Beijing culture - An American frat party? The Great Wall, a short film party and fucking in heaven (see video)

The expat community in Beijing is like an American college fraternity.  There are those who come to study - usually Chinese or some engineering based subject.  There are those who come for the ladies (or men) - known locally as yellow fever (and for Chinese who like western - potato fever).  There are those who come to make future business connections and actually do some business.  There are those who are pushing cultural boundaries, those on the music scene or artists. 

I'm not sure which one of these parts of the fraternity I fit into.  I've come to learn the language but Beijing's cultural scene is so thriving that it's hard not to get swept along to the next city art project or new night.  My Flatmate is currently organizing for Peter Hook of New order and Joy Division fame to come to Beijing for one night only, for example.Such was the case with old Norman Cook AKA Fat Boy Slim.  

One of Beijing's leading club/ event organizers ClubZone managed to secure not only the Brit Dj, but also a pretty sweet spot on the Great Wall of China for a 1 day music festival.  Being one of these people who doesn't like to do things whenever everyone else is doing them (think, oh, I'm in china, I'll go and see the great wall) this was a great opportunity for me to see what everyone else was seeing.The crowd at these sort of events is mainly international - any Chinese had either studied abroad or were from Taiwan (for the benefit of the powers that be, Taiwan is a part of China...).  

But, nonetheless, these were definitely the part of the fraternity which were pushing the boundaries and liked a good party.Arriving at 2, rather uncharacteristically for China, the set up wasn't ready, and having attached myself to a group of Swiss we decided to climb the wall itself.  3 observations about the wall.   It's very high, and very very long.  Its been largely refurbished in parts, so you have to travel a little bit out of the way to get to see some of the more original parts.  And the scenery is pretty stunning.  Also, by night, you realize how comparatively Beijing emits so much heat as the unsheltered wall became very cold as the sun went down.


Two words on fat boy slim.  Surprisingly good.  The set and the pyrotechnics were pretty awesome.  

At one point there was a giant fat boy slim head mouthing the words to the song.  The crowd lapped it it lovingly.  A couple of really good mixes of some big dance tunes  - including Martin Solveig's "Hello" went down really well.  And old favorites with new mixes, including "Save you" and "Right here, right now" got the crowd pumping. I think I danced solidly for two hours and by the end of his pretty ecstatic set and was exhausted.  Afterwards I headed to a drum and bass area and danced like I had tourettes for a good half an hour.  That's the great thing about DnB: you can pretty much do any movement fast and it looks like it's in sync with the music; although I'm pretty sure the guy next to me was having an epileptic fit rather than dancing.  

I dont know why, or whether I look like a crackhead, but way too many people kept on coming up to me to ask Me for drugs.  Usually MDMA.  I don't like nor do drugs, so I told them to fuck off.  Unfortunately I don't know the Chinese for fuck off, so they had to do with my pretty coarse English.All throughout, the wall was lit up by an array of light shows which made for a pretty spectacular evening.   Later that morning I headed back to the Big Jing for some food and much needed sleep.  All in all, a pretty memorable evening.  

A week later I was invited to go along to a short film screening in an old converted courtyard.  You know how London has "former warehouse apartments", which are very sought after; well Beijing has old courtyards.  They're pretty nice.The idea behind the evening was that 20 or so independent and amateur film makers were commissioned to each make a 5 minute short.  Humour was usually the theme; although one was a film with no dialogue about a man wanting to hang himself. Hmmm.  

The winner was quite a surreal film which went something like this.  A young but horny geek is in his bedroom.  He has 5 pills.  Each pill he took, a different character appeared in his room.  The first was a young woman who every time he uttered a word, would spit water in his face.  He got freaked out and took another pill.  A dominatrix came.  He liked it until she got rough.  A third. A fat man in S&M gear.  And lastly a sultry seductress, who then disappeared.  Weird, but got the crowd laughing.

The way I like to think of Beijing's cultural scene in comparison to let's say NY or LDN is like this.  Beijing is a teenager that has been given a lot of money.  The other two cities have had money but are living in a squat with artists to be cool and rebelling against their monied parents.  

And so Beijing is quite flash, likes to show off what it has, gets dressed up the best every time it goes out, with the newest designer labels, and looks for money in other people.  So a lot of events will charge a high (for Chinese standards) cover price and be more about what you can show rather than what you can say for yourself.  They're more about big names, the right brand of booze or food, and perhaps a new DJ who's on the up because he's fused western and eastern music into some sort of dance mix.  

So, in this way, Beijing is somewhat under developed, by comparison.  But it's defining itself.  In response, said housemate has started a monthly night, ironically called "response", which is free and more about music than money.  I went.  It was good.  The crowd was mixed apart from the French who insisted on talking very loudly in French to let it be known they they were, yes, French.  More on the French-Jingers in another post.

This week I'm going to check out some Beijing fashion.  There are a lot of new labels which seem to produce a slightly more up Market version of All Saints clothes - so think grey, black and more grey.  I'm pretty certain there must be more, but there are a high number of people wearing rimless glasses in the BigJing, so we'll see...

Some more pictures below...

The man himself