I've never done a post like this but an email I received sparked such a good response that I asked if I could share it because I think it adds some really good flavour to the question what is Beijing like, through the lens of its vibrant music scene. Here is the response from Chris Emmerson which should really be seen in the context of two links that were sent prompting a private email exchange between three people, and which he has kindly agreed to allow me to share here. The links that sparked the conversation are:
http://www.demos.co.uk/publications/atlasofideas
And here is Chris' response:
Finally got to these after a weekend off the intensive Mandarin. The science one was interesting: I did a study on perceptions of scientists back in the UK for a course I was doing, and the bitterness amongst that community is startling, particularly amongst biologists and biochemists. Scientists feel they have no status in the UK, and to do the 'good work' they all dreamt of as idealistic undergraduates they have to spent 15-20 years working in study groups they don't believe in, so that by the time they've reached the point at which they have the chance to set their own agenda they're politically conditioned to mark out and defend their own specialist territory, regardless of the value of research. A number of them suggested that since there was so much politics in funding, it was as well to have politicians actively running the show, since at least they might be expected to see the bigger picture and do politics well.
A lot of scientists end up in the private sector spending their lives tweaking established treatments so they can be re-patented: a fabulous waste of talent that was the elephant in the room as far as the article was concerned. So yes, China may have lucked onto a model that makes the most of a particular moment in its political and social history. I'd start on cancer if I were them, since living in this city is the equivalent of smoking approximately eighteen blue Drum roll-ups per day. I know because I smoked about eighteen blue Drum roll-ups per day until the day I left the UK, and my respiratory system has benefitted not one iota in two months.
As for the music: well....yes. If you're going to judge it in entirely musical terms....yes. And if you're a music critic, that's what you'll do so....yes. But personally, I'm finding the music scene here enormous fun. Possibly it's just that being in a foreign city gives you license to behave like a teenager sometimes but it's been a long time since I enjoyed going to gigs as much as here. The combination of aching cool and accessibility is striking. The bands all look like the cover shoot for your choice of cutting edge fashion mag the month after next, but you can wander up and chat to the lead singer after the set, even if you don't share a common language (you can also, in no particular order, learn a Taiwanese drinking game, teach a barman how to make popcorn in a microwave, discuss ska with a guitarist who thinks you're cool because hardly anyone he knows has even heard of Elvis Costello and get impressively drunk for under a fiver; although apparently if you're a Guardian music critic, you're above all of these things). There's also a bond with the audience that doesn't devolve into cloying sentimentality and I-saw-them-first one-up-manship which seemed to be an increasing feature of the London 'scene' the last time I was a hip young thing (which was, admittedly, never). And god knows, if most of them haven't got an original idea in their pretty little heads, at least they know how to put them together in a way that's entertaining.
In fact, I have wondered if it is the barriers to 'getting big' that keep things fun. Everybody's asprirations are on a similar scale; no-one's going to become U2 overnight. Having watched many documentaries about CBGBs, and then finally seeing the horror it had become in its final incarnation two years ago, D22 and its peers are the closest I've come to feeling how I imagine that scene was.
Right then. Now I've sorted out the future of science, politics and music I'll go back to my homework......
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