Time Out Heroes Beijing

To celebrate 40 years of Time Out worldwide, we invited 40 of our heroes to a party. We gave them champagne, told them to be themselves and sat back as they did their thing. This is what happened.

Superstar tomboy
Li Yuchun

When Li Yuchun won the Super Girl contest (China’s Pop Idol equivalent) in 2005, it not only attracted a record 400 million television viewers but smashed the notion that Chinese female singers must be pretty and feminine. Suddenly it was OK to be a tomboy, and girls across China posted blogs saying that the ballsy and idiosyncratic Li had inspired them to be themselves.

Three years and three albums later, the phenomenon has barely dimmed – both Time Out assistants were more star-struck by the icy cool Li than any of our heroes; one shop assistant almost fainted when we said we were borrowing clothes for Li Yuchun; and her shoot attracted a gaggle of breathless fans.

She has even won praise from reclusive Wolf Totem writer and fellow hero Lu Jiamin, who described her as a ‘good symbol for Chinese society’. Her music may not be to everyone’s taste but as a cultural icon and role model, there aren’t many bigger or better in China.

Li’s hero: Shakira. Watching one of her videos inspired me to be a singer. I was in the Music Conservatory at the time and I was still unsure about my life, but at that moment I decided I wanted to be a singer.

Maxi Midi
Zhang Fan

The director of the groundbreaking MIDI School of Music – a school teaching modern music forms, from rock and pop to jazz and Latin music – Zhang Fan is also the man behind the equally groundbreaking MIDI Festival, which started in 1997 and has become China’s biggest annual music festival (see Music, page 80 for details of this month’s festival) and a constant draw for the country’s best bands. A true innovator, and a genuine hero of the Beijing rock scene.

Zhang’s hero: Sun Yatsen

Underground ,overground
Lue Zhiqiang (Gouzi)

A champion of the underground, in 2004 Lue Zhiqiang (Gouzi to his friends) opened the first Yugong Yishan, which gave a massive boost to the scene and influenced other new live venues to open their doors to the new generation of Beijing musos.

Yugong also sets itself apart through the diversity of its music – while the both excellent D-22 and MAO largely plump for local rock, Yugong basically plays anything, as long as you can dance to it. Lue oversees every act, and they’re normally brilliant.
Lue’s hero: Zhang Fan. He has been totally dedicated to improving and growing Beijing’s music scene for so long. He just keeps going in the face of obstacles which are sometimes hard to overcome.

Indie kid
Shen Lihui

In 1997, Shen Lihui created Modern Sky Records, the first independent record label in China. It was an extraordinarily brave move in a market where bands barely sell any CDs and only a small number of stars make money touring.

Shen’s motivation was to give a platform to the young Beijing artists who were starting to appear in the late ’90s, and to re-ignite a scene which had stagnated since the early ’90s. That mission has largely been accomplished: this month you’ll see a host of Modern Sky bands, including Re-Tros, Supermarket and Queen Sea Big Shark, at the second Modern Sky Festival.

Shen’s hero: It was Michael Jackson, then it was Mick Jagger. Now it’s… (Apple founder) Steve Jobs. These days I believe that business can change the world.

Godfather
Cui Jian

The history of Chinese rock can be neatly divided into ‘before Cui Jian’ and ‘after Cui Jian’. Before Cui Jian, China’s rock scene basically consisted of Filipino cover bands. The moment Beijing’s rock scene was truly born was arguably the moment Cui formed Seven Ply Board with six other classically-trained musicians.

That was in 1984, and though Seven Ply Board had humble beginnings – playing soft rock in hotel bars – it soon became clear that they were different, gradually incorporating Western musical influences such as jazz, punk and even hip-hop. When he performed ‘Nothing to My Name’ on a television talent show in 1985, the secret started spilling out; by the end of the ’80s, the increasingly experimental Cui was a fully fledged cult hero, and ‘Nothing to My Name’ became a student anthem.

The ‘Godfather of Chinese Rock’, as he is known, is also arguably the Godfather of Chinese music festivals. He was behind the Snow Mountain Music Festival in Yunnan in 2002, which was the biggest festival of its kind ever to be held in China. The press jumped on the idea of ‘China’s Woodstock’, and a craze for festivals was born. So raise a plastic cup of warm, flat beer and give thanks for Cui Jian as you party at MIDI and Modern Sky this month.

Cui’s heroes: Public Enemy

Ms China punk
Gia

Whatever you think of Gia’s music, the former Hang on the Box frontwoman is the one who brought Beijing punk to the world. When Hang On the Box formed in 1998, few outside China had any idea of Beijing’s thriving punk scene. A year later, Gia and her girl band were pouting on the cover of Newsweek, the only Chinese band ever to do so, and the secret was out.

Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins, Marilyn Manson and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs all pronounced themselves fans, and soon no one could get enough of the band’s brash bitch-pop. Ten years on, Gia’s still going strong, DJing and playing with new band Girl Kill Girl.

If some would argue that her music hasn’t moved on much, she’s still a joy to watch in a city where a lot of bands seem to be made up of university geeks trying to be Joy Division. And while she’s fond of giving regular one-finger salutes, she was extraordinarily sweet and patient when our shoot was delayed.

Gia's hero: I’ve never had a hero.