Podcasts about cui jian

Andrew Field, in his new book Rocking China (Earnshaw Books, 2023), documents one of the most exciting moments in the history of Chinese indie music. Through interviews with key players in these scenes over a period of two decades, Field explores the meanings of rock music in Chinese society as well as the many challenges and obstacles to the development of indie rock scenes in China. Highlights include a journey by rail into the heartlands of China with the hardcore rock band SUBS and legendary “rock godfather” Cui Jian. Along the journey to document the live rock music scenes of Beijing, he discovered an emerging world of musicians, bands, clubs, festivals, promoters, record shop and record label owners that were pushing the envelope of indie music for China and the world. This book takes the reader deep into the world of independent rock music that has been flourishing in urban China since the 2000s. Andrew Field is an American historian, documentary film producer, and professor at Duke Kunshan University. Based in Shanghai, Field is a scholar of musical history and creative culture in contemporary China, including the role jazz music played in 20th century Shanghai. He is the author of Mu Shiying: China's Lost Modernist (2014) and Shanghai's Dancing World: Cabaret Culture and Urban Politics (2010), and one of the co-authors of Shanghai Nightscapes: A Nocturnal Biography of a Global City (2015). Yadong Li is a PhD student in anthropology at Tulane University. His research interests lie at the intersection of economic anthropology, medical anthropology, hope studies, and the anthropology of borders and frontiers. More details about his scholarship and research interests can be found here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/music

Vous le savez sans doute, nous sommes toujours friands de certains proverbes. Celui qui pose une question est bête 5mn, celui qui n'en pose pas est bête toute sa vie. Proverbe chinois qui ravit l'intervieweuse que je suis, puisque j'ai la musette pleine d'interrogations à l'endroit d'un sinologue, Lun Zhang, professeur d'Études chinoises à l'Université de Cergy-Paris qui, dans une première vie, a eu l'audace d'interroger la dictature chinoise. Lorsqu'il se regarde aujourd'hui dans le miroir, il est toujours ce magnifique militant du mouvement pro-démocratie de la place TianAnMen en 1989, combat qu'il poursuivra à Hong Kong, l'île refuge devenue l'une des étapes de son exil. Histoire épique, héroïque, douloureuse racontée à travers deux bandes dessinées poignantes, parues chez Delcourt TianAnMen 1989 Nos espoirs brisés et Hong Kong révolutions de notre temps.Les choix musicaux de Lun ZhangCui Jian à TianAnMenWham! Wake me up before you gogoGiuseppe Verdi Va Pensiero ou Cui Jian

Every protest needs an anthem, and for the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, 'Nothing to My Name' by Cui Jian became that emblem. Cui was one of China's earliest rockers, taking inspiration from the peasant music of China's northwest and fusing it with the rock 'n' roll that was beginning to arrive in the country. It put rock music – and the Chinese interpretation of it – under the national spotlight. On this episode Cindy Yu talks to Kaiser Kuo, host of the China Project's Sinica podcast, who also happens to be a founding member of Tang Dynasty, one of China's earliest and greatest rock bands. They talk about how a China opening up after the Cultural Revolution allowed in this decidedly western musical genre, how it fused with Chinese musical traditions upon contact, and its lasting association with the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.

Every protest needs an anthem, and for the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, 'Nothing to My Name' by Cui Jian became that emblem. Cui was one of China's earliest rockers, taking inspiration from the peasant music of China's northwest and fusing it with the rock 'n' roll that was beginning to arrive in the country. It put rock music – and the Chinese interpretation of it – under the national spotlight. On this episode I talk to Kaiser Kuo, host of the China Project's Sinica podcast, who also happens to be a founding member of Tang Dynasty, one of China's earliest and greatest rock bands. We talk about how a China opening up after the Cultural Revolution allowed in this decidedly western musical genre, how it fused with Chinese musical traditions upon contact, and its lasting association with the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.

This episode is for those who are thinking of leaving China, maybe now or in the future. In this episode, we're joined by 2 "experts of experience" who left China to return home and can share their experiences about adjusting, why they left and what they really miss. For many, especially the expatriate population, the Shanghai lockdown has become a time to re-evaluate future priorities as foreign companies consider reducing both staff and investments in the country. Meet Milo Chao who is currently the Chief Strategy Officer for ad agency, DDB Chicago. Milo was formally CSO for DDB China and later, TBWA. Milo returned to the US in 2019. We're also joined by Ker Gibbs, who is currently an Executive in Residence at the University of San Francisco. Ker is best known as the past President of the American Chamber of Commerce Shanghai from 2019 to 2021 but has been in China for most of his career. He returned to the US in the early part of the year. 1. Why did you come to China, why did you stay so long and why did you leave? 2. When is the right time to leave? Has Shanghai lost its mojo? 3. Will Shanghai change past the lockdown? Will expats leave or eventually come back? Is this the fall off the cliff moment? 4. The evolution of Shanghai: now we're in a more developed stage & the role of foreigners have changed. 5. Foreign companies vs. Foreigners: How will China adjust post-Covid? 6. Returning Home: How do you prepare for repatriation? What are the transferrable skills? 7. If you can make it in China, you can make it anywhere...China is still an important market 8. Expect 2 years to get acclimated to your home culture leaving China 9. Keep your networking prospects and start right now before you leave... 10. The post-China job market realities: a. WFH is the new normal. b. Growth of the Gig Economy. c. Big global labor shortage 11. Are there still opportunities in China? Yes, but be prepared! 12. A/B Test: Ding Tai Feng, Cui Jian, Baguettes, and the Shangri-La!

The 2022 Winter Olympics started on February 4th, and are taking place in Beijing, China. In honor of the event, let's learn about the music of Chinese culture. :------------------: Sources: https://www.britannica.com/art/Chinese-music https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_China#:~:text=Traditional%20music%20in%20China%20is,The%20scale%20is%20pentatonic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xia%E2%80%93Shang%E2%80%93Zhou_Chronology_Project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynasties_in_Chinese_history#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shang_dynasty https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xia_dynasty https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_mythology https://ricefield.org.uk/2020/06/an-introduction-to-traditional-chinese-instruments/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-pop https://www.masterclass.com/articles/c-pop-music-guide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_rock https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothing_to_My_Name :------------------: Song List: “Spring River Flower Moon Night” artist unknown “White Snow In Early Spring” attributed to Shi Kuang “Just Like You” by Li Yuchun “March of the Volunteers” by Nie Er “The Drizzle” by Li Jinhui “Nunchucks” by Jay Chou “Nothing To My Name” by Cui Jian

I'm joined by @krishraghav and @yancongphoto to discuss popular music in China, the indie rock scene in Beijing, and we'll finally get the answer to the question asked by FP: "Why are there 1.5 billion people in China and no good rock bands?" Music from Carsick Cars, the Romp, Cui Jian, Chui Wan, Chinese Football, Omnipotent Youth Society, Hualun, and INTO1 and more!

Director Andrew Patterson joins us to talk about new movie The Vast of Night, the story of a small New Mexico town disturbed by lights in the sky and unidentified radio signals which is a loving homage to the sci-fi TV of the 1950s. The low budget, high concept film, which is Patterson’s directorial debut, is available on Amazon Prime. Writers Timberlake Wertenbaker and Winsome Pinnock talk about how white and black writers engage with race, and the importance and responsibility of white writers to talk about race and racism. Mark Damazer is the newly announced Chair of the Booker Prize Foundation which oversees the management of the Booker Prize and the International Booker Prize, for fiction in translation. After the Booker judges’ controversial decision in 2019 to split the main award between two authors, Bernadine Evaristo and Margaret Atwood, he joins us to talk about the Foundation’s plans for the year ahead. It’s the 31st anniversary today of the massacre of thousands of protestors in Tiananmen Square. Writers, musicians and writers, such as Bei Dao, Duo Duo and singer Cui Jian, were involved in the movement for Democracy in China, and Front Row briefly reflects on their role. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Julian May Studio Manager: Tim Heffer

