Shopping + music = sweet sweetness

For June 22, 2007

I feel like I've been here forever. Not because I've mastered the culture or language or anything, but today was a long day and it was spent constantly meeting people and doing things. I think I have at least four new contacts, some of which I plan to hit up. But that to come. I apologize that this will be a long post.

The game for today in Chinese class was Mafia (keep this in mind)! I was so glad I had played it before because the instructions were solely in Chinese. Didn't keep me from dying the first game, though. We don't have history class on Fridays, so determined to use the subway and see some music, I set out with Mo (my brown friend) and Tim. I purposely didn't know where I was going or what I was doing, but as luck would have it, the train we caught had a small group of English-speaking adults on it. Some were natives and some were visiting for some exhibition. They were off to Xidan, THE place to go shopping for cheap stuff and to hone your bargaining skills with shop owners over what in the end amounts to probably a dollar difference. I was actually told to go there by someone on the plane ride over. We decided to tag along--I mainly wanted to stay close to the Chinese female because I figured she'd be ruthless in bargaining.

Now, imagine an office of cubicles. Take away the walls of the cubicles and fill them top to bottom with your choice of: shoes, bags, clothes, gaudy accessories that makes Claire's look classy, etc. and you have Xidan. It was a consumer's wet dream. I was on the prowl for a bag. The Chinese woman successfully helped me bargain down a giant bag that will serve me well in carrying books and/or small children. It happened so fast that it was only after that I began to process the bag itself and worry whether it made me look Asian. Mo and Tim assured me it didn't. On my own I bought a lovely pair of white flats but according to Chinese woman, I paid a little too much. The golden rule seems to be if it's 200 RMB, don't pay over 40 RMB. Live and learn. Tim had wandered off on his own by this point assuring Mo and I he'd be fine. The adults needed to leave to meet friends for dinner and extended us an invitation, but Mo and I opted to find the music venue 2 Kolegas instead. The adults in the group were really very nice, especially Samsuri, a Malaysian man. In fact, he kept offering for us to come to his hotel on Sunday (our free day) and chill with him and swim in the pool. No Mom, I didn't consider doing this. Richard, a native who taught Chinese, also invited us to give him a call if we were ever near where he lived, which turned out to be very close to Yuyuantan Park, an amusement park. Richard gave us a recommendation on where to get famous Beijing duck and the Chinese woman drew us a map on how to get to 2 Kolegas in my handy little notebook which has become a collection of my musings, random phone numbers + e-mail addresses, and Chinese phrases that may or may not say, "Please tell me to get off the bus here. Thank you." The directions were pretty simple (so we thought) and the train system isn't hard to figure out at all. It's actually much cleaner than the L. The only problem we encountered was finding this damn bus 731 which no one on the street had heard of. But to be fair, it took me a year and a half to become comfortable with the bus system in Chicago--here I think it's even more confusing. And I have only been here for four days.

After wandering aimlessly 'North,' we broke down and got a taxi. I'm deathly scared of them ever since reading about how some corrupt taxi drivers will drive foreigners out to the middle of nowhere refusing to take them back to civilization until money changes hands. They're also known to drive circuitous routes to get more money. This guy drove for a long time leaving the city behind and I felt my attempts to look like I knew what I was talking about by mumbling random Chinese words here and there were falling short. We finally pulled up to a drive-in movie theatre and I was about to cry when I realized the venue was indeed there, BEHIND the theatre (just like it said in my magazine, in plain English). This was a neat area, best likened to a hamlet, complete with several nice restaurants, a coffee shop, and a mysterious business that read X Club across the front. All of this was centered around a small pond. Mo and I arrived way before the show (it started at 10) so we decided to check out the venue. The band, Lonely China Day, fresh from their appearance at the SXSW music festival in Texas, was inside warming up. Just like 13club and D-22, the venue was open and we were free to walk in and chill. I love that. I met the owner and tried to ask him for a recommendation on where to eat. Instead, he asked us whether we wanted food with meat or no meat (first time any person in this country has asked that question) and before we knew it, ordered take-out for us. At this point Mo and I just sat and watched the band (think Mogwai). I tried to talk to the owner but he unfortunately could speak much Engilsh (rather, I can't speak any Chinese) and he referred me to the band's rep. She ended up speaking quite a lot of English. Highlights of our conversation as follows:

