Even the Chinese complain about how insular Gen Z clubbing is these days - people at tables, half the time on the phone as it's too loud to keep yelling, getting slowly drunk. On my trip I went much later to a club in China (after midnight) and it was more of what I'd expect in the West -main difference being there were much more people. Many of the tables had emptied and the people were on the dancefloors, which were absolutely rammed, and difficult to dance in. Every half hr a 'show' would come onto stage, and the DJs did sets ranging from techno to deep house to Cantopop, to Kpop (at which point everyone sang along). Many, many punters were absolutely mullered by then, clambering their way through the crowd, alot of the guys just took their tops off en masse, saw one dude drinking frm the handwashing basin in the loos. Kind of an organised mess -a lot of fun, even just to watch, but I suppose you'd need to find the right place, and the most popular one trending.

Awesome 🎉🎉 more please

You'll find the best clubs in HK, Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.  Why? Because girls are richer (or on higher office salaries), they're more international minded, they will often go with their girlfriends, co-workers or fellow students to such clubs, just to meet professional guys or expats (but usually only on Friday or Saturday night). If you're just one man with a camera, you're not gonna get far, nor will you get far with those dirty shoes on.  Put that camera away, go with a wingman...and dress better.  
Note that drinks are not cheap so prepare to spend, and when things get going, prepare to get a bottle and a table.  Once you've made some friends, next time, they'll sure treat you back.
If spending crazy for partying is not for you, then just hang out at Irish bars or side walk BBQ hawkers.

That's consistent with how I felt when I visited Changsha. It's not much different from anywhere else in China with nightlife style. You sit at a table and order in larger quantities (bucket of 6 bottles or more, or liquor) and buy a table. Most people are sitting around with their group, and commonly viewing their phones. If you stayed in one place long enough, the chances of a group of (almost always) guys inviting you to drink at their table, is quite high. Most foreigners are hoping to find bars where you interact more easily with many different people. But the design isn't conducive to that.

welcome~~~

Those 5 dudes at the end look like they were straight outta BTS lol...

the hotel so fancy

I think clubs in China are missing a Croatian basketball player and his manager 👀🤣

Bring turbofolk to china!

Beijing and Shanghai have many of nightclubs with the atmosphere that you were looking for.

Bring Croatia to China.

another 2 -10