DJ Chozie Ma is the top selling EDM artist in China and Taiwan. Chozie, an Australian by birth, has spent over 22 years in Beijing, building the EDM scene from scratch, beginning with clubs and albums, as well as partnering with the man behind the music at the Beijing 2008 Olympics, to VVIP travel experiences, interactive domes, and organic skincare line Greenerways Organic. Show Notes Greenerways Organic Follow Chozie on Instagram | Facebook | WeChat "One Night in Beijing" (feat. Peyton) Video Theme music by: Ruel Morales Audio Transcript Brian Schoenborn 0:01 Hello, hello. Hey everybody. Our guest today is, he's had a pretty epic life. Let's put it that way. Truly a man of many hats from being the top selling electronic music DJ in both Taiwan and China, to owning some of the top clubs in Asia, as well as an expert, top of his game with vvip experiences. We're going to get into all of that stuff, as well as some other stuff that he's got going on. This dude's got so much stuff happening. It's kind of hard to wrap our arms around all of it. We're going to dive in as much as we can. So give it up for my friend, Chozie Ma. Brian Schoenborn 0:41 My name is Brian Schoenborn. I'm an explorer of people, places and culture. In my travels, spanning over 20 countries across four continents, I've had the pleasure of engaging in authentic conversations with amazingly interesting people. These are their stories, on location and unfiltered. Presented by 8B Media, this is Half the City. Chozie Ma 1:09 What's up? How you doing? Brian Schoenborn 1:11 Good, man. How are you? Chozie Ma 1:12 Happy to be here in LA. Brian Schoenborn 1:13 Dude, I'm so happy to see you, man. It's been it's been a minute, man. Chozie Ma 1:16 Yea, totally. Brian Schoenborn 1:17 Yeah. So guys, so first, let me take it back. We're having a little bit of technical difficulties. We're going mano today. We're improvising, adapting and overcoming. My, one of my dongles for my mic broke. So we've got one mic instead of two. No big deal. We just fucking roll with it. Right? So you might be hearing some background noise and stuff like that some cars going by or whatever, here and there. We're actually on location in Venice, Venice Beach, California. We're actually 100 yards from the beach. Chozie Ma 1:42 You can see the beach. Brian Schoenborn 1:43 You can see the beach. Chozie Ma 1:44 Yeah, it's sweet. Brian Schoenborn 1:45 We're right here. Chozie's in LA for business. Chozie Ma 1:50 Business and play. Brian Schoenborn 1:51 It just so happened that Chozie saw one of the first episodes out and I'm like, dude, I haven't seen I haven't talked to this guy like a year and I'm like, and he's like, yo, fuckin A. He liked it on my WeChat the Chinese social media, Chinese Facebook, whatever you wanna call it, like, dude, let's do this. Chozie Ma 2:05 Yeah. Brian Schoenborn 2:05 And he's like, yeah. And then he messaged me, he's like, Yo, I'm in Venice doing something. I'm like, dude, I'm in LA. Let's get together. You know, the whole concept of the show anyways is you know, I'm talking to people all over the world with amazingly interesting stories. And on location, right, so we're chillin, we're chillin in his place here, his studio here in Venice Beach. You can hear somebody doing some construction work behind us in the background. All good. No, it's all good. I don't care. I don't even care, man. It's the content. Chozie Ma 2:33 Yeah, that's it. Brian Schoenborn 2:33 You know, it's the authenticity of it. But I've known Chozie for four, four years? Chozie Ma 2:39 Yeah, it's been a minute. Brian Schoenborn 2:39 Three or four years, something like that. Chozie Ma 2:41 Yeah. From Beijing. Brian Schoenborn 2:42 Yeah, from Beijing, baby. Yeah, I've known Chozie since my time in Beijing and if you guys have been listening, you know, I spent four years there doing some stuff on my own, but Chozie…I mean, you look Chinese. But your English is so good. Do you like? Chozie Ma 2:59 Yes, I'm Chozie. Okay, so it stands for Chinese Aussie. So my father's Chinese my mom's Aussie. Grew up in Sydney. Graduated there, then made the move over to the mainland back back to the roots in 98. Brian Schoenborn 3:13 98? Chozie Ma 3:14 Yeah. Brian Schoenborn 3:14 Dude. So you're hitting what your 22nd year? Chozie Ma 3:16 Twenty-second year, yeah. Brian Schoenborn 3:17 My god, man. Chozie Ma 3:18 Zero to Hero. Brian Schoenborn 3:20 For real, like I can't even imagine like the changes. So, if you if you've never been to China, you've never been to Beijing or any of the other major cities. Ever since the, who was it? Who was, Deng Xiaoping? Chozie Ma 3:34 Yeah. Brian Schoenborn 3:34 When Deng Xiaoping started opening up the country. It was closed off for years, decades, right? It was just its own nationalist, no access in or out type country. And around the time of Deng Xiaoping, who was the leader of the Chinese party, back in the time with Nixon, I think Richard Nixon, the American president. Chozie Ma 3:55 Kissinger, I think, to make the formal transition. Brian Schoenborn 3:57 Well, he was a diplomat, the foreign relations guy. Chozie Ma 4:00 Right. Brian Schoenborn 4:02 But they started opening up, it was the great opening. So this was like 30, 40 years ago. And since then the growth in China has been explosive. Chozie Ma 4:10 Yeah, donkeys and carts to Ferraris and Lamborghinis. Brian Schoenborn 4:12 Yeah. Chozie Ma 4:13 Just like that. Brian Schoenborn 4:13 It's crazy. Yeah, it's crazy and like so you see these areas like in Beijing for example. There's been so much growth that you know, one block you'll see these one story, they're called hutongs. They're like one story buildings that are anywhere between 600 and 1000 years old. Really cool spots. Chozie Ma 4:29 Really cool. Brian Schoenborn 4:30 History culture, all that good stuff. But a block away you'll see these skyscrapers with like neon lights that light up all night just like super like, I don't know you think like… Chozie Ma 4:40 Concrete jungle. Brian Schoenborn 4:41 Concrete jungle, but like to the extreme. like super super. Chozie Ma 4:44 Weird-ass designs, like the pants building that do things that hang over…I don't know. It's just Yeah, really. Architecture. But cool. You got the old and the new, in one city. Brian Schoenborn 4:57 It's kind of weird though. Like I feel like you know, in my time there, one of the things that I noticed was like, as modern as they become so quickly, as global as it become so quickly, from a technology, that kind of standpoint, money standpoint, I feel like there's still, like, there's still a transitioning period, in terms of maybe mentality, stuff like that. Like, you know, for example, um, you know, not good or bad, like, a lot of the stuff I talked about are constructs, right? Like, nothing is good, nothing is bad, just kind of what it is. But like you still see people like on the on the sidewalks of Beijing, that maybe do things that one culture might be like, whoa, like, what's going on? Like your jaws dropping that sort of thing. I'm not getting get into that here. But I get into it on my, on my other show, relentless, which is coming out, starting to come out in another month or two. Chozie Ma 5:49 Right. Brian Schoenborn 5:50 But there are things that might make your jaw drop, right, we're just like, but it's because it's so far removed from what you're used to with your culture in your constructs. Yeah, you know. But I just think it's interesting. As you know, things are happening. Things are changing whatever. Chozie Ma 6:04 Well you got to. I mean, that's the whole point of travel. Right? You want your jaw to drop. Brian Schoenborn 6:08 Right? Chozie Ma 6:08 Good or bad. Brian Schoenborn 6:09 That's, I mean, that's the thing, right? Chozie Ma 6:10 You're going to go somewhere and be like, Did you see that? Oh, wow, look at that, you know, it's just part of the whole cultural experience. Brian Schoenborn 6:16 Absolutely. Chozie Ma 6:16 And especially taking your kids out there and seeing just saying, you open your mind is the world like closed off into one bubble, right? Explore, travel. Brian Schoenborn 6:25 Dude, absolutely. Like, I'll never forget. The first time I came back to America. When I moved to Beijing. I grew up in a small town in Michigan, right. And so I so I went back and I bumped into this lady that I knew from a very young age, and she goes, Oh, Brian, she's like, What are you up to these days? What are you doing? And I go, Oh, you know, I'm living in China right now. I'm living in Beijing. And she goes, she looks me. She's like, China? China? Brian, I'm so scared for you. What do you are safe Ba ba ba ba it's communist Brian, all this stuff. I look at her husband, her husband standard that I look at I go Actually, it's pretty amazing country. I mean, it's super safe, feel safe. Chozie Ma 6:44 Yeah, real safe. Brian Schoenborn 7:03 People are welcoming. You know, if you try if you take a stab at learning a language that goes miles, you know, it goes such a long way. You know, it's a good time. And then her husband's like, brothers like, honey, you know, I was stationed in Japan and the Navy, right? He's like, I bet he's having the time of his life. Chozie Ma 7:25 I thought he was gonna say, Oh, honey, I have a Japanese wife. Or we have a half son now coming up. I mean, those things can happen. No, China is great. I mean, it's 22 years, as you said, and you know, I've seen it go from, you know, really, like I would say it wasn't really colorful when I was there. But it was exciting because I got there in 97 on a tour, and it was the last stop on an Asian tour. And we were in this club called Vogue 88. Henry Lee was the owner. And he basically just said, Why don't you move out here and take over my club? I was like 19 years old or something like that. Brian Schoenborn 8:06 Really? Chozie Ma 8:06 I had a crew called Yum Cha Cha. So there's five of us. We went back to Australia, we all looked at each other and said, why not? Brian Schoenborn 8:14 Fuck it. Chozie Ma 8:14 We're young, we can't speak the language. I mean, I'm Chinese, but I spoke Cantonese when I was growing. So when you move to China, it's Mandarin. And Cantonese was it was like non existent there. So it didn't really work. Brian Schoenborn 8:26 I mean, they're completely different languages. Chozie Ma 8:27 Totally different languages. So kind of were like, you know what, let's just give this a go. The crowd seemed quite International. It was it was it was like, you know, there wasn't that many foreigners there then. But every foreigner that was there was working for the embassy or a corporate job, right? Or students. And we were like, you know what, let's do it. So we went, we went through it. Three months later, we packed up things moved, Mom and Dad laughed. Dad's the Chinese that, you know, he's from that generation that left China back in the day, to give a better life to, you know, myself and himself. Brian Schoenborn 8:57 So he's like, what is this, some sick, sad joke? Chozie Ma 9:00 He was like, he'll be back. So they, they kept my car for about five years and then realized it's been five years keeping respect wasting space in the garage. Can we sell it. I'm like, yeah, go ahead, man. I'm already I'm settled here. So, so it's kind of funny because that generation, a lot of the kids, ABCs: American Born Chinese, Australian Born Chinese, Canadian Born Chinese. As they graduated and got older that you started seeing opportunity in China, and went back. And those times from like, 99 all the way to you know, the Olympics was just like this epic journey. Brian Schoenborn 9:33 2008 Olympics? Chozie Ma 9:33 2008 Olympics and it was just this epic journey of like, wow. And you could just use it as your oyster and do whatever you wanted if you had some creativity, and especially if you had something culturally valued valuable for the scene, dance scene or entertainment or like, you know, anything related to culture, culture and heritage, or bringing investment into China. Bringing foreign brands into China. Brian Schoenborn 9:58 Yep. Chozie Ma 9:59 You just kill it. Alright, so we're doing really well, I decided to go into the entertainment space and do clubs, music, things like that. And develop that that market, which has become more like, I look at it as probably one of the biggest in the world. Now, if you look at every DJ, they're all trying to go every Western artist is trying to collaborate with an Asian artist. Brian Schoenborn 10:15 Oh, absolutely. Chozie Ma 10:16 You know, so that's the volume, right? With volume comes money, monetizing products, things like that. Yeah, there's a lot of tricky things that go on in the market. But if you can maneuver through it. And I think the one thing that you just got to know about going to China is a lot of foreigners move there. They're still very hard headed, well, what would you call it? Brian Schoenborn 10:38 They're set in their ways. Chozie Ma 10:39 They're set in they're ways. Brian Schoenborn 10:40 Yeah, because I've lived in that bubble or whatever their culture is, and they expect everywhere to be just like that, right? Chozie Ma 10:45 So it's like, you know, maybe they have a good brand or a company or they've been bought out by a big expat company and getting that package that they didn't get somewhere else. The thing is, China's not going to change for you. You gotta change for China. Brian Schoenborn 10:57 Yeah, that's a hard lesson to learn. Tell you what, like I you know, because I think about you know, like I did a couple of or I had some I did some business in China myself. You know one thing I did, for example, was I produced this the soccer match right between Manchester United legends and Liverpool legends so these guys are 35 and up recently. Chozie Ma 11:18 Big game, I remember that. Brian Schoenborn 11:19 Big game, right? We put that on and we put out a four or five aside tournament Adelaide, and then an 11 a side friendly, in Melbourne. Chozie Ma 11:29 Yeah. Brian Schoenborn 11:31 And we and then we live stream that into China and Europe and other places. And we worked with Tencent, which is one of the biggest like they're bigger than Facebook guys. Like there's 10 cents huge. Chozie Ma 11:38 $1 trillion company. Brian Schoenborn 11:41 Yeah, they're one of the big three tech companies in China. But we live streamed through them. Great, you know, big reception. They're like, Oh, this is one of the best live streams we've ever we've ever had as far as quality and all that stuff. Awesome. Can't wait to work with you more. So then I take that information like all right, these guys want to get into China, right? These players want to play a match in China. I get something setup where we're getting ready to do a deal in Shenzhen, near Shenzhen. I forget the name of that, I kind of blocked it out, because it's a bad experience. But in a city right next to Shenzhen which is one of the you know this is tech hub one of the big tech hubs, right? Like that's where Apple products are made and suck that's right right across the tributary from Hong Kong. Chozie Ma 12:23 Right. Brian Schoenborn 12:25 And I went down there and I you know, we're going to put on this match was gonna be great. met up with this guy. Four different times flew down the middle of the four times he's he puts me up in this hotel that he owns. This guy's a big businessman. We're drinking like crazy because that's that's an important part of Chinese culture, right? Chozie Ma 12:41 Oh, yeah. By the way, a lot of people think Chinese can't drink. Brian Schoenborn 12:44 Oh, no. That's not true. Chozie Ma 12:46 They get the Asian glow whatever. Oh, no, no, the ones that are born there. Especially Beijingers and the girls drinking a session with him we Chinese rice wine. Brian Schoenborn 12:53 Dude. Baijiu? Chozie Ma 12:54 They will put you under the table so hard. Brian Schoenborn 12:55 Oh my god, dude. But that's but that's the whole point. Right? Like part of the part of building relationships and China is all about, it's called guanxi, right? Chozie Ma 13:03 Face. Chozie Ma 13:03 It means relationships or face or whatever. And it's Chinese people would rather do business with people that they've got a strong relationship with versus Chozie Ma 13:10 Or just put them under the table and made them vomit and then they're like, Okay, cool. You can hang. Brian Schoenborn 13:14 Yeah, exactly. That's exactly that's how you build it. A lot of times you sit on this new set of these plastic chairs and tables outside a restaurant eating like, you know, 20 cents of stick, barbecue kebabs, chuar. Drinking cheap beer, out comes the baiju like 12, one o'clock in the morning is rice wine and which is like 40 to 60% alcohol like it's unregulated so it could be anywhere between there. Chozie Ma 13:39 Yeah, 60, yeah, definitely. It's strong. Brian Schoenborn 13:41 shot after shot after shot after shot there's no like there's no time wasted. Chozie Ma 13:48 Yeah, I'm glad I've got my mom's liver I say the the western side liver. Yeah, cuz I'm half half so that's helped me a lot drinking in China. Brian Schoenborn 13:57 But yeah, but so like, you know, I'm doing that whole thing with this guy. Big businessman, he's got connections to the stadium and the local government and like all the thing, checking off all the boxes that you really need to do to conduct business in China. And we get to a point where we sign the contract, he's got to give us a 10% down within a week or 10 days or something like that. We can secure the players. Sign the contract, dude never shows up. Disappears, disappears. No money sent, not responding to anything. And it's like, you know, that was one of the hard lessons I learned about doing business in China. Is that by Western standards, or at least American standards, I'm sure Aussie is not not too different. But like you get that contract signed, it's a done deal. Chozie Ma 14:37 Yeah, yeah. Brian Schoenborn 14:38 Right? Whereas in China, it's a different set of rules. Chozie Ma 14:41 Yeah, I've definitely it's definitely going down that route route many times. But it's that same saying, you know, you get knocked down, get up again, I'm already situated there. My house is there. My friends are there. Businesses there. Brian Schoenborn 14:54 Yeah. Chozie Ma 14:55 I've just learned over the years how to maneuver through it and it's and yeah, I've definitely lost investment and time. Time is the most important thing. Brian Schoenborn 15:04 Yeah. Chozie Ma 15:04 And, you know, it's it's, it sucks. But you just got to kind of learn how to be better than that. And I tell you over the last couple of years, the whole IP and legal system protection for that is it's really good. Brian Schoenborn 15:19 Oh, dude, it's gotten a lot better over the last few years. Chozie Ma 15:21 They just really they've smartened up and it's like, this is business, get it done. The shitty part is like when you are pitching for a job, like in one of my businesses, which is the event business. Obviously, a lot of proposal work needs to be done. Brian Schoenborn 15:33 Yeah. Chozie Ma 15:34 So a lot of these companies or clients have different departments, like procurement departments. And they're very traditional. So you might have a full Western team, say, for example, in Volkswagen or something like that you're in a big Western company. So when you meet with them, you get the job you're talking to, obviously the more Western minded simio and things like that, sure. Love your technology. They love that your Western and Chinese and they love that you get the concept. Yep, boom, okay, I'm going to launch this and you're going to do this and that and like Yes, I'm going to do it. That for you. And I'm going to do that for you. Chozie Ma 16:02 And then it trickles down through the system to procurement in the German they usually bring in because it's kind of I think it's legal when you have, it's the law that you have to have a local Chinese as your, your finance department, to head that department right to sign the bills. And that person is trained in a way where the job is to save money for the company at all costs and save money, which means: no, I don't understand that concept, why is it cost that much? Because I can go online and look for I can go to five other companies and they say it costs this much, because other companies are trying to take your idea or they're fake faking the, the tech or something like that, the smaller companies. Brian Schoenborn 16:36 Uh huh. Chozie Ma 16:36 And so you get into these things where it's like now the budgets low and then this a few months later goes back to the big boss, and they call you, Hey, why are you Why have they changed the company? or Why are you not doing the job? You know, you said that this was way too expensive…and he's like, but I approved it and then and then it goes back again. So most companies will have like a second budget because of that fuckup. Brian Schoenborn 16:55 Right, right. Chozie Ma 16:56 And so they kind of like contingency, they know that that's going to happen. So that's a little bit tiring, but it is getting better. What I found is when I, we were doing all the proposals, we're a smaller boutique team. So we spent a lot of time and you know, proposals to that magnitude, the 3d they renders the videos that cost you about, you know, $20,000 to make good decent proposal, but you're getting a million dollar job. Brian Schoenborn 17:18 Right. Chozie Ma 17:18 Or a $2 million job at the end of it. Brian Schoenborn 17:19 Right. you know, that's a modest investment. Chozie Ma 17:20 It makes it makes sense. Yeah, but you don't know that. That's gonna wait, they keep asking you to change it. Someone's uncle has an event company, that's… Brian Schoenborn 17:28 That's the guanxi all over again. Chozie Ma 17:30 That person, right? So you're gonna like shit, then then your event pops up with all your ideas. And, you know, this is what I went through years ago. Brian Schoenborn 17:39 It still happens though. Chozie Ma 17:39 It still happens, but we just instead of going for it, my partner I just said, You know what, let's just deal with the ones that put a designer feet down. Put that basically that 10% down before. Brian Schoenborn 17:53 Yeah. Chozie Ma 17:53 And then if we get the job will deduct that from the main fee. So if you even take it away from me, at least I can pay for myself. If I can pay for my time. Brian Schoenborn 18:01 Yeah, exactly. Chozie Ma 18:02 I lost more than 50% of my clients when I started doing that. Brian Schoenborn 18:05 Oh, sure. Chozie Ma 18:05 Because they're like, oh shit, we can get free work from all these agencies, there's about 100 interns that are doing free work for them. Right? And then they're okay with that, because they've got so many other jobs. So we tailored it down, we lost a lot of clients, but then we just filtered it to good clients, and they're more than happy to give us that 10% because they know we're going to do the work for them. Brian Schoenborn 18:23 Yeah, exactly. Chozie Ma 18:24 Yeah. Brian Schoenborn 18:25 You know, if you're dealing with good client, legit companies, ones that understand the value of good design or, you know, high quality work, I think, you know, things that anybody can do, like, anyone can say, Hey, I'm gonna put a proposal together, right? But it's the design element, it's the craft work. It's the expertise that, you know, comes with a long, you know, many years of experience, many years of success and being able to develop your own personal brand to, right? On top of all that, I mean, that's kind of where, where there's a separation, right and yet, good companies will see that and they'll say, okay, we're willing to put that kind of money down because this person or this company, whatever has consistently been able to produce, right? Chozie Ma 19:08 And this and the speed of efficiency, everything right? There's no other uncle's company involved. I mean, but again that guanxi things is super, super important thing in China. It is all about face. And it is all about, like having that connection. And I think how I got those connections is I started, well, I went to Taiwan in 2000 with Avex records. Brian Schoenborn 19:33 Okay. Chozie Ma 19:33 I got sent over with the manager. And then he was just trying to pimp me off to different record labels. So I was just kind of like new to the music business. I've been DJing for many years. I wasn't really fucking with record labels, and I could write music, and I was already doing TV on Channel V. And then he was just like, he was literally pimping me from Sony to BMG to hear and that and then was sending me these 60, 70 page contracts in Chinese and they kind of knew I couldn't read Chinese. Brian Schoenborn 20:00 Oh shit. So they're like, sign your life away. Chozie Ma 20:02 He was saying sign sign sign. And this is like 10 year contracts, and I'm thinking that's= a bit weird. Now everyone signs 10 years and that's just really crazy? But um they didn't realize that my father after a few of these different careers he decided to study law and he's an academic scholar so he studied the entertainment law, pharmacy law, everything kind of law. So his way of saying well he's a traditional Chinese man so he doesn't really say, I love you son, and give you a hug. But his way of saying I love you is like send me that contract let me review it for you. So these major record labels didn't know I had that ammunition behind me. Brian Schoenborn 20:36 The secret weapon. Chozie Ma 20:37 And he just go through it and just rip it apart and send it back and then look at it and be like, Yeah, no, we can't sign this you know, he knows too much about it. So the manager was getting pissed. He's just kind of like, I'm gonna lose my my meal ticket here because he was just literally like, that's what he wanted from me. Brian Schoenborn 20:55 Oh, yeah. Cuz I mean, he's, he gets you signed and he gets his contingency fee or whatever. Right? Chozie Ma 20:59 Yeah, and and I was young and naive I didn't know the extent of the deal. He was probably signing the 80% of my royalties to him, I didn't know I was 20 something, right? And then I made a pretty famous celebrity there, this girl and she and we just within a week started dating and then within two weeks I moved in with her and she's like massive star. I didn't really know who she was, like, that's why I think she's she liked me because I didn't give a fuck about celebrities and and they will use that because I had my club in China two years before that. Chozie Ma 21:26 And all the celebrities: Quentin Tarantino, Oliver Stone. Everyone would come there, it was like the Viper Room of Beijing where everything went, right? Brian Schoenborn 21:32 Nice. Chozie Ma 21:33 So but I never talked like whatever I saw whatever was happening there I just was like treating everyone like a normal person so that's where it made a lot of artists want to work with me. Brian Schoenborn 21:41 Yeah. Chozie Ma 21:41 Oh shit, you're DJing? Maybe you want to write a track with me? Oh, let's do that. So kind of went along. and a month later Avex Records from Japan just kind of hit me up personally. Yo, we want to work with you. I'm like, yeah, I'm kind of turned off by the whole music thing you know, and it's all this melancholy tired like Taiwanese pop and Chinese pop. At that time, there wasn't really much dance music. The Pop is not even, like, pop it was like everything was sad song… Brian Schoenborn 22:06 Like sad love song. Chozie Ma 22:08 Everything was a love song, and I'm like shit. You want me to get in this game I want to, I want to change it. I'm wanna perform some house music, some breakbeat like, they looked at me and they're very progressive. Avex is a big progressive record and they had a label called house nation which was like all these cool Japanese female DJs and it's doing cool stuff trance that are in club. So they're like, What do you want? And luckily, the girl I was dating at the time, her team advised me on a few things. So I was very fortunate that they helped me they just said just do one year, one album deal with option to sign on for other deal, like other, but you're free. Own the royalties. They gave it to me. It was like what? After that, those people kind of clued up, and they're like, we're gonna sign this stuff for 10 years. Brian Schoenborn 22:50 Yeah, right. They're like we're locking him. Chozie Ma 22:52 Yeah, we're gonna we're gonna invest this much. If he doesn't make enough his first album. He's gonna work for us. He's even if he that album doesn't work. He's gonna work in the office writing songs for the next artist. Brian Schoenborn 23:00 Oh, really? Chozie Ma 23:00 Yeah, you brought, you owe money to the record labels. Like, if, everyone's hungry in China in Asia, right? And you're good looking. And you can write a song. But you can't act, you need to be a triple threat. They need to make revenue off you from everything, right? So a lot of these artists would come in, they invest a couple hundred thousand, the album would come out, wouldn't do so well. And then you'd find them just sitting, like they've got to pay off their debt. So they're still working. It sucks for a lot of people. Brian Schoenborn 23:26 That's crazy man. Chozie Ma 23:27 You know? So now the new Brian Schoenborn 23:28 Can you imagine what a slap in the face that would be? Like, I mean, you were you were successful. So you I don't think you've experienced that, right? But can you imagine… Chozie Ma 23:35 I saw it. Brian Schoenborn 23:37 I mean, me like somebody Yeah, somebody like one of your buddies or whatever, right? Like, maybe they had like an album that maybe a one hit wonder or something right? Like that one song went, but then everything else just kind of shit the bed and you see them sitting, sitting behind a computer, or whatever, you know, like Chozie Ma 23:52 It's tough. I mean, when we started label in 97 called Party People Committee. It was the first dance labeled in China for electronic and hip hop, and one of my boys that was coming up, amazing writer, composer, producer, rapper. He can rap in Chinese, English, and even in German, like awesome. Young Kin, his name is. When that happened, they promised him to release his album and mine at the same time with dance and Hip Hop one. They went with mine and unfortunately, he didn't get it. But he worked it. He worked and pushed me. And then, you know, you could see it. He wanted it. Like, you know, oh shit it's my time. Brian Schoenborn 23:53 Yeah, yeah, for sure. Chozie Ma 24:18 I've worked so hard at this shit and I'm talented, but young writing. He just flipped the switch. He just said, You know what, I'm still young, and I'm fucking great. I'm gonna go get my MBA. And then everyone looked at him going, you're gonna fucking own a record label. Now this guy's like, moved to Boston. still writing music, has a flipping house company, a real estate agency, killing it. You know what I mean? So he turned it into a positive a lot of other people just get depressed and be like, shit, man. I was I was good at that. All right, and then I've got this shows you your character. You've just got to fucking keep keep going man. Brian Schoenborn 25:02 Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely, man. Chozie Ma 25:03 You'll get that break. Yeah, it's just tough. Brian Schoenborn 25:06 But it's one of those things like, whether it's the music business or whether it's like, film and TV or this shit or anything you do, right? Like, it's not, it's not about how many times you fall or get kicked in the