen blend intellectual pursuits with social drinking

At a cozy Shenzhen bar, soft jazz music plays as colorful cocktails glimmer on a Sunday night. The audience was focused on a speaker discussing the dichotomy between materialism and idealism with a few slides projected behind him on a screen.

Zhou Yuzhi, a University of California, Irvine graduate majoring in philosophy and music, presents philosophical theories that can assist decision-making in life at Neighbor House on Nov. 24

Neighbor House, Shenzhen's first “academic bar," hosted its first event on Sept. 27, exploring the question “Is life a wilderness or a track?”.

“The bar was packed that night,” said Yu Yang, 32, a bar partner of Neighbor House. “I wanted to open a bar with spiritual pursuits, like in the movie Midnight in Paris, to make social drinking more interesting and intellectual.”

Academic bars blending intellectual discussions with socializing have become popular in China’s first-tier cities this year, mostly in Beijing and Shanghai, before recently finding their groove in Shenzhen. People recruited from social media gather at venues like Neighbor House for lectures and debates on various topics, all while enjoying drinks.

On Xiaohongshu, a popular lifestyle social media platform in China, topics related to "academic bars" have gained more than four million views, with more than 6,000 related posts.

“At least 30 people attended each event, which is beyond our expectations,” Yu said. “We had to turn up the speakers so that people gathered outside could also hear.” 

“I want to get away from work and learn more things other than making money,” Xu Yihua, a 30-year-old participant, said. “I expect to have discussions with others and make more like-minded friends through this platform.”

Xu Yihua, a human resource manager, participated in the academic salon held at the Neighbor House for the second time.

She said she cherishes it because there are few opportunities to participate in such activities after graduating from university. 

Academic bars originate from “Science in a Bar” in the UK. The SciBars are based on the French Café Scientifique, where lecturers from universities near the bar presented scientific knowledge to the public, and had discussions with them, according to Knutsford SciBar, one of the first SciBars in the UK

Yu said this pattern can be traced back to ancient Chinese literati gatherings, teahouse culture, and Western salons. 

“Academic bars are not a rigorous academic classroom for deep research but a relaxed place for people to communicate offline, learning what they are interested in and gaining new perspectives while drinking," Yu said. 

Neighbor House has held five academic salons, themed on philosophy, dramatic performance, music, psychology, and economics.

“We avoid topics that are too narrow and specialized and want to discuss more content related to people’s daily lives,” Yu said. “For example, when talking about artificial intelligence, we will focus on the ethical issues involved and practical application scenarios rather than technical details.”

“We also choose topics according to the preference of the audience and suggestions from our posts on social media,” Yu added.

Initially, the speakers were all friends of Yu in various fields. Later, Yu advertised for speakers on Xiaohongshu and received lots of responses from academics in Shenzhen, and even in Hong Kong.

Yu will give speakers a ten-minute trial to judge whether their presentation skills and style are suitable for the bar, not based on the number of titles.

Go Homebar, another bar in Shenzhen that recruits speakers in the same way, has organized six academic salons every Saturday night since November, with around 15 to 40 participants in each salon, said Zhu Yue, 27, director of academic salons at Go Homebar. 

Each salon in these two bars begins with a one-hour presentation by the speaker, followed by one more hour of discussion time. The audience can toss questions at any time during the presentation. 

On Nov. 16, a psychology salon on how to enhance self-identity was held at Go Homebar, given by Li Lingyun, 45, a psychological counselor with 15 years of experience who graduated from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Li shares with the audience how to deal with depression, anxiety, self-abasement, social phobia, and pickup artists which are the issues related to lack of self-identity

"After the lecture ended at 10 pm, participants communicated with the counselor until 1 am, sharing their stories and seeking advice," Zhu said.

As part of the lecture, the audience shares three stories about themselves with their partner, one minute each, and extracts three keywords about themselves that reflect their self-identities

 Hamilton Cao, 28, a PhD in chemistry who attended the academic salon for the first time, said he felt anxious and irritable recently because of academic stress and emotional exhaustion.

“I learned how to coexist with anxiety in my daily life and how to reflect on myself when impatience occurs,” Cao said. “And I feel more relaxed after knowing others’ experience through discussion.”

 Li said people can see more life possibilities through talking with others and finding inspiration to solve their current problems.

“People are more receptive to knowledge in a relaxed bar, and I hope they can learn some tips that can improve happiness in their life,” Li said. “And I benefit from knowing more about the psychological state of contemporary young people.”

 Zhang Zhuoli, 38, who got a master's of media management at Hong Kong Baptist University, gave a speech about Hong Kong theatre culture at Go Homebar.

Zhang said he had presented at an academic bar in Guangzhou before this time.

“Academic bars is an effective cultural communication platform that can reach a wider audience than when I posted articles on my website called "Think Hong Kong" and my social media accounts,” he said.

“I gained new inspiration for topics from the audience, including the institution of marriage and funerals in Hong Kong,” he added. 

Academic bars also cover topics in science and technology. 

People siting on the armchair listen to Jiao who uses 3D scenes from famous movies and TV series as examples to introduce methods of obtaining 3D images. And Zhu said that they removed the neat benches after two salons and turned it into a more relaxing 'family living room'

A lecture exploring the three-dimensional perception and display technology was delivered by Jiao Shuming, 35, the world's top 2% of scientists in 2023, PhD in Electrical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, at GO Homebar on Nov. 23.

A woman puts on 3D glasses with red lenses in her left eye and blue lenses in her right eye and sees a three-dimensional effect of a landscape map

Jiao said he aspires to get out of the limited audience of universities and research institutes, getting diverse perspectives from people across different professional backgrounds.

"An audience who works in a company using various new media technologies such as display screens, lighting and projection to advertise for technology companies," said Jiao. "I have never heard of such a business model before, and I am happy that he learned 3D display methods through my lecture to help him work."

However, along with the rise of academic bars, people questioned if the audience can learn anything in an hour, or just use it as a way to show off as "elite," according to the comments section below Yu's promotional video for the event on Xiaohongshu.

“One hour is not enough for getting more knowledge,” said Zhong Jialing, 28, who attended an academic salon at Neighbor House. “I learned something from talking with others, but it did not live up to my expectations." 

Zhou Yuzhi, a University of California, Irvine graduate who majored in philosophy and music, has presented three academic salons themed on philosophy at Neighbor House and said it is difficult to introduce too much knowledge due to the short time and nature of the activity.

 “But it can stimulate your interest in exploring the field, like the preface to a book and the prelude to a song,” Zhou said.

“The organizers' own literacy and reverence for academics is important to the sustainability of academic bars,” Yu said. “They need to strike a balance between profits and knowledge, and avoid claptrap and other themes that depart from the original intention.”

 

 

《The Young Reporter》

The Young Reporter (TYR) started as a newspaper in 1969. Today, it is published across multiple media platforms and updated constantly to bring the latest news and analyses to its readers.

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