Superclubs, multi-story dance halls that can accommodate far larger crowds than a normal nightspot, bring in acts from far and wide to mingle with local style and attitudes. Few places can support such capital-intensive businesses, and fewer still strengthen them to the point where they can expand their presence past their boarders and out to the world at large. In Luxy, Taipei boasts one of the best superclubs in Asia, the first from Taiwan to assert a global presence that is matched only by Zouk in Singapore and Velfarre in Tokyo.
A city with a lightning-fast pace and an irrepressible energy, Taipei crackles with excitement at night. After a long week at work, the city's denizens are ready to welcome the weekend.
Despite this, nightclubs of every size have to cope with a fickle clientele, and Saturday nights will still find some clubs empty while others burst at the seams with energetic patrons. In a city where plans change at the drop of a hat and any place is easily accessible by public transport, these elements fuel intense and ever-climbing competition.
For all the growth and optimism that characterizes the fast-growing nightclub market nowadays, this trend was far from certain in the past. David Hsia, co-founder of Luxy, returned with his brother Allen years ago to find Taipei's party scene nonexistent. "There were illegal parties," he said Aug. 22, referring to informal rave dens with a well-deserved unsavory reputation, "but no clubs." Luxy opened in 2003.
The Hsia brothers represent one of the crucial factors in building world-class nightlife: internationalism. With waves of young Taiwanese returning to the island from stints overseas, they brought in tastes acquired from across the world. Thus, Taipei began a rapid transformation into a lively metropolis whose citizens would demand quality venues to spend their midnight hours. This club culture had to be built up from scratch, however, which meant educating society at a time when public perception and governmental opinion had soured on partying.
It was difficult to present this new scene for what it was: a nighttime alternative for people who were hungry for new music, style and urban culture. Fortunately, a generation of youth took to the Internet, absorbing influences from the United States and Europe.
Taiwan, with uniquely deep ties to the West and to a rapidly-modernizing Asia, was in a position to change. A wholesale importation of Western dance culture would not work, though. "The core crowd is what makes Luxy and any club," Hsia said. Club cultures must always be homegrown, in order to combat the homogenization sweeping over the world through globalization.
This meant respecting deep-seated cultural mores. For example, clubs in the United States routinely turn away customers at the door, as a way of increasing their cool quotient. In a society that values hospitality, no Taiwanese would accept such treatment. Creating a club culture had to be an organic process that happened naturally.
As years passed and perceptions changed, a glittering nightlife blossomed in Taipei almost by accident. Clubs in the city center were so successful that more began to open their doors, even outside downtown, culminating in the grand-scale Ministry of Sound Taipei in the city's Neihu District.
MoS Taipei closed it doors for the second time in 2007, a development rumored to be permanent. The fast rise and slow decline of Neihu's massive dance hall highlights the competitiveness in the club business, serving as a textbook case for prospective club owners. Raising a vast amount of capital--estimates reach upward of US$5 million--a group of local investors licensed the rights to use the legendary Ministry of Sound brand in England. MoS is a string of clubs that is among the most prestigious and influential in London. To house MoS Taipei, the group built a new palatial venue with three stages in 2004. Although the superclub saw a meteoric rise in 2004, the aura around it began to cool, and for two years MoS Taipei struggled to live up to the MoS name.
While location certainly was a major stumbling block--currently there are no metro stations in Neihu--MoS Taipei's downfall also stemmed from a lack of focus. A superclub could not survive without a "management with vision," Dominik Tyliszczak, a club investor from Poland, explained Aug. 24. Despite the enormous difficulties in launching new venues, people continue to do so. "Club ownership has a prestige and a mystique surrounding it," Tyliszczak claimed. MoS Taipei faltered on the industry's notorious capriciousness. A strategy often works only once, so club owners spend much of their time searching for the next great gimmick to pull in the crowds.
With clubs offering plane tickets to Thailand, cash prizes, costume nights and more, every week brings a new excuse for a night out. Sweeping people up in a sudden buzz and steering them through the front door is an intricately orchestrated effort, however.
A typical party will take five to six weeks of intensive planning, with international coordination and a half-dozen concept meetings, according to DJ Saucey Aug. 22, a frequent headline act in Taipei. The process is elaborate, demanding and exhausting. He goes through this arduous process every time he organizes his group's signature showcase, Deep Inside, a regular party that promotes house music. "I don't really want to make money." Saucey said, claiming that these personal shows meant a lot to him.
With halls glimmering with jeweled walls and gallerias clothed in mock-frescos, superclubs are shrines to fun. Their energy flows from the vitality of youth culture. In this way, a superclub is necessarily more than a business, as the industry is too frustrating to be too attractive. For example, Luxy's highest profile show last year was a concert by the U.S. hip-hop group Black-Eyed Peas. Bringing the act to Taiwan was a major coup, Hsia said, though he claimed the event did little more than break even.
Today, globalization has brought hip-hop to Asia, and the Taipei scene is experiencing its first growing pains. With the influx of chart-topping sounds, Taipei's superclubs must deal with cold capitalism. Surviving, expanding and thriving are the goals of any business, but those that find themselves at the reigns of Taipei's clubs should be careful to maintain the spirit that carved this niche less than a decade ago. The spirit of openness and bringing people closer with the greater world means that Taipei's superclubs must focus on bigger and more diverse acts. Today, as then, the city has a rare golden opportunity to make a mark on the world stage.
Write to Taiwan Journal at tj@mail.gio.gov.tw