face or whatever. It's about how it's how you respond to that. Brian Schoenborn 25:21 Right? It's like, how do you get up? Do you get up and say, okay, that was a fucking speed bump. I'm going to get over that shit and move forward, because this is what I want to do. Chozie Ma 25:21 Right. Chozie Ma 25:28 Yeah. Brian Schoenborn 25:29 Or does it happen so many times where you just like, all right, maybe this isn't for me. Maybe I should shift gears a little bit. You know, maybe this passion of mine is more of a hobby. Right? Or for whatever reason it's not working. Go another route. You know? Chozie Ma 25:44 Yeah, the girl that was like we had to do my album in 2007. And we had an artist coming from Taiwan, but she was a good friend of mine. She was like, Yeah, cool. I want to jump on your album. It's the first solo album in China for dance music. I love to be part of it. Then her mom, being the manager, found out that we were under kind of a bigger label. She saw some dollar signs. And we couldn't afford her at the last minute. She's like, I'm so sorry, man, at the end of the day, the managers getting there. And yeah, we can't do anything. We can give you a mate rate, but that's about it. Still expensive, because she's bit star. And we had the studio booked and we only had one month to use. And a friend came in and said, Look, there's this girl. She's still currently signed to a 10 year, she's still got about four years left on that, but she hasn't been doing anything because she got screwed over by the record label. But she can come sing vocals on you just you know, don't really mention her artist's name because her artist name is still owned by a label, right? Brian Schoenborn 26:39 But do you put your actual name? Chozie Ma 26:41 Just put her name. Brian Schoenborn 26:41 Or do you just anonymize it? Chozie Ma 26:43 Put her actual name, because she had an artist name but what's your actual name? And then we did that and she killed it. She came in the studio. I gave her the song, the lyrics and I just said you know what, just keep record on. She nailed it. I didn't even record the second take. We just edited over it. I was like, wow, this girl's great. Brian Schoenborn 26:58 Yeah. Chozie Ma 26:58 I like I have four more songs. With female vocals, could you do this for me? No worries. I'd love to do it so she smashes this out. Then she goes kind of dark for a while she she's still doing music. She's playing in club gigs with a little band stuff. Just you know keeping it going keeping her passion. Brian Schoenborn 27:13 Yep. Chozie Ma 27:13 Once that four year contract lifted off those record labels way. She, she was just like, boom and then…now her name's Tia Ray. I'm not sure if you heard her she's massive. Massive. Brian Schoenborn 27:25 Huge in China. Chozie Ma 27:26 She just stuck through it. Brian Schoenborn 27:27 Yeah. Chozie Ma 27:27 But she could see how hard that is. You know, you you you're stuck when you have with all these opportunities and you get out of it. Brian Schoenborn 27:33 Yeah. Chozie Ma 27:33 But she waited and now she prevailed and she's killing it to her respect to have and thank you for coming on my album. Brian Schoenborn 27:40 Shout out to Tia Ray, man. Chozie Ma 27:41 That's it. Brian Schoenborn 27:42 Respect. Chozie Ma 27:42 But um, you know, it's it's the industry it's and obviously now it's become so big, that they got all the…What is it? There's multi big groups with over like 10 guys or… Brian Schoenborn 27:53 Oh, yeah. BTS for example, there's like 8 dudes or something like that? Chozie Ma 27:56 Yeah, obviously before it was Japan…Taiwan would follow Japan, so they were the trendsetters and then China will follow the Taiwan. And now Taiwan's kind of fading out a bit. They're still good. They still got they still got their stars and megastars. But now China's started to create their own culture. Brian Schoenborn 28:11 Yeah. Chozie Ma 28:12 With hip hop. And hip hop, it's becoming huge. I mean, it's huge. But they creating their own culture. Brian Schoenborn 28:17 Yeah. Chozie Ma 28:18 Which is great, because it was more of a copy before. Brian Schoenborn 28:20 Oh, of course. Well, you know, I mean, that's kind of what China does, though. Or they've done you know, everyone thinks Oh, copycat China. But, you know, a lot of what they've done with that opening is like, they just haven't had, they haven't experienced a lot of these things. So a lot of it's like bringing this stuff in. Chozie Ma 28:33 Yeah. Brian Schoenborn 28:33 Kind of learning about it. And then taking it and making it their own. Chozie Ma 28:37 Yeah, right. It could be done so wrong in so many ways. Brian Schoenborn 28:40 Yeah, for sure. Chozie Ma 28:41 But at least now they've kind of they, they did it that way, then I think the government saw it was becoming too adapted from the American or Western hip hop culture, in ways of like, maybe they'll word it's kind of getting too out of control. Brian Schoenborn 28:55 Yeah. Chozie Ma 28:56 So they kind of banned it for a minute which is really crazy, right? Who bans hip hop like they banned the stuff. But they banned it and then they kind of cleaned it, right? So they cleaned it in a way. So now the guys that are on these big shows like China's Got Hip Hop, or, like, you know, these these kind of big shows, then now seen as like the ambassador's of clean hip hop. Brian Schoenborn 29:16 Yeah. Well, right. Because, because when they banned it was a couple of years ago, there's like that the China's Got Hip Hop show or whatever, right? Chozie Ma 29:22 Yeah, yeah, right. Brian Schoenborn 29:22 Like there was, I think the winner was like singing about like, I don't know, drugs, or gangs, or whatever it was, I mean, who knows whether he like actually meant the words that he was saying, or whether it was just taking the influence from Western hip hop culture, but it was something like that. And China's like, drugs, nope. Banned. This is bad for our culture. We don't want anything to do with hip hop and you're right, who does that? But…China can do that. Chozie Ma 29:45 It's hard because he pop is an expression of that. Right? Of what you want to say and and the street, you know, kind of Brian Schoenborn 29:51 Right. Yeah. Yeah. Chozie Ma 29:52 So I think that, you know, they've got now the commercial, pop hip hop, where they kind of just keep it a bit more tame. They go on the edges of things, but has made the underground scene so much stronger. So you got you got the clubs that are doing like these big nights and the tours with these, the hip hop groups, and they're still hardcore and good, because I think they do it more like online, where it's not on TV. When it's on TV, when it hits TV, it has to have that little bit more edge, you know, it's a bit more cleaner. So that's good because it created this whole subculture that's becoming very popular and you can see like the, you know, you go to Chengdu and you'd swear you think you're in Mexico, like everyone's kind of tatted up and… Brian Schoenborn 30:32 Really? Chozie Ma 30:33 They've just adapted that culture the style and they've got their own fashion brands that are using it and they're walking around with the pitbulls and all this kind of stuff, but it's that, and they got all the girls that follow them and it's this kind of thing and it's it's more of a fashion thing. That's their that's their lane and then they've got you know, everyone's subculture is becoming more defined. Brian Schoenborn 30:51 Yeah, yeah. Chozie Ma 30:51 And your crews are becoming more defined as electronic music you know all these kind of everything's got us got a scene now, huh? Yeah, solid seen a money making scene now. Brian Schoenborn 31:00 Yeah, for sure. Yeah, sure. That's crazy. I've never been to Chendu, man. Like that's one of the places where like, I really wanted to go when I was over there, you know on a consistent basis. I mean I just haven't made my way. I think I'm gonna get back there soon so yeah, it's supposed to be really cool i mean that's pandas are, right? Chozie Ma 31:17 Yes. Brian Schoenborn 31:18 Kind of mountainous it's like a small city of what 15, 20 million people? Chozie Ma 31:26 It's a small city. Yeah. Brian Schoenborn 31:27 Spicy food. I mean, that's, that's why I love that's my favorite food is like the, you know, spicy hot pot. You know, malaxiangguo. Chozie Ma 31:36 Oh. It's a it's spicy. Oh, yeah. You gotta be prepared for that. Yeah, yeah. Brian Schoenborn 31:40 Yeah, I've met so many chunky girls like all Brian, they're like, Can you eat spicy food and I'm like, give it to me. And they're like, they're always so impressed. I'm like, as you know… Chozie Ma 31:49 and because this a beautiful too. So when they say can you eat spicy onion? Yeah. The next day I was like, yeah, to to your assistant. I think you need to cancel my meetings. Just keep me close to a toilet. Brian Schoenborn 32:01 Exactly. That Chengdu spice is always a good idea coming in, but it's never a good idea coming out. Chozie Ma 32:11 It's it's real tough. Yeah. I mean, there's other food there, people, but like, it's just yeah, you gotta definitely try this. Brian Schoenborn 32:22 That's funny. You were saying earlier, you got the best selling dance album of all time in Taiwan and China, is that what that is? Chozie Ma 32:31 It was about 2002. When I was at Avex, so they gave me that idea. Brian Schoenborn 32:36 Yeah. Chozie Ma 32:37 I could have gone with, you know, so many options, but I thought, well, I'm playing house music and house is kind of new in Taiwan. Breakbeat hadn't reached Taiwan yet. So like Finger Licking, Stenton Warriors, you know, like, so Adam Freeland, like it was just kind of really cool. Brian Schoenborn 32:54 Yeah. Chozie Ma 32:54 Nu-school breaks. Basics is funky and it's got beats and it's just vocals and, so I was doing like three turntables sets and clubs and it's just mixing it up mashing it up. So the album itself is is one is, it's an EP of my Isle Formosa which is the first dance album, a dance song with a music video for an artist in Taiwan for dance music. Brian Schoenborn 33:16 Nice. Chozie Ma 33:16 In that category. And then the second CD was full live three turntable break beat mix for an hour. And then the third one was a live house mix of some of my favorite artists in the world but house music funky house vocal house classic house. Brian Schoenborn 33:33 Yeah, all of this would be called EDM now. Chozie Ma 33:35 Well, yeah, I mean, electronic dance music. Back then. Like, and still to this day, but you know, we had styles okay. That's a techno DJ. That's breakbeat DJ. That's a trance DJ. All that stuff, yeah. Brian Schoenborn 33:47 Jungle. Chozie Ma 33:47 Jungle, drum and bass. Everyone was defined, or like, this guy's a bit more versatile that Carl Cox, he can play everything. Brian Schoenborn 33:54 Yeah. Chozie Ma 33:54 He's known as the techno DJ, but the guy will go and fucking smash the classics of the house or hip hop. You know? It's more about being versatile. But as time went on, and I think just society dumbing down into things and just needed things more simplified. People came up with oh let's just call it EDM but that that EDM came up with that whole like that Ultra sound or that, like it's more of that yeah very commercial media. Brian Schoenborn 34:19 Right. Chozie Ma 34:20 It's not techno, it's not trance. It's not this. I don't know what is this is noise to me. Everybody fucking jump. There's no like this for me. There's no talent in that I like to see a DJ that actually produces something or like they're sets are not programmed. Brian Schoenborn 34:34 Right. Chozie Ma 34:34 Um, you know, so I kind of went a little bit disappointed in that culture. But then a good friend of mine that does some pretty big festivals and clubs in around the world. He basically was just like, look, it's still a business. Brian Schoenborn 34:47 Yeah. Chozie Ma 34:47 People are into it. I'm like, fuck, how do I flip the switch. I'm definitely not going to DJ this stuff. Brian Schoenborn 34:52 Well, right. Because if you're I mean, if you're not feeling, the creativity of that, or the creation of that, I mean, you still you made it but you've been in the business for you. Right. I mean, you can still flip that the mindset right and still, you know, rather than being in the creativity side of it, you can be more on the promotion or… Chozie Ma 35:09 Yeah, or be more of us behind the scenes in the tech. Because, I have a tech company, right? So we originally using those for high end events and projections and mapping and stuff like that. So like, why don't we just design the festivals and give tools to these EDM DJs? Brian Schoenborn 35:25 Oh, hell yeah, dude. Chozie Ma 35:25 Like, even though I don't like the music, but hey, why don't we make it more visually, right? Brian Schoenborn 35:30 You can help create the experience. Chozie Ma 35:32 Right? So if you look at it, like ultra know that they started a bit more, they went really big with it, Tomorrowland, big EDM sound, but then they started adding all the different stages. Carl Cox has rennaisance in there, which is doing more techno so then it's obviously like people for first few years. They're listening to the EDM, but then they'll they'll venture over to that stage. They're like, Oh, this is all right. So then the slowly changing and you can see it in the scene that it's moving. People are kind of like steering away. They want more quality and technology. They want more trance. IOr they want more this. So just giving them the promoters giving them more options. Brian Schoenborn 36:03 Yeah. Chozie Ma 36:03 It's better. If it's just giving them one sound and dumbing down the whole world. This is what it is. And unfortunately that's what happened in China. They didn't go through transition. They just went from Oh, let's just stop all house and techno most of the big clubs now and just put in these mainstream are because he's number one, that must be the music right now, or number two and that's what the sound is, noise. Right? So these clubs just followed it but now you can see it's been going like that for a couple of years in China. They're slowly sleeping in every now and then they'll flow in a really good techno DJ, or a really good underground DJ, and people are like digging it they're feeling it, oh this is good. I don't have to just stand there and from my hand in the air I like I can actually groove I can actually feel it you know kind of thing. So it's good. But yeah, we just and obviously the DJ's are all programmed. So they like the big festivals. And I get it because you paying so much money for the ticket. And the DJ needs to know when the fireworks is gonna go off, and it needs to queue and everything's queued up. And so it's very kind of rehearsed. But that's what like a normal concert is anyway, like if you went to Madonna whenever you're painting that she's live, but she knows exactly how cute. So that's how the, you know the big EDM DJ is emergency cue DJs. Brian Schoenborn 37:13 Yeah. Chozie Ma 37:13 So last year in Macau, we will part of, we designed an EDM festival could Jigsaw, some big names, Steve Aoki, all those guys were up there. But what I noticed is from the rave days back in the day, the DJ would never stop. It'd be 12 hours non stop music. Chozie Ma 37:28 the Djs would just go into play on play on blue yonder. And each DJ knew that they knew their time. If you're a warm up your warm up, yeah, if you're 10 pm, you're 10pm. Don't bang out music like it's 4am. A lot of these days in Asia, in China especially, I'll be doing my main set at 1am, and a new DJ would come in and he'd be like, shit, I'm gonna bang a 3am set out before Chozie goes on and I'm just like, dude, you're killing me here, mate. You know what I mean? So that's where we come into most DJs will have their warm up DJ tour with them, because they know this guy's gonna warm it up well, and it's respectful to be a warm up DJ for someone. Or if you're closing after someone, you close out for them. Brian Schoenborn 37:28 Yeah, sure. Brian Schoenborn 38:04 It's like an opening act like the comedy stage, or the band, you know, whatever. Chozie Ma 38:07 Exactly. Yeah, a lot of bedroom bangers, a lot of the younger DJ and I get that. Yeah, it's a transition it takes time. So this festival, we had, you know, 7, 8, 7, big name DJs. And each one of them had like a 10 to 12 minute gap between each show for changeover. I'm like, you know what, man, let's just keep the flow going. Brian Schoenborn 38:24 Yeah. Chozie Ma 38:25 But how do we do that? Because they're still gonna do the change of a sub kind of set up a whole hologram system. And I had DJs, two DJ is on left and right, DMC scratch styles and, we produced the technology where when the DJ scratches, we've got a camera on a hand and she can control the eight foot high hologram, so he or she's scratching. Brian Schoenborn 38:43 Oh really? Chozie Ma 38:44 I mean, the middle on drum pads. So we like we produce these 10 minute, 12 minute segment shows so the audience would just see this flow going through and then the next DJ would be ready then goes on. You know, so there was this awesome interaction of immersive experience. Because I think people are getting bored at these big festivals now like it's the same, same thing. Brian Schoenborn 39:04 It's the same shit. Chozie Ma 39:04 It's the same DJ, same DJs, at these festivals, but like they just reversing that sets around or the next stage is playing something similar or something like that. So I think I think now people just need more, more interaction. That's why bringing more technology into the shows is very important these days, people like now getting smarter. I think I think it got dumbed down. And now it's getting smarter because they're getting so big. Brian Schoenborn 39:25 Well, it's kind of like it gets dumbed down because that's, as much as I hate to say it, it's kind of like, you bring it down to a level where a lot of people can understand, right? A lot of people just easily get it. Then they come in and then as they get used to it, then you can start getting a little more nuanced with it or whatever. Brian Schoenborn 39:42 Getting a little smarter about it. Do you have do you have? Can you show me something like? Chozie Ma 39:42 Right. Chozie Ma 39:47 Oh, yeah, yeah, I can put up with those videos. I'll give them to you. Brian Schoenborn 39:49 Yeah. Chozie Ma 39:50 We can send some links up. Brian Schoenborn 39:51 Okay. Sure. Yeah, no, I'd love to check some of that stuff. Chozie Ma 39:53 Yeah, it's very cool. Brian Schoenborn 39:54 So this Jigsaw? Chozie Ma 39:56 Yeah, it was in Macau. So it was the second year. So we just Brian Schoenborn 39:59 When was that? Chozie Ma 40:00 That was December. Not, ninth last year. Brian Schoenborn 40:03 Oh, so a year ago. Chozie Ma 40:04 Yeah. Brian Schoenborn 40:05 Okay. Chozie Ma 40:05 So we, we will not be selector of the artists and we were the design team and the production team. So we came up with this, I have always I've always had this idea of designing a rave, but in a super high end concept so that the VIP areas were like, made it look like a TV rooms like that. Brian Schoenborn 40:25 Oh, sweet. Chozie Ma 40:25 So they were like they were made out of velvet, and they had all these crazy stuff. You had your own bar in each one. And so on the main stage on the left and right, I built to 60 meter VIP booths built into the stage. So you're on the same level as the stage but you can't get in like you've got a glass barrier. Brian Schoenborn 40:43 Oh, yeah. But you're that close though. Chozie Ma 40:45 But you're that close. And they went for a million renminbi each table and they were the first tables to sell out. Brian Schoenborn 40:50 What? Dude. Chozie Ma 40:50 In Asia whenever you got the highest table. It sells out the first… Brian Schoenborn 40:54 Wow. Chozie Ma 40:55 …and you can have I think it was 70 guests. Came with drinks. Came with girls. came with…it's Macau. Brian Schoenborn 41:00 Yeah, that's nuts. Chozie Ma 41:01 Came with everything. So they sold out. You had those and then it went down into different tiers. So you had like the end. I think it was 800,000 and the 500,000, then the four then two, and then one and 40,000, something like that. So but it was designed in the Venetian Convention Center. Massive. Brian Schoenborn 41:04 Oh yeah, dude, the Venetian's huge in Macau. Chozie Ma 41:21 It's the biggest… Brian Schoenborn 41:21 It's so big. Chozie Ma 41:22 I think its biggest, biggest Hotel in the world or something like that. Brian Schoenborn 41:24 It might be, yeah. Chozie Ma 41:25 13,000 rooms or something. Brian Schoenborn 41:26 Yeah, it's huge. Chozie Ma 41:27 The Convention Center is massive. So we were like, I wanted to feel like a rave. Because that's where my passion comes from. Brian Schoenborn 41:33 Yeah. Chozie Ma 41:33 But like you wanted to give it that super high end service. Brian Schoenborn 41:36 Yeah. Chozie Ma 41:37 So we went in, and we just, we just did this crazy design and made it all cool. And it was cool, man, people just like digging it. But I had that rave feel. Brian Schoenborn 41:44 Yeah. Chozie Ma 41:45 The technology and the Holograms and the lasers. And the LED is all over the place and interactive tables for ordering drinks and stuff like that. So it's cool. So we're just tried to take that technology to another level. Brian Schoenborn 41:56 Yeah, I want to back up a second. I just want to explain because a lot of the listeners are Western, so maybe they haven't been to China. So I want to explain a couple of things real quick. So first, he's talking about selling a table for 1 million RMB. That's Chinese, that's the Chinese currency. If you…rough, rough. Chozie Ma 42:12 Rough conversion? Brian Schoenborn 42:15 Is probably about 200,000ish? $200,000, something like that? Chozie Ma 42:24 143,000 for one table. Brian Schoenborn 42:27 143,000 for one table, right? That's, that's ridiculous. That's ridiculously expensive. Okay? So that's the first thing. Second thing is he's talking about how it's kind of KTV styled. Right? So KTV is not really a big thing in America. Chozie Ma 42:41 Right, right. Brian Schoenborn 42:42 Yeah, you might find out a few spots. Like there's a couple of spots in LA, a couple of spots in New York, really where they were the Asian populations are, you might find a few here and there. But KTV guys essentially, like Americans know karaoke, right? Chozie Ma 42:54 Right. Brian Schoenborn 42:54 The karaoke that we're used to is we go to a bar and there's a karaoke night. So like one night, there's a microphone and the words and like one person at a time sings in front of the entire bar and, you know, in front of strangers and whatever else, right? KTV is just like that. Except there's, there's these buildings like in China, there's these buildings all over the place with dozens of rooms. Chozie Ma 43:16 Like three, 400 rooms. Brian Schoenborn 43:18 Three, 400 rooms in one building. And each room has its own karaoke place. Tables, couches, three microphones, just you and your friends or whatever it is, you know, it could be anywhere between like two and like 20 people something like that. Chozie Ma 43:32 Yeah, you got small rooms and you got themed rooms. Brian Schoenborn 43:34 You sit around you play games, and you drank. Chozie Ma 43:36 Oh, then there's even a free buffet. Like you got meal times. Brian Schoenborn 43:40 Yeah, it's it's super like it can be super cheap to like, you can pay like 20 bucks for like four hours. Chozie Ma 43:45 Yeah, yeah definitely. Brian Schoenborn 43:45 Something like that. But KTV is a huge thing in China. So when he's talking about doing these super high end KTV rooms, right next to the stage, you know, separated by nothing but a glass wall. Chozie Ma 43:57 Well just kind of like a fence. Brian Schoenborn 43:58 Yeah, whatever. It is. Yeah, I mean, that's, that's like, that's like the perfect thing for like that crowd. Chozie Ma 44:05 You know, you've, you've kept the KTV experience to the listeners very PG. Brian Schoenborn 44:09 Oh yeah. Chozie Ma 44:10 So there's a, Brian Schoenborn 44:11 There's dirty KTV too, of course. Chozie Ma 44:13 So the KTV that I designed off is not the dirty side, it's just that you've got these crazy rooms that are, you know, you still paying in up to like 20,000, $30,000 on a night and you go in there and it's like kind of very…hyou could all it gaudy. It's kind of like very velvety. Brian Schoenborn 44:33 Gaudy is a good word for it. Chozie Ma 44:33 And very like chandeliers and, Brian Schoenborn 44:36 Like a 1970s club. Chozie Ma 44:37 Yeah, so you've got that and then you've got the more modern ones. But then it comes in with you get girls. I mean, they come in and you can't sleep with them or anything like they're just hosts. Just like a strip club. Brian Schoenborn 44:48 They are hoooosts. Chozie Ma 44:48 They don't take the clothes off. They don't, you can't grab them. They just come in and they drink with you and they sing for you. Brian Schoenborn 44:54 Yeah. Chozie Ma 44:54 So it's more about a business entertainment. It's more about taking your clients there. Brian Schoenborn 44:58 Yeah. Chozie Ma 44:58 You're drinking there and all you take You just get to buddy thing you just go hang out. Brian Schoenborn 45:03 It's like the boys club kind of thing. Chozie Ma 45:05 It's a boy's club, but, in saying that, you think you think like maybe the wives and the girlfriends would get angry. But in China, they don't, because they have yadian, which is the KTV for women and Ya means Duck, so it's a duck house. So chicken means the girls in those places, this is a Chinese translation, so I'm not trying to say that to where it is and, and discuss people but it's just a translation. Brian Schoenborn 45:29 Yeah. Chozie Ma 45:29 So what I'm saying is that the men have their place to go for entertaining. And I'm telling you can't sleep with them. Brian Schoenborn 45:35 No, you don't, you don't. But the interesting thing about Chozie Ma 45:38 The women have their version. So they go out and have a girls night. Brian Schoenborn 45:42 Right? Right. Chozie Ma 45:42 And the guys go out and they have thier guy's night. Brian Schoenborn 45:43 And then they get these male or female hosts, whatever. Like I remember I've been to a couple of them too. And it's like right after you get situated in the KTV room, whoever works there, they open the door, just this parade of women goes through Chozie Ma 45:55 Yeah, the mama sun. Brian Schoenborn 45:58 Here comes this parade of women and basically, they're all pretty much wearing the same outfit, like the uniform, right? Chozie Ma 46:02 Yeah yeah yeah. Brian Schoenborn 46:03 But it's like this, you know, like I remember seeing like this little like, like dress like a yellowish dress, it was kind of form fitting at the top and maybe like a like a roughly thing. I don't want to say like a two two, that's a bit extreme, but you know, kind of like something like that. Chozie Ma 46:15 Yeah, their version of sexy. Brian Schoenborn 46:16 Fluffy or whatever. Where it's, you know, a little fluffier on the bottom. This is what I'm recalling. You know, it's been a year since I've been back, since I've been there. But yeah, so they bring out this parade of women and you basically you point and you pick pick which one you like, and they'll they'll hang out with you the whole night. And they'll pour drinks for you. Chozie Ma 46:32 I mean, it might some people might be getting put off by this but that they're not there. Brian Schoenborn 46:38 It's not it's not a brothel. Chozie Ma 46:39 Yeah, prostitution, there's a working there. Brian Schoenborn 46:42 It's just straight up entertainment. Chozie Ma 46:43 It's completely legal, like they've got benefits. It's a job you know, so so but it's like it is a good place for business and things. But my point is I they're very extravagant, the rooms, so I wanted to take that extravagance not the girls, the extravagance to a rave because I think the ballers that would buy that table are used to that kind of situation. So you have to dump like, you have to demographic, Brian Schoenborn 47:07 You got to go with what they like. Chozie Ma 47:08 With that like that like so I was like, how am I going to sell these tables for a million? Brian Schoenborn 47:11 Yep. Chozie Ma 47:12 Okay, the clientele the guys that go to these kind of places. As soon as I advertised that, that style of K, of that VIP they sold out in like a minute both of them. Brian Schoenborn 47:23 Hell yeah. Chozie Ma 47:24 You know what I mean? Like boom, done. And then all the VIP sold out, and so it's kind of like, all right, we're on the right track here and designing. So design has become a big thing for us for events and things like that. Brian Schoenborn 47:33 Well, that's cool, too. Because like once you have success with something like that, I mean, that concept that's gonna be pretty easy to duplicate, right? Chozie Ma 47:40 Yeah. Brian Schoenborn 47:40 I mean, so then you're just like, okay. Chozie Ma 47:42 For us. We've done it once we got it. We want to do the next thing again. Brian Schoenborn 47:45 Sure, yeah. Chozie Ma 47:46 More tech into it, or we add more, but I think it's all comes down to service. I think the biggest thing lacking in festivals in China, no matter they've got the budgets and the people. The service seems to be a little bit off. So we try to spend a bit more time on training and investment on the on the server. So we tell our clients, you know what, maybe drop one of the DJs. And you got another couple hundred thousand there. Brian Schoenborn 48:09 Yeah. Chozie Ma 48:09 Like, let's put that into really good bar management, better drinks into better food, you know, because I think you need that. Brian Schoenborn 48:15 Real alcohol. Chozie Ma 48:16 Real alcohol. Exactly. Because there's been a lot of fake alcohol. Brian Schoenborn 48:18 There's a lot of fake alcohol in China. Chozie Ma 48:20 Yeah. So, you know, just like trying to make the experience better for people. And I think that's just, it just goes with anything. It should it should be like that. If you're paying for something good. You need to be that lead with what you pay for. Brian Schoenborn 48:34 Nice. So are you working on anything else experience wise right now? Chozie Ma 48:38 Yes. So. So I mean, people might be thinking, What was he talking about experience and DJing, so… Brian Schoenborn 48:44 No, that's, that's awesome. Like, it's incredible stuff because Chozie Ma 48:46 No, so I'm trying to get to where I'll experience the experience in the tech comes from. Brian Schoenborn 48:50 Oh, okay. Chozie Ma 48:51 So I have a company called Article Projects International. And we started in 1995 doing rave parties in Sydney. So it was Chris Sefton. The founder was just doing lasers. I was the kind of guy breaking into the warehouses and, and and bringing like the DJs and just doing these underground raves, right? Slowly making money as teenagers and turned it into a business. So we've started we've started doing attractions, entertainment venues, and Chris started developing more and more technologies and we became into, into Asia. We built the Fountain of Wealth in Singapore. Suntech City as an attraction, world's largest water screen projection mapping. Brian Schoenborn 49:27 Nice. Chozie Ma 49:28 And then we just kept going and going with in 2005, Zhang Yimou, the director of the Beijing 2008 Olympics and China's claim to fame of most famous director in China. Most respected. Brian Schoenborn 49:42 He was the one

