Beijing, the Mecca of heavy metal - Kaiser Kuo

Kaiser Kuo

Rock artist and Baidu communication director Kaiser Kuo recalls in the Wall Street Journal how Beijing became for a short while the Mecca of heavy metal, as artists from around the world gathered for this niche market in music.

Wall Street Journal:

In 1988, Kaiser Kuo, a Chinese-American metal fan, traveled to Beijing on a student visa after finishing college at the University of California, Berkeley. The young musician, whose parents came to the U.S. in the 1950s, was surprised by what he found: Guitars and amps for sale, evidence of a nascent rock scene that had formed around local artists interacting with visiting diplomats and journalists. 

China was just opening up to the West, and fans were soaking up decades of U.S. music at once, Mr. Kuo says. He teamed up with two Chinese locals, including a charismatic singer named Ding Wu, to form Tang Dynasty, perhaps China’s first metal band. The group blended Western rock and metal with lyrics and sounds reminiscent of ancient China (The Tang Dynasty was a period of prosperity and cultural openness in medieval China.) 

Cassettes brought by Western visitors’ kids weren’t the only way metal spread in China. According to Mr. Kuo, in the early 1990s, U.S. music companies would dump unwanted inventory—say, leftover CDs from an artist that a label had dropped—because doing so would allow them to reduce their tax burden in various ways. The discs, off-loaded to third parties, would end up on Chinese ports at cut-rate prices, 15 cents or less, with little nicks to ensure they couldn’t be sold in the U.S. Cannibal Corpse, a U.S. death metal band whose music had been banned in several Western countries, was especially successful there, Mr. Kuo recalls. 

In the late 1990s and 2000s, waves of Chinese bands from Overload to Suffocated, along with Taiwan’s Chthonic and Silent Hell, helped build out the region’s scene. While metal is by no means mainstream in China, bands from different subgenres play in Beijing every night of the week, says Mr. Kuo, now an international communications director for Chinese search engine Baidu: “Beijing became a Mecca for this,” he says.

More on heavy metal in the Wall Street Journal.

Kaiser Kuo is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in this speakers´request note.

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Baoding: third tier city waiting for revival - Ian Johnson

Ian Johnson

Now China is preparing for a new megacity, Jing-Jin-Ji, combining Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, the neighboring provincial capital Baoding is hoping to tide on the bandwagon too. Journalist Ian Johnson visited Baoding for the New York Times and looks at its chances.

Ian Johnson:

But transforming Baoding will be a challenge. The region is relatively poor, with few natural economic advantages beyond coal mining. That has led to the development of the world’s biggest concentration of heavily polluting coking and steel factories. Even though Baoding itself has no heavy industries, pollution from nearby cities has given it the worst air in China.

The risks of such down-market economic development are also apparent in nearby Tianjin, which became a center for dirty chemical industriesrejected in many other parts of China. Last month, a massive chemical firedestroyed part of Tianjin’s Binhai New Area port, one of the pillars of the Jing-Jin-Ji plan. 

The effort to redeem Baoding has echoes in the past. It was once the capital of Zhili Province, made up of today’s Hebei Province and Tianjin. A key military and political stronghold in imperial China, Baoding was famed for its dates, persimmons and sesame oil. (The donkey burgers came later.) But this agricultural focus did not sit well with the Communists, who took power in 1949 and favored heavy industry... 

Now, planners hope to fix Baoding’s economic deficits by fiat. Their solution is to use infrastructure and powerful administrative structures to push industry out of Beijing and into surrounding cities like Baoding. A key step came in May when China’s cabinet, the State Council, approved Baoding’s expansion from 120 square miles to 850 square miles, or nearly three times the size of New York City. 

When the issue of expansion was raised last year, it caused an increase in Baoding’s real estate prices, with speculators hoping that the government would move some ministries or bureaus here.

More in the New York Times.

Ian Johnson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´ request form.

Are you interested in more stories by Ian Johnson? Check out this list.

Earlier Ian Johnson explained the background of the new megacity and the possibilities for foreign companies to join the bandwagon

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The Boxer rebellion walking tour - Zhang Lijia

Zhang Lijia

Beijing has many ways to dive into its colorful past. Author Zhang Lijia joined last Sunday the Boxer rebellion walking tour, an episode in China's history where interpretation way much, depending whether you are a Western of a Chinese scholar. From her weblog.

