Oh man. Shock closing just shy of CNY. Austin Hu just announced on his WeChat Moments that Birds of Paradise, the neo-tiki bar he opened with bartender Yao Lu, will have its last day of operation on January 21. Yikes. Ouch. Oof. The bright, tropical, neon-drenched island for exuberant froufrou drinks and Polynesian-inspired comfort cuisine was the first of its kind in Shanghai, and it's a real shitter they're having to close barely six months into their run. No reason given, though one can speculate. We liked it a lot, but apparently Shanghai wasn't in the mood for Scorpion Bowls. They're cooking off the rest of the stock, pouring out the bottles and moving on to the next thing. Last chance to get a decent Zombie this Tuesday. Austin's WeChat post after the jump.

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It is with a heavy heart that we are writing to inform everyone that Tuesday, January 21st, 2020 will be Birds of Paradise's last day of operations. We opened with great optimism and enthusiasm, and we are incredibly proud of everything we have accomplished in this short amount of time. We would like to thank all of our friends and guests for their support and patronage and invite you all to [Birds of Paradise] these next few days to drink the bar DRY. We will be pouring out all our bottles and cooking off all our inventory, come bid farewell to our little bit of paradise in the city. We will be transitioning into an education platform promoting Chinese tiki culture and advocating our philosophy of 'Happy Escapism.' We hope to see you all here!" - Austin Hu's WeChat Moments

Tiki's hard. Neo-tiki presumably even more so. A nostalgic movement based on a nostalgic movement based on the wartime experiences of American sailors in the Pacific is probably going to have a hard time flying anywhere else in the world. It's niche. It's fantastic Austin and Yao even gambled on the possibility that Shanghai would be into it enough to support a bar. The city'll be worse off without 50rmb Pina Colada happy hours, spam katsu sliders and really good froufrou drinks.