Clubs and live performances featuring international music started taking off in China in the 1980s. Initially, the scene was very focused on foreign diplomats, journalists, and students who rented out restaurants and other spaces on the weekends. Gradually, as policies governing public radio broadcasts underwent reforms that allowed the performance of international music, a broader audience had access to the genre. Fast-forward to the present day: There is no shortage of music festivals, clubs, and other venues in China that feature performances by artists from around the world — to the extent that, if current trends continue, electronic music will be the most popular genre on Chinese radio airwaves by the early 2020s. In this live recording of the Middle Earth Podcast at the 2019 WISE festival, a few industry insiders discuss the current trends in this lively line of work.   Featuring: Philipp Grefer – founder, WISE and Fake Music Media Philipp’s LinkedIn | WISE website | Fake Music Media website   Isla Angus – booking agent, ATC Live | ATC website   Paul Neuteboom – managing director, Brother Hood Music BHM website | BHM WeChat ID: bhm_music   Fay Haixuan Wang – Vice President at China Minsheng Cultural Media Development ISY music festival website | ISY music festival WeChat ID: isymusicfestival   Chang Liu – chief operating officer, Pillz Records Pillz Records WeChat ID: WeArePillz   Chang Youdai – radio and club DJ   Recommended watching and listening:   Cui Jian 崔健, the “Father of Chinese Rock”: Wikipedia   Tang Dynasty 唐朝乐队, often credited as the first Chinese heavy metal band: Wikipedia  

