anyMeta 4.6.58 - Atom module 0.3.22017-05-11T16:54:20+02:00http://www.couscousglobal.com/feed/atom/47/en?q_object=86Editors bloghttp://www.couscousglobal.com/id/10172008-09-09T12:26:52+02:00Beijing Debate<p>21-8-2008</p>
<p>We had a debate yesterday night in the Yahstudio with lots of people mainly from the musici-ndustry of Beijing.<br/>
It was passionate, diverse, open-minded and very interesting. You were great. Thank you all, we had a beautiful evening!!!!!</p><p>Everybody came. Big group. 15 people, 3 translators, 2 camerawomen, me and Gabrielle.</p>
<p>Most of the people are working in the musicscene:<br/>
Techno/house, Chinese Indipop, a Dj and a Hiphop gang, a skater and a few students. <br/>
We had a long discussion about music and its role in the world, in China, and in their lifes.<br/>
It is hard to make a living with only music in China, all of the people have a regular job as well, accept the hiphop gang, “We just hang around during the day”.<br/>
The good thing is there are enough and great places to perform. They all feel Being is a very interesting place now to make music, a lot of things to be discovered, new styles coming up. Chinese music could very well be the next big thing in the world of music, but than, Chinese music is very diverse.<br/>
From sweet Honkong-shit to post- punk, all the styles are there.</p>
<p>All the kids seem to feel a genuine love for Beijing. They would not rather be somewhere else. Not n the West not in Shanghai. Shanghai is business. The DJ told me that he is playing there for 1000-2000 people a night from 1pm-6pm, but 95% of them are foreigners. Only 5% are Chinese. With the hiphop gang in Beijing it is 50-50. In smaller clubs, like Mao’s we were in, the audience is mostly Chinese.<br/>
There is sort of a competition, a love-hate relation between Shanghai and Beijing, as there is in any country between the big cities.</p>
<p>Than we talked about images the West has of China, about being angry and how to get over it (express yourselve!)and about being gay. It became clear to me that the tolerance I felt on The Boat a few days ago is a thin layer. Some of the debaters were very much against gay people and questioned me about the attitude of Amsterdam about it. They heard about the gay marriages and adopting children by gaypeople in Amsterdam<br/>
“ We think it is not natural”. I told them that i think the Amsterdam attitude is pretty cool. The other debaters agreed with that.</p>
<p>Themes of the lyrics were love, childhood memories of TV series and games in the '80s, poverty, hunger as passion, life on the streets in Beiing, in short: they are making music because they like it , to make people dance and to express themselves.<br/>
As one of the musicians said:” Music has no country, it is just music in itself, we just make music, our music, about us, about the world”.</p>
<p>Links:</p>
<p> <br/>
Hedgehog band<br/>
<br/>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%E5%88%BA%E7%8C%AC%E4%B9%90%E9%98%9F&search_type=&aq=f">www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%E5%88%BA%E7%8C%AC%E4%B9%90%E9%98%9F&search_type=&aq=f</a><br/>
<br/>
milk&coffee<br/>
<br/>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%E7%89%9B%E5%A5%B6%E5%92%96%E5%95%A1&search_type=&aq=f">www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%E7%89%9B%E5%A5%B6%E5%92%96%E5%95%A1&search_type=&aq=f</a><br/>
<br/>
The youth</p>
<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%E9%9D%92%E5%B9%B4%E5%B0%8F%E4%BC%99%E5%AD%90&search_type=&aq=f">www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%E9%9D%92%E5%B9%B4%E5%B0%8F%E4%BC%99%E5%AD%90&search_type=&aq=f</a><br/>
<br/>
spanline<br/>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2lR0C5VV0M&feature=related">www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2lR0C5VV0M&feature=related</a> <br/>
Lvxingtuan <br/>
<a href="http://video.baidu.com/v?ct=301989888&rn=20&pn=0&db=0&s=8&word=%C2%C3%D0%D0%CD%C5%C0%D6%B6%D3">video.baidu.com/v?ct=301989888&rn=20&pn=0&db=0&s=8&word=%C2%C3%D0%D0%CD%C5%C0%D6%B6%D3</a></p>
<p>We will edit the debate the next weeks and it will be on line as soon as possible.</p>maartje nevejanhttp://www.couscousglobal.com/id/176ARTICLEnewshttp://www.couscousglobal.com/id/9692008-09-09T12:53:59+02:00Mao live<p>16-08-2008</p><p>Mao Livehouse Beiijing 16-08-2008</p>
<p>Today we first filmed Xidan 77th street, a big underground shoppingmall for the young people.<br/>
In the main hall a DJ was playing, it was full with people hanging out, not so much buying stuff as just being there. There is one big gameroom packed with all sort of games for different ages, also for the very young.Lots of drumming games. I will try to upload a small movie of one.<br/>
Afterwards we went to the Boers-Li gallery. In another artist village a bit out of town. The show was called another Xijing, talking about an Asian sort of Utopia , another version of the Olympics. We interviewed the artist from Korea, China and Japan. It will be on our site in 2 weeks time. We met the godfather of the artworld here Mister Ai Wei Wei, who told me that he was not the godfather but the godmother of the artworld in China.<br/>
Than we hit it back to town again. Enjoyed a real spicy dinner and lots of discussions with it. It is very refreshing to have discussions with the people here. They take time to phrase, words mean something here, and you are forced to listen carefully. A lot is being said in between the lines, and a lot of humour is in between as well. </p>
<p>After dinner we went to Mao livehouse. The Post Chinese Punkband “ Queen Sea Big Shark” was playing with the charismatic Fuhan as the lead singer. She was great.<br/>
Hope to upload the movie this afternoon, for now the Internet is to slow here this morning.<br/>
Anuway we drank a last beer in a 24 hours bar” room 101”, and walked home through the soft warm night.</p>maartje nevejanhttp://www.couscousglobal.com/id/176ARTICLEnews