Me: How big is the indie rock scene?
Band rep: Very small. People here prefer pop music.
M: Why is Lonely China Day 'indie rock'?
BR: It's the attitude. Maybe you listen to the songs and read their lyrics to understand.
M: What kind of things do they sing about?
BR: Everything. They sing about politics a little. (as in, the critiques are hidden within the lyrics)
M: Is it difficult being censored?
BR: Not important [to the band]. Maybe you live here 1-2 years and you'll understand.

The language barrier prevented me from finding out more about how artists regard the Ministry of Culture, but this is now my new goal. She also mentioned an indie music festival that will take place at 2 Kolegas July 7-8. Yes.

Our food finally materialized and Mo and I ate in blissful vegetarian hapiness as I took in the scene. The venue was small (about the size of Empty Bottle) with a modest bar. Photographs and painted geckos bedecked some of the walls. And finally, what bar is complete without a fooseball table and a unicycle? After we ate, we had a lot of time to kill before the show started, so we decided to explore. Mo wanted to check out X Club and upon entering, we were immediately offered free juice and water. I momentarily felt bad about taking their tasty beverages with no intent of buying anything, but only momentarily as I was quite thirsty. There was a counter with video cameras that were taking and loading people's picture onto computers. We tried to walk around, but were shooed away--I gathered there was a line (lesson 13 baby) and we left confused and positive some sort of illegal midget pornography lay behind the closed doors. We continued exploring and stopped in to the coffee place to grab an expensive cafe mocha (what kind of world do we live in where the beer is cheaper than the coffee?!) and play with the owner's dog. The cafe looked like the inside of their house (I never could tell whether it was or not) but we all had quite an enjoyable time speaking Chinglish to each other.

After coffee, we headed over to the venue. We saw a white couple sitting outside and we approached them rejoicing in the fact they could speak English. A bit stand-offish at first, they warmed up and we learned they were the owners of the premier indie record label Tagteam, in China. Lonely China Day was one of their seven bands and they were there that night to listen and support. Matt and Heike Kagler were pretty proud of themselves with the nice write-up in City Weekend (one of the many magazines I've stolen and stock-piled while here) and the fact that two of their bands (Lonely China Day and Rebuilding the Rights of Statues) had just finished a U.S. tour. LCD even had a NYTimes mention, according to Matt. I was excited to learn they had played a show in the Art Garage in Columbia and that Matt and I both knew Ben (of Band of Horses). And by know (for me at least), I mean saw him perform and wished we were friends. Unfortunately they did not know/remember Otis. That would have made the world way too small. I spoke with them about the Ministry of Culture--Matt said it was an overrated concern but Heike said they had had one encounter with the Ministry complaining about the frequent use of "fuck" in one of their band's songs. Apparantly they have to send in the lyrics. They were able to finagle their way out of it, though, and still released it from what I gathered. As for the Kagler's take on the indie rock scene: "It's growing. It's not a sub-genre anymore," Matt said.

When the show began, the audience was a little over 30 people. Shockingly (to me), about 15% were white! I have no clue whether that is the norm, whether it's due to the fact it was indie rock, or whether most of the white people were with the label. The show itself was a bit disappointing, especially after seeing them warm-up. There was a lot of synth and the drum set remained unused for about 90% of the show. Most of the time, there were only two guys on stage playing their guitars. Mo called it when he said it didn't feel like a live show. Later I learned from Matt that after the US tour, half the band quit and this was their first show with the new drummer. The band was in the market for a new bassist (Zack Beach? Want to move to Beijing?).

It ended late and we learned the trains stop running at 11 pm so we cabbed it home only for me to realize poor Maude, my 8,000 year old bike which I had left at the Wudaokuo train station, had a flat tire. It made for a musical ride home and a mildly amusing end to a great day!