Li Yuan presents the latest cool sounds from China's independent music scene. This week's show features Cui Jian, who is often referred to as the godfather of Chinese rock music. He recently participated in a jazz project. Take a listen!

This week's podcast was recorded live on March 13 at The Bookworm in Beijing as part of the Bookworm Literary Festival, which is why you'll notice the prolonged and decidedly rambunctious audience pop at the start of the show. No matter where Sinica goes, it'll always be most enthusiastically received in the city where it began. The entire episode is a hoot, as SupChina Asia managing editor Anthony Tao sat in for Kaiser and Jeremy to talk music with longtime jazz musicians David Moser (no stranger to Sinica listeners) and Jess Meider. Moser is associate dean of Yenching Academy at Peking University, but his true passion is jazz. He studied music as an undergrad in the U.S. before moving to China, where he happened upon a band at a place called Maxim’s in 1993. You’ll need to listen to get the story. Other highlights include his explaining of swing (11:25), retelling of particular adventures translating for Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (22:30 mark), and what makes for good jazz (31:45 — including a Charles Mingus anecdote, featuring one of the three times we had to press the bleep button on him). Jess Meider has spent more than two decades singing in China, and can still be seen (and heard) around Beijing. She was previously the resident jazz artist at East Shore Jazz Club and booker/resident artist at Chao Hotel. She’s worked with Cui Jian, the father of Chinese rock ‘n’ roll, and voiced a part in his movie Blue Sky Bones. She talks about that experience just before the 19-minute mark. Also listen to what she has to say about playing with Chinese musicians (30-minute mark) and her thoughts on the future of jazz in China (39:45). Be sure to stick around for the musical performance at the end. Recommendations: David: The young Chinese jazz pianist A Bu 阿布 (real name Dai Liang 戴梁), who is a prodigy. “Very modest and unassuming, but the future of Chinese jazz right there,” Moser says. “He grew up listening to it.” Check out videos of him playing here and here. Jess: Contemporary jazz vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant, who is relatively new on the scene but is amazing. (She won a Grammy last year for her album Dreams and Daggers; here she is singing You’re My Thrill from that album.) Anthony: Three recommendations: 1. The American Jazz Museum coupled with the Negro Leagues Museum in the 18th and Vine District of Kansas City, Missouri. (Tao grew up in Kansas City — though on the Kansas side of State Line.) 2. Contemporary poetry: Poetry 180 (a project of former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins, highlighting contemporary poems) and the Poetry Foundation podcast. 3. The Bookworm Literary Festival: May we all spread the lore of The Bookworm and the Bookworm Literary Festival ever far and forever. It is truly special.

