Tucked away in the maze of Petaling Street, Kuala Lumpur’s Chinatown, among the deluge of watering holes, Shuang Xi doesn’t look or feel like any other bar in the city. Named after the Chinese character for “double happiness,” the space is less cocktail lounge and more living room of a well-traveled creative polymath.

Posters from old punk gigs and vintage film stills cover the walls. Trinkets, vinyl, and odd memorabilia sourced from across the world are stacked in corners or hanging from the ceiling in chaotic stillness, all while a commanding neon sign with the Chinese words 雙喜 illuminates a pocket of the space. Like most of the bars in this part of KL, Shuang Xi isn’t big, so seating is minimal. Customers sit cross-legged on the floor around tables of varying shapes and heights, a beverage in hand, talking to friends and strangers.

The music comes from playlists offering everything from Chinese indie and surf rock to underground hip-hop and obscure instrumental cuts. On some weekends, DJs squeeze into a corner to usher in a party, but people crowd in anyway despite the tight quarters, moving to the beat in a haze of cigarette smoke and neon glow from the street outside. It’s a vibe that’s almost impossible to replicate in KL’s more polished nightlife spots.

A Different Kind of Night Out

Another one of Shuang Xi’s appeals is its simplicity. In a city where nightlife often means bars with expensive cocktails, this Petaling Street spot feels different. Drinks are affordable, and people are chill. You’re just as likely to see tourists as you are tattooed musicians, baristas, or creatives. Everyone is welcome here.

The bar often doubles as an event space—hosting everything from experimental music nights to independent film screenings. On one evening, it might be a punk band thrashing through a set; the next, a small poetry reading. The lack of rigid structure is part of the charm. Shuang Xi embraces eccentricity and clearly refuses to conform to a type.

This sense of community extends beyond the bar’s walls. Petaling Street has long been a site of reinvention, with old shophouses repurposed into creative venues. Shuang Xi adds to that narrative, positioning itself not just as a watering hole but as a place where the alternative KL scene can gather and grow.

Petaling Street’s Shifting Landscape

For decades, Petaling Street has been known as Kuala Lumpur’s Chinatown: a bustling stretch of hawker stalls, counterfeit goods, and neon-lit night markets. But in recent years, the neighborhood has undergone a quiet transformation (or gentrification, if one could argue).

As rents in trendier districts climb, young entrepreneurs and artists have turned to these older shophouses, carving out new uses for spaces steeped in history. Cafés, galleries, and boutique hotels now sit alongside traditional kopitiams and medicine halls, creating a unique landscape where past and present blur.

Within this shifting environment, bars like Shuang Xi do more than just serve drinks; they help redefine what nightlife in Malaysia can be. For years, KL’s evening scene was dominated by rooftop clubs, polished cocktail lounges, and commercial EDM spots. Shuang Xi and its peers mark a break from that formula, championing something rawer, cheaper, and closer to the ground.

It’s a small but meaningful countercurrent: spaces that value community over clout, expression over exclusivity. By turning an old Chinatown shophouse into a messy, free-flowing hub, Shuang Xi shows how counterculture in Malaysia is finding its foothold in heritage streets, reimagined from the ground up.

A Space for Everyone

While Kuala Lumpur might not be known internationally as a countercultural hub, spaces like Shuang Xi are proof of a bubbling undercurrent. For a younger generation that craves authenticity over playing pretend, bars like this are more than places to drink. They’re places to connect, express, and carve out space in a city that often feels dominated by mainstream narratives.

That energy spills into its sister venue, CRYROOM, tucked above the quiet shophouses of Petaling Jaya, a sprawling suburb about a 30-minute car ride from Kuala Lumpur. If Shuang Xi is about music and nightlife, CRYROOM leans into the quiet and communal. Its Couch Potato program screens cult classics and indie films at a price anyone can afford, creating a space where cinema is stripped of pretense and returned to the people. 

Together, the two venues sketch out a vision of what counterculture in Malaysia can look like: grassroots, accessible, and always in search of new ways to gather.

Cover image via Google Maps