Zhang Lijia:

This Sunday, I went on a boxer rebellion walking tour to the old Legation Quarter – where the embassies used to be. The boxer Rebellion, an anti-imperialist uprising by a group of mythical rebels, took place during the end of the Qing Dynasty. In the dreadful summer of1900, the legation quarter was under siege for 55 days by the boxers, armed with swords (they believed that they were invulnerable to foreign weapons!) and Qing troops. Some 4000 foreigners, missionaries, diplomats and business people and their families as well as Chinese Christians, all gathered here. Danish sinologist Lars Ulrick from Beijing Postcards Thom led the tour. He explained the background, the aggression of the foreign powers, the growing anti-foreign sentiments and the drought as we walked past the tree-lined former embassy land where some colonial buildings still stand and he vividly recounted – sometimes acted out – some of the colorful stories: the murder of the German ambassador, the bombing of the French embassy; and how 200,000 bullets flew into the air without hitting one target and how some westerners ate their horses, washed down by plenty of alcohol – the only food item abundance. 

The impact of the Boxer Rebellion was profound. It sped up the collapse of the Qing Dynasty and pushed China into a modern world. 

I personally found the Boxer Rebellion fascinating as it is one of the historical events that got dramatically different interpretations. At school, we learnt it was a patriotic movement while many western academics regarded it as a barbaric uprising: many missionaries were brutally murdered. Well, it all depends on who’s point of view. The truth may lie somewhere in between.

More (including pictures) at Zhang Lijia's weblog.

Zhang Lijia is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´ request form.

Are you looking for more experts on cultural change at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

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What the US Navy can learn from the Beijing parade - Wendell Minnick

Wendell Minnick

Apart from showing grandeur, the huge Beijing parade showcased also a large amount of new weaponry. Defense analyst Wendell Minnick saw some new features that should certainly get the attention of the US Navy, he writes in Defense News, 20 years after the Taiwan Strait Missile Crisis.

Wendell Minnick:

China showcased its growing capability to deny the US Navy access to the maritime domain of both the East China Sea and South China Sea during a celebratory parade Thursday commemorating the 70th anniversary of its victory over imperialist Japan. 

Parade officials commented that 80 percent of the weapons on display had never been exhibited to the public before, and all the equipment was Chinese-made and operational. Though this is a fair statement, three fighter aircraft that took part in the parade are actually pirated copies of foreign fighter aircraft, including the J-11B (Sukhoi Su-27), carrier-borne J-15 (Su-33) Flying Shark, and the J-10 (Israeli Lavi). 

The parade showcased for the first time a variety of ballistic missiles under the command of the Second Artillery Corps. Mark Stokes, a China ballistic missile specialist at the Project 2049 Institute, said that leading each parade formation were corps leader grade officers – chief of staff, chief engineer or deputy commander. 

"It appears that each of the six missile bases were represented with a new missile system," he said.

More in Defense News.

Wendell Minnick is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´ request form.

Are you looking for more stories by Wendell Minnick? Check out this list.  

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How Uniqlo could have handled its steamy video - Tom Doctoroff

Tom Doctoroff

A video of two customers having sex in a changing room of a Beijing outlet of Uniqlo went viral last week. Uniqlo even had to deny this was a marketing trick. Advertising guru Tom Doctoroff says in the Wall Street Journal it could have handled the issue more relaxed, in line with its own branding,

The Wall Street Journal:

The retailer, owned by Fast Retailing Co., sells mix-and-match clothing — so why not respond with a playful, yet serious line that connects consumers to the brand? That’s the advice of Tom Doctoroff, Asia Chief Executive of JWT, who offered one possible slogan: “Make your own style, but don’t take it too far.” 

In response to the viral sex video that was shot in a dressing room of one of its Beijing stores, Uniqlo said in a statement that it reminded “all customers to abide by society’s moral standards.” A spokeswoman for the company declined to respond to questions about the tone of the company’s response but said it was not involved in the video and that it has turned the matter over to the police for investigation. 

While Uniqlo didn’t opt for comic relief, other companies and consumers did. China-based car company Chery Automobile Co. posted on its social media sites last week a message that said, “Don’t try another room, try a car.” 

Venucia, Nissan Dongfeng’s low-price brand for China, sent this message over social media: “The car is equipped with power seats. Why go to Uniqlo?”... 

Of course, there is a serious side to the video. Making, publishing or spreading pornographic or obscene material is illegal in China and is considered a criminal act. And sex videos–no matter how much traction and attention they get online–don’t exactly match with this retailer’s brand message, said Mr. Doctoroff.

More in the Wall Street Journal.

Tom Doctoroff is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´ request form.

Are you looking for more branding experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.  