Jiayang Fan is a staff writer for The New Yorker who moved from Chongqing to North America when she was seven years old. Despite her inability to drink alcohol because of an acetaldehyde dehydrogenase deficiency common to many East Asians, she covered the cocktail bars scene — among other topics — for the magazine for several years as a contributor before joining the publication full-time in 2016. She still occasionally writes restaurant and bar reviews, but her recent work has delved into China and its interactions with the world, especially the U.S. and Canada. In this episode of the Sinica Podcast, Jiayang talks with Kaiser and Jeremy about her article on Donald Trump, Trump’s appeal among young Chinese, and the similarities that some people perceive between him and Mao Zedong. She also discusses mainland Chinese attitudes toward Hong Kong’s Umbrella Revolution, being Chinese and writing for a prestigious American magazine, the prejudices against and sensitivities of Asian-Americans, and, of course, Chinese food in New York City. Recommendations: Jeremy: Usborne children’s books, especially Shakespeare tales Jiayang: Reading Tang poetry in Chinese or playing recordings of it for small children (start here if you’re new to the form). The Mala Project restaurant in New York. Kaiser: A rare concert by Cui Jian at Worker’s Stadium in Beijing on September 30, 2016. Listen to Sinica on SupChina, subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher, or tune in with your favorite app using our feed.

