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061 Punk Rock Beijing · bit of a Rambler

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello. My name is Kai, and I am a bit
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: of a rambler. I like to travel, learn and tell stories,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: and I want to talk specifically about punks in Beijing
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: punk music. I love live music. I've been going to
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: concerts my whole life. I didn't stop when I started traveling.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: There are live shows playing everywhere all the time. Not
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: always you know, the variety that you can find in
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: the States, but there's always some concert going on somewhere
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: or a bar somewhere that has live music. So I
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: love going to concerts, and I was kind of worried
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: when I left the States that I wouldn't see a
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: concert again, because I left it twenty five and I
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: knew nothing about any other country. And when I arrived
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: in China, the whole country was so formal and regimented
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: compared to the loose art cult sure I was used
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: to that. I didn't know if they had live music.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: I found out pretty quickly that they do have live music,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: and in subsequent trips abroad that every country has live music.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: So I wanted to find where the shows were, and
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: I kind of got lucky because, actually, you know what,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: looking back on it, I got extremely lucky. It's actually
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: kind of weird that I found the exact type of
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: concerts that I like to go to in what some
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: would consider the most authoritarian country on the planet after
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: North Korea, punk concerts happening in public in the heart
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: of Beijing. Get a ticket, go and have some beer
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: watch a punk show. Up until I moved to China,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: almost all of the concerts I had seen in real
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: life were punk shows. My friends were in punk bands,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: and when they weren't playing, we would go to the
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: shows and mosh to punk music. At teen years old,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: and there were plenty of classical concerts and plenty of
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: dance clubs and like techno and house music. I don't
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: know the difference between those really, but I wasn't very
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: interested in that sort of music at the time, especially
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: going to see it live when it was live at
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: twenty five. All I wanted was some energy in the room,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: some motion, moving around, interesting looking people talking about music
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: and the band culture that I didn't really know anything about,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: because at that point I still couldn't play anything, and
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: I didn't get the whole being in a band culture.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: I had been around people in bands, but that wasn't
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: my thing. But I liked being in live show culture
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: when people were playing gigs, and like I said, there's
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: a lot of energy in the room, and everyone swept
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: up in how much fun we're having or how much
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: we're rocking the fuck out. So one day someone told
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: me that there was a bar with live music near
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: his friend's house, and we went over and visited his
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: friend in this interesting little community near anting Men, which
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: is a neighborhood in Beijing, and there's a particular hutong
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: or alley way where businesses and everything are called wudau Ying.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: That is my favorite hutong. Go look at the Hutong episode.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: I talk all about Wu dau Ying there. But we
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: got off the subway and went to Bill's friend's house
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: and hung out, met his family. We all had a
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: few beers. Ellis told me his theory about psychics, which
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: is that they are real and the reason we don't
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: know about them was because they would never reveal themselves
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: because they were psychics, so they would know if you
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: were wondering. And then more importantly, he showed me a
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: cheese and wine foreign food import store where I went
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: very often to buy foreign imported beers and cured meats
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: and cheese Now, when we were going to Ellis's house,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: the sky was still light, so the alleyway, the who
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: Tone wasn't really full. But in the ninety minutes or
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: a couple hours we were hanging out in his home.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: When we were walking back, the sky was dark and
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: the alleyway was packed. So who tones are small alleyways
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: where businesses, homes, restaurants, game like stalls all take place
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: inside the walls of these alleyways. And so this was
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: going on like a very lively culture. There's a corner
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: shop where you could get a beer, Like I said,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: restaurants everywhere, and music was bouncing out of several holes
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: in the wall. And so we went into one called
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: school bar. It was started by teachers, I think, but
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: that spot instantly felt like I was at home, and
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: I was like, okay, this is where I will go
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: to watch music. There was a loud punk band play
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: and someone was screaming into the microphone. There was a
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: bunch of people walking around mashing, which I never thought
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: I would see in China. That's where all the goths
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: were hanging out, you know, spiked collars, leather. The girls
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: looked good. I had no idea that any Chinese people
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: even wore that type of clothing in China anywhere, and
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: that's not a crazy thing to think, because they were
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: being closed down, like every few months, the government closed
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: them down. Then they'd open up a week later if
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: the right people were bribed, or maybe if they just
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: were like I guess it's not too counter cultural, and
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: they'd open back up. So the places they get shut down,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: but they were open a lot more than they were
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: shut down. And even if one place was shut down,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: other places were going on. And wudao Ying was a
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: cultural hub. There was independent art and independent music, and
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: these weren't a lot of traveling shows. They were teachers.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: They were travelers to Beijing, and then local Beijing artists
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: or musical artists who found each other met each other
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: in this Hutong formed bands and started playing shows or
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: just jammed together and hung out. But it really was
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: a fascinating place. It was probably my favorite part of
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: the city, Like my favorite place just to hang out
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: in Beijing, I would say that was that Hutong wu
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: dao Ying. There was something new being created there which