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More restructuring of Beijing planned - Ian Johnson

Ian Johnson

Not only is the municipal government leaving the city center of Beijing, more activities are going to leave for a new urban corridor between Beijing and Tianjin, reports journalist Ian Johnson in the New York Times. Hospitals, markets and administrative offices follow too by moving to Hebei province.

Ian Johnson:

City officials said, 50 city hospitals will begin cooperating with hospitals in Hebei Province, and some will move important facilities to surrounding communities. The neurological unit in Tiantan Hospital, for example, will move to another suburb, Fengtai, by 2017, they said. 

The city also said it would move 1,200 pollution-causing businesses out of the urban center. 

The moves are part of the creation of a major new urban area called Jing-Jin-Ji, after the three districts it encompasses (“Jing” for Beijing, “Jin” for the nearby port city of Tianjin, and “Ji” for the ancient name for Hebei Province). The city is trying to develop industries like tourism in poorer mountain areas surrounding the capital, with one area bidding to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. 

The plan has been debated for decades, but only began to be implemented in recent months as part of an effort by President Xi Jinping to reform the Chinese economy. The idea is to reduce the sort of duplicative, polluting enterprises like coking and steel that dominate the greater Beijing area and other large urban centers, and in their place create a more modern economic structure. 

Jing-Jin-Ji would have more than 100 million residents and be about the size of Kansas, with high-speed rail lines making most cities in the corridor reachable within an hour.

More in the New York Times.

Ian Johnson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´ request form.

Are you looking for more stories by Ian Johnson? Check out this link.  

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Beijing government to move: at last? - Ian Johnson

Ian Johnson

The Beijing municipal government now seems serious about leaving the old city center and move to the suburbs, a very old plan. For the New York Times journalist Ian Johnson dives into the history of the plans. Most reactions are mildly positive.  

Ian Johnson:

For decades, moving government offices outside Beijing has been a taboo subject. In the 1950s, a prominent architect and urban planner, Liang Sicheng, proposed building an administrative center outside the old city. The idea, however, was rejected by Communist China’s first leader, Mao Zedong, and his associates as running against the revolution. Instead, they put national ministries and the urban administration of their capital in the old city, purposefully using palaces and parks to symbolize the Communists’ overturning of the old order. 

Over the years, however, this has meant the destruction of the old city, as alleys, temples, city walls and old buildings were torn down for an ever-expanding bureaucracy.

“The move is ironic given that earlier planners advocated something similar in the 1950s,” said Thomas Hahn, a geographer and historian of urban China affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley. “They were outmaneuvered, which eventually led to the wholesale gutting of the traditional urban core.” 

The exact details have not been released, but some published reports say the city’s Communist Party headquarters, as well as several other political committees, could move to Lucheng, a part of Tongzhou where a subway connection to the inner city recently opened. 

Local government websites have publicized new orders not to construct buildings on the land. Those also state that local residents would be reclassified from rural residents to urban ones, which would end farming on the land and allow for more intensive construction. 

Officials at several Beijing offices refused to confirm or deny the plans. Speaking anonymously, however, numerous officials said the move was definite and could be announced on the National Day holiday on Oct. 1. A senior official with the city’s Bureau of Industry and Commerce said that his office received a notice from his superiors last month to prepare for the move, but that it would take years to complete.

According to Zhang Wuming, a researcher at the Fangtang Think Tank in Beijing, which specializes in urban and cultural issues, the plan would leave the core part of the city home only to central government ministries. 

“The idea is to strengthen the function of Beijing as the capital, which means that Beijing should serve the central organs more efficiently,” Mr. Zhang said. “If the Beijing government can move to Tongzhou, it actually can better manage the city from there.”

More in the New York Times.

Ian Johnson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him as a speaker at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´ request form.

Are you interested in more stories by Ian Johnson? Check out our recently updated list. 

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Book censorship challenged in court - Ian Johnson

+Ian Johnson 

Books need a book number to get published and sold in China, although every store would have a little counter of banned or not approved books. But censorship rules have become stricter enforced over the years and when an autobiography of Li Rui, a retired party official, got confiscated at an airport, his daughter decided to take the case to court, writes journalist Ian Johnson in the New York Times.

Ian Johnson:

Ms. Li said that her father was ordered not to speak to foreign journalists nearly a decade ago and that he declined to join her lawsuit because of his age. But in February, he attended a meeting to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the death of Zhao Ziyang, the reformist party secretary sacked before the 1989 Tiananmen massacre. According to two people present who asked not to be identified, Mr. Li spoke of his book’s seizure and the party’s failure to establish a constitutional government. 