When I heard about rock star Cui Jian's first feature film "The Blue Bone", my first reaction was to dismiss it as just another piece of amateur nonsense by someone trying to cash in on China's fast expanding film market. Heaven knows we've had enough of those recently. But before I even finished the film, I had begun to regret my narrow-minded assumption, "The Blue Bone" is one of the best directorial debuts in years, or at least it is better than the products of some who label themselves professional directors. The story is mostly about how two generations of Chinese musical talents struggle to fit in their times. Ni Hongjie plays a young woman in the 1980s who was expelled from an art troupe for writing a song of certain bold content. She was married to a man of secret service, but the temporary union eventually broke down. Decades later when their son became a young adult, he picked up his mother's tabooed song and at an underground concert spoke of his own life and dream as a misfit in the modern context. Meanwhile, the family's story is completed by a storyline about the father, who spent his entire life guarding the secret of a handgun and its damages on himself. China is going through rapid changes, changes that have moved Cui Jian and his songs to the category of nostalgia. Personally I've never listened attentively to his songs, it is only for the purpose of writing this review that I took quite some time reading his resume and warming up to his rich melodies and lyrics. His rise to stardom in the 1980s may have been the result of the country's opening-up and his diligent study of western styles, but he has also most assuredly proven his personal taste by the original ideas and sensitivity in his literary lyrics. That taste is also present in his cinematic creation. With the help of cinemagraphor Christopher Doyle, Cui Jian offers eloquent images imbued with rich symbolism and powerful sentiment. Throughout the film, the characters perform Cui Jian's songs twice: "Lost in Season" and "The Blue Bone", both are loaded with explosive passion. The non-linear narrative is a significant part of the film in the sense that it highlights the characters' difficulty with the world around them. It also breaks up the storytelling and makes it seem disorderly for impatient viewers who know little and care less about the history of contemporary China. "The Blue Bone" is not easily accessible due to Cui Jian's unique style and the setback in the narrative, it may not be the most profitable movie in the box office, some critics may even frown upon it to look smart. But it is not wise to discourage conscientious first timers, not when good taste is hard to find in the age of gold rush in China's movie industry.

