Karaoke in China is not a bar with a microphone and a queue. It is a building of private rooms, rented by the hour, with a screen, a sound system and a song library of tens of thousands of tracks in Chinese and English, and a phone on the wall for ordering drinks, fruit platters and snacks. For a group - a family, a company outing, a set of friends - it is the default evening entertainment, and Shanghai has hundreds of them, from cheap and loud to upholstered and expensive.
How it works
You arrive, choose a room size, and pay by the hour or buy a package that includes a set amount of food and drink; larger rooms in the better establishments have their own bathrooms. The system is controlled from a touchscreen or a tablet: search by artist, title or language, queue songs, adjust the key and add echo. Song libraries are strong on Chinese and Japanese pop, with a reasonable selection of English-language standards, older rock and current hits, and they usually offer a version of the track with and without the guide vocal. Staff bring in fruit, beer, soft drinks and simple hot dishes as you order them, and nobody expects you to leave before midnight.
Who goes and what it is like
Karaoke here is a group activity rather than a performance, so the etiquette is different from a Western karaoke bar: the room is yours, there is no audience of strangers, and people sing together or take turns without embarrassment. Groups often book for a birthday, a work dinner or a farewell, and the evening usually starts with a meal somewhere else. Establishments range from chains with bright corridors and cheap hourly rates to hotel lounges with waiters and proper wine lists; the experience is essentially the same, and the price is the only real variable.
Practical notes
Rooms are booked on arrival or in advance for weekends, when the popular places fill up; bring your passport, since it is required for registration at many venues, and expect to pay a deposit. Rooms are usually charged by the hour with a minimum spend, and the bill is settled at the door on the way out. The song catalogue interface is normally Chinese-only at the cheaper venues, so either go with someone who reads it or use the search function on a translation app. Last metro is around eleven, so plan the ride home in advance.