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: is very rare to see in Beijing, or maybe culturally obscured,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: which isn't always bad. It's really cool to go to
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: a restaurant that's been open for four hundred years, or
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: you know, visit the Imperial Palace that's thousands of years
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: old or whatever like that. But this was a new
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: art and cultural scene being created from nothing, and there
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: was some good music playing, especially if you like punk.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: There was jazz, which were really cool. And since the
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: hootones are made of cement, there was a lot of soundproofing,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: so wherever you went you weren't really being disturbed by
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: the other places, so you could get some cool tinkling
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: on the piano if you went in the dimly blue
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: light bulb bar across the street. But I gravitated toward
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: the high energy, scream punking, and I went in and
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: there are two floors. There's a balcony area and a
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: main floor area, and then some tables, and there's red
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: leather and beer stained wood. There's a bar there. Get
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: a few beers to support the theater itself, and then
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: get the rest of them that are half priced right outside,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: literally five feet away at the corner store. Have a
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: beer outside before going back in to get a beer
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: in the theater. But it was a very cool spot.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: It was all hardwood. It was all you know, all
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: the wood was original and old and the whole place
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: bled history and it was just cool. There were amps
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: everywhere and guitar cases. There wasn't a lot of space,
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: so all the bands that were playing just had all
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: their shit in the small green room and then they
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: would switch places or some would use each other's instruments.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: It wasn't always punk. Sometimes there was ska or just
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: rock or just different. There were different genres at School Bar,
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: but I usually saw rock or punk there and it
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: was good. That kind of knocked my socks off too,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: Like I just again didn't expect such counter culture to
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: be able to flourish and basically thrive in this hidden
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: pocket within Beijing. So it was so cool to see
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: people dressed in you know, midriff rainbow t shirts with
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: tattoos all over their body, lip rings, body piercings all over,
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: girls and guys with dyed hair, and just wearing like
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: leather costumes like they looked like Blade from the Vampire Blade.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: It was great to see all of that stuff. It
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: was super cool. And that's where they all hung out,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: School Bar, and there were outside the whole neighborhood was
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: filled with interesting German eateries or like there was a
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: schnitzelhouse and there were a ton of imported beer stores,
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: all the foreign that was like the foreign culture center
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: that was integrating itself with Beijing. I guess I should
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: say now that Beijing destroyed that neighborhood and it's not
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: there anymore. If there's another place in Beijing where the
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: cool culture is still happening, someone please reach out and
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: let me know, because when I went there, I didn't
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: hear about anything or find anything, and it was really
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: bummed out to find wudau Ying had been sterilized. Culturally sterilized.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: I would say, but let's go back to the fun memories.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: So these are the punks in Beijing, these are my people.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: And I went to school bar twice a week after
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: that look very very often, and I can't describe exactly
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: how soul soothing it was that I could listen to
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: great music, new music, with a beer in hand, either
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: reclining on a bench or bouncing around in the mosh
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: pit with everyone. I mean, how cool is it at
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: the end of a three or four hour evening just
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: listening to music and hanging out with your last beer
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: the night in your hand, and just reclining, semi conscious,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: spent from dancing and meeting new people and seeing new things,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: exhausting every single word I knew in Chinese, and more
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: completely liberated from any pent up stress inside. It's like
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: after I go on a six hour run, I'm just
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: like bo got everything out. I'm empty, vessel, at peace, comfortable.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: That's how it felt at the end of one of
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: these nights, except you know I was drinking beer the
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: whole Actually, you know it. I did drink beer when
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: I was running fairly often. I'd like stop in its
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: stores every couple of hours. These punk shows in Wu
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: dau Ying were such a culturally satisfying experience, and after
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: we hired a new teacher, Oliver hey Man, I went
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: every chance I could because Oliver great guy to talk to.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: Can scream sing in a way that I can tolerate,
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: which I don't really like screaming metal bands, and Oliver's
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: band was some hardcore screaming metal, but he rocked and
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: it was great to listen to him the same way.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: Like I said, I can't listen to screaming a lot,
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: I can listen to at the drive in scream the
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: whole album. That's fine for me. If you can scream, well,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: I'm into it, and Oliver screams well. Now, his band
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: did play so loudly that I couldn't mosh out in
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: front all the time, but I did it a lot
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: to support my friend, which I had plenty of experience
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: with supporting my other punk band friends. And it was
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: just so fun to go to these shows and feel
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: like I was back in the scene in the middle
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: of a city that when you walked outside, like every
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: building looks like a prison tower, but in this tiny
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: alley there's punk music shouting from the doorway, and there's
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Rainbow punks and Spike punks shooting the shit outside having
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: a beer on the street corner at the alley corner.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: So I was going to these shows a lot, and
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: then whenever Oliver's band played, I tried to make sure
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: to go, and I even brought dates to punk shows,
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: which is real difficult. I mean, there's not a huge
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: punk scene in China. So every time a girl would
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: see punk for the first time, if she wasn't an
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: old red one of the punk girls, it was usually
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: what's happening Why am I wearing a sun dress here?