Специальный выпуск Laowaicast с основателем сообщества о китайской музыки «Haoting» Андреем Ильенко. Поговорим о современной китайской музыке от рока и альтернативы до экспериментальных жанров. Знакомство с Андреем Ильенко и истории создания Haoting. Что знают о китайской музыке и кто ей интересуется? Музыкальные open-air фестивали Strawberry и MIDI в Пекине и Шанхае. Китайский рок в 80-ые и сейчас. Cui Jian, Tang Dynasty, Xie Tian Xiao (谢天笑), Ma Tiao (马条), Secondhand Rose (二手玫瑰) Восток встречает запад. Lin Di (林笛), китайское рэггей Long Shen Dao, джаз-фанк и китайский гучжэн Bei Bei feat. Shawn Lee, Дэйв Лян и его The Shanghai Restoration Project, ремиксы на китайских поп-див начала ХХ века и другие проекты. Песни под гитару и китайский фолк-рок Wan Xiaoli (万晓利), Xiao He (小河), Hu Mage (胡嗎個), Yang Yi (杨一). Китайская электронная музыка и DJ: IGO, DJ B6, хип-хоп от DJ Wordy & Soulspeak, шанхайский underground ChaCha, AM444, SLV Какая музыка играет на улицах, в такси, клубах и есть ли в Китае dubstep? Альтернативная и экспериментальная музыка, этнический трип-хоп Yubo (雨鎛), винтажный синтипоп Pet Conspiracy Пожертвования для Laowaicast (на хорошую студию) Грамота от Лаовайкаста: 演奏 [yǎnzòu] играть, исполнять музыкальное произведение; играть на клавишных и струнных, щипковых инструментах: 弹- tán. На гитаре 弹吉他 - tán jíta; на пианино - 弹钢琴 tán gāngqín. играть на трубе, дудке, духовых инструментах - 吹 chuī. на скрипке, гармони - 拉 lā. на барабане - 打腰鼓 - dǎ yāogǔ. Музыка в подкасте: 谢天笑 - 笼中鸟 DJ Wordy & Soulspeak - 管不着 B6 - Little Absurdity 二手玫瑰 - 枉凝眉 Pet Conspiracy - Depot Yubo - It Began With The Autumn Wind 马条 - 爱情调侃的方式

Award-winning author Sebastian Faulks speaks to Rana Mitter about his new multi-layered novel, A Possible Life, which explores the chaos created by love, separation and missed opportunities. Sir John Elliott's book History In The Making tracks the course of the discipline in relation to national and transnational histories. And with a look at China, Rana talks to filmmaker Sun Shuyun about Transcendence, the 3D film about rock star Cui Jian, and author Hsiao-Hung Pai tells Rana the stories from China's rural migrants.