Discussion keeps the world turning.
This is Roundtable.
From the heart of Beijing to the edges of the global stage, you are at Roundtable.
I'm Niu Honglin.
Cities across China have spent years cultivating night-time economies,
restaurants, retail, entertainment.
Now a new layer has been added, education after dark.
From Shanghai's 143 teaching sites to Sichuan's 88 youth night schools serving hundreds of thousands,
evening classes are becoming part of urban infrastructure.
Today, let's take a closer look at the courses,
the teaching staff, and the ultimate appeal that drives students in.
For today's show, I'm joined by Steve Hatherly and Yixuan.
Now pull up a chair and join the conversation.
By day, he is a rising inheritor of a century-old picking opera tradition.
By night, he's teaching office workers at night school on how to appreciate this elegance,
hoping to plant just one seed of Chinese aesthetics in the student's heart.
From AI courses to vocal training and makeup tutorials,
night schools are booming in cities, attracting exhausted finance workers and programmers.
They are affordable, social, low-pressure, and surprisingly addictive.
Are these classes about skills, self-cultivation,