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: Why are they wearing leather? What do you mean? They're Chinese?
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: They look like monsters. They look like hot monsters. And
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: you know what, the dates went well. People like new
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: experiences and they like if their date's having a good time.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: I was having a great time every time I was there.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: And it's such a fun alley. There are little art
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: galleries you can also go to. It's all there's so
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: many things to see in this tiny little pocket of Beijing.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: There were there were so many things to see and
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: listen to and experience in this tiny little pocket. I
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: bought a patch from school bar and sewed it onto
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: my decathlon little day bag that I had, and that thing.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: I fixed that day bag up so many times, so
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: it lasted like ten years. It lasted for five years.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: I didn't have to fix anything, but I think I
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: tore it on something, and then I had to keep
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: fixing it every year or so with a new strip
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: of umbrella fabric or nylon cloth I got somewhere. But
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: that school bar patch was on that thing for the
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: whole decade that I had that bag, and it always
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: brought me great memories because that school bar day bag
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: went with me to twenty countries and I took it
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: to the waterfalls in Thailand. I hiked mountains in every
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: country I've been to with that one. It was an
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: octoberfest with me. It carried gallons of cherry wine back
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: to my tent. That was a work in little backpack,
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: and I always felt like I was carrying some of
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: that cool new Chinese punk culture with me because I
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: had that little school bar badge on it. One of
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: the other cool venues that I only went to once,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: Oliver's band was playing there and he invited me, and
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: it was a bit out of the way, but I
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: just felt like I would be missing out on something
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: if I didn't go. Because it's so easy convenient. I'll say,
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: Beijing life is so convenient because you have more money
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: than you can use. Everything is already paid for. You
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: don't even have to leave the apartment. They'll deliver food
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: to you, they'll deliver TVs to you, they'll deliver computers
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: straight to your door with almost no shipping cost, and
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: everything super super cheap anyway, and you have a high salary,
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: so it's very easy to just instead of going out
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: on the weekend or going to try something new, staying
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: in eating your favorite food, drinking some beers, or meeting
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: the same friends at a bar, drinking some beer, meeting
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: some friends at a restaurant, getting boba ti, whatever it is.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: It's really easy to fall into a routine because it's
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: all right next to you all the time, and whatever
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: isn't right next to you will be delivered to you
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: right away, like immediately. So I would get into a
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: rut where I'd be like, oh, I guess we'll play
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: the Witcher for three weeks, and like that's what I did.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: So whenever I got the opportunity to do something new,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: I would try to actually do it because I knew
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: I had to keep myself social and keep myself connected
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: to the world around me, because the world around me
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: was how I was enjoying such convenience and fulfillment. Really
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: a great job, good friends, learning something new every day.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: I should stay connected to the world. That's what is
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: giving me all of these benefits. Even though the punk
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: bar that their band was playing at was far away
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: and I was lazy and maybe playing the Witcher at
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: the time, who knows, I did make myself go and
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: it took me a couple hours to get out there.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: I can't remember if I rode a bicycle or not.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: I might have, but anyway, I showed up at this spot. Actually, yes,
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: I definitely rode my bicycle there, and it was such
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: a cool spot. After I took road off a paved road,
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: I got onto this tiny I think it was paved
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: path for a good mile, like a pretty long way,
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: and it kept getting more and more green, and then
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: there was just bush and trees all around me and
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: I looked at the place I was supposed to go.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: At that point, I didn't use Google Maps or a
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: date or anything. I just always had my offline maps
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: and I just put a pin where the thing was
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: supposed to be and I would ride my bike there.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: And I did that all the time. It was fun exploring.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: But a mile into the forest and I've left the
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: city behind, I was like, what where is everything? And
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: then all of a sudden, through this corridor of trees,
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: the path opens up into a road and it swoops
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: down a small hill. To my right that there's this
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: wooden hut cabin. I'll say it's a big cat lodge.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: It's like a wooden lodge sitting in this not field,
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: but this verdant meadow, and I wish I could remember
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: the name of it because it was some cool punk name.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: But it was this cool live music spot kind of
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: outside of the city, in the middle of this park,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: with no other buildings around or anything. So they were
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: gonna crank it up to eleven. And after we all
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: enjoyed a few introductory beers to the place and got
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: some food, and everyone was settled into the spot and
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: the light outside evening was coming. It was seven pm.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: Then the music started and it was wild. Every band
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: was awesome. Oliver screamed and jumped around with the ferocity
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: and energy of a jungle cat. It was just so
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: cool to be at this show, like that's a memory,
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: that's an experience that helps create who I am today.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: It's an encouragement to push myself into being more social
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: and trying new things, even if it might not be easy,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: because I could have one of the coolest nights of
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: my life, which I did. It was so much fun.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: And after all the beer had been drunk the bands
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: had played. Just kidding about all the beer being drank,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: there was plenty more beer. But after the bands had
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: all finished and we were all kind of hanging out.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: The owners of the place said that the pool was open,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: So right next to the lodge was a full sized,
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: full depth pool, and all the punks screamed and ran
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: out and just jumped into the water. And I didn't
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: know about the pool. I didn't have a change of clothes.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: But very quickly it became apparent to me that that
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: was such a stupid reason not to jump into the
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: punk lodge pool. After one of the coolest shows you
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: had ever been to and were drunk, and everybody around
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: you was super cool and nice, just talking with all
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: the punks and having a great time. And so I
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: jumped in the pool in my clothes and it was great,
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: just played in the pool. Everyone's running around inside while
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: the punk music is going on. We're all screaming and
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: shouting and stamping our feed and mo washing, you know,
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: stomping around. So we were all sweating and gross anyway,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: so it was really nice that they let us in
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: the pool. And yeah, everyone just kept flipping in and
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: jumping in. It was a great time. And then I
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: rode my bicycle back home soaking wet and was dry
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: by the time I got back. I took a shower
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: and probably played the Witcher, but maybe I just collapsed
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: on my bed with probably an extra couple of beers
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: that I picked up on the way back, and played
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: the evening over again in my head because it was
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: just such a cool experience of again new culture that
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: I would never have thought I could find in Beijing.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: But these guys, these artists, because they found each other,
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: they were able to create these cultural experiences that were
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: novel and exciting and unique and culturally significant. And it
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: ended with a bunch of comfortably numb punks in a pool.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: I made friends with a lot of the teachers that
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: played there, and it was just cool to hang out
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: with them. But once I left China, I didn't keep
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: in contact with many of the people I kept in
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: contact with. I mean a handful of them. I still
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: talk to them, but I didn't not everybody I knew
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: in China I still talked to on any kind of
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: a regular basis. And I don't play any music, so
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: I'm not really part of the scene as much as
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: I would be if I had played in a band
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: with any of these guys. So then the craziest fucking
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: thing happened. I went back to the States for a
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: while to visit, and I rented a room in Portland, Oregon,
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: and the proprietor of the house was this really cool,
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: hippy lady, and we just started talking and I told
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: my stories like I always do, and I was telling
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: her about how I taught English in China and now
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: I'm visiting for a little while. And she came back
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: a couple days later and she asked me, Hey, can
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: you come here for a minute. So I went into
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: the house and she said, this is Andre. He rents
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: the room in the corner, which is like the opposite
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: from where I was. I was renting this little cabin
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: outside the main house, and I hadn't really met anyone
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: else in the house. And I was like, oh, hey, Ben,
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: nice to meet you. Confused as to why she was
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: introducing us on a playdate, and she said he actually
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: lived in Beijing also, and I was like, what, wow,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: that's crazy. When were you there? And we started talking
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: and we realized that he was there at the exact
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: same time I was. He was teaching in the same
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: neighborhood I was, and he went to school bar and
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: Wu d'au ying almost every weekend because he played music
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: and he was in the punk scene, so we must
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: have seen each other. He was there the years, the
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: days that I was going there all the time, and
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: he knew Oliver, so I had a now personal connection
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: to this guy. We happened to both be in Beijing
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: at the same time, in the same scene, with the
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: same friends, and then a couple years later, we both
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: independently decided to rent out a room in this random Portland,
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: Oregon hippie lady's house, who was super cool, by the way,
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: if she had let me stay there longer. She was
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: selling the house, but I definitely would have stayed there
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: longer if she let me. It was a nice little
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: cabin and he was Russian, so he was in the States.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: I don't even know why. I think he was like
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: a naturalized citizen of the US, but he was originally
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: from Russia as a child. I believe the story was.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: But how crazy is that that someone I didn't even
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: know in Beijing, but we must have been in the
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: same places at the same times. We would both serendipitously
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: rent a room from the same person in a state,
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: in a city fifty five hundred miles away that I
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: hadn't planned to return to that year. I still can't
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: get over how insane a coincidence that is. That's like
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: going to a punk show. Here, go to a punk
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: show in San Antonio, Texas, and then you guys meet
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: up in Chungdo, China, and it just randomly happens that
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: the two of you meet up in a noodle shop
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: one day on the other side of the world, having
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: never known each other, until you decide to talk and
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: swap a story and find out that your stories match seamlessly.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: So frickin' nuts. So we hung out almost every day
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