Ms. Li, 65, who lives in the San Francisco area after a career in the Department of Energy’s National Laboratories, said the lawsuit was her personal quest to highlight that failure. 

“I want people to think less like subjects and more like citizens,” she said. “I want people to take responsibility for changing China and not wait for higher-ups to reform the system.” 

“I don’t expect to win,” she added, “but I want to draw attention to the custom office’s practices.” 

A court in Beijing accepted her lawsuit in September after she established that she was still a Chinese citizen despite living abroad for the past 25 years. According to Chinese law, a hearing was supposed to have been held within three months. But the courts have issued a series of extensions, most recently this month. 

“They can keep postponing the case,” said her lawyer, Xia Nan, “even though it’s not in keeping with the spirit of the law.” 

Liu Junning, a scholar of political philosophy who has been blacklisted, said he did not think Ms. Li had much chance of getting an answer from the government. 

“If the authorities want her to win, she can win,” he said. “But if she wins the case, it would be seen as an encouragement to others.”

Much more in the New York Times.

Ian Johnson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´ request form.

Are you looking for more media experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.  

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Large private planes favorite among China´s rich- Rupert Hoogewerf

Rupert Hoogewerf

China´s super rich focus on the larger private planes, not the relative smaller ones, says China-rich list founder Rupert Hoogewerf in the South China Morning Post. "If we liken it to cars, they’re buying Porsches first and later considering Audis,” Hoogewerf said."

The South China Morning Post:

China’s super-rich still favour large models of private jets, although industry executives see a shift in buyers’ attitudes towards owning planes for their practical usefulness rather than status. The latest Business Jets and Hurun China Rich List 2015, published by Hurun Report, said that 28 of the top 100 wealthiest people owned 41 private jets. Li Hejun, founder of thin-film solar group Hanergy, has two, as does home appliance maker Midea’s co-founder, He Xiangjian. 

Eight, or nearly a third, of the owners are based in Beijing, owning a total of nine jets. Guangdong is the next private jet hotspot, with seven people owning eight planes, the report said. 

Prices for the 41 business jets varied from 30 million yuan (US$4.8 million) to 500 million yuan. Of them, only three are medium-sized and there are no small ones. The G550, made by leading aerospace company Gulfstream, is the most popular model, with 19, followed by six from Canadian manufacturer Bombardier and three made by France’s Dassault. 

Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman of Hurun Report, said he believed that actual private jet ownership among the 100 richest people should be higher, given the latest research by the Asian Sky Group that found there are altogether 297 business jets on the mainland. 

“Compared with the Europe and America, large-sized jets occupy the majority of the market in China … If we liken it to cars, they’re buying Porsches first and later considering Audis,” Hoogewerf said.

More in the South China Morning Post.

Rupert Hoogewerf is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´ request form.

Are you looking for more experts on luxury goods at the China Speakers Bureau? Check out our list here.  

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Why Beijing should not get the Olympic Wintergames - Ian Johnson

+Ian Johnson 

Beijing has only Almaty, Kazakhstan left as a competitor for the Olympic Wintergames in 2022. But many academics and environmentalists describe an upcoming disaster for the region, writes author Ian Johnson in the New York Times.

Ian Johnson:

According to Beijing’s bid, the environmental impact of the Games would be “ecofriendly” and “sustainable.” In their three-volume filing with the I.O.C., organizers say they will use renewable energy and sustainable building materials. Forest cover lost to ski slopes or other facilities would be offset by new tree plantings elsewhere, in compliance with I.O.C.requirements.

“As there are abundant water resources near the ski resorts, and the melted snow will be recycled,” the bid says, “snow-making during the Games will not have any negative impact on the local ecosystem.”

“Abundant” is not a word often used to describe Beijing’s water supply. Although some parts of the city receive up to 23 inches of rain a year, the mountainous area where the ski resorts are being built and the Games would be held receives 15 to 16 inches, making it semiarid.

Two-thirds of that precipitation falls in the summer. In December and January, areas like Chongli, where the reservoir is, receive about a tenth of an inch of precipitation, meaning they are usually bare throughout the winter.

“It just doesn’t snow in Beijing,” said Zhang Junfeng, an independent water expert who has written and published widely on Beijing’s water troubles. “People get ideas by watching television and sports and think it’s a great pastime, but it’s not sustainable.”

More in the New York Times.

Ian Johnson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´ request form.

Are you looking for more political experts at the China Speakers Bureau. Do check out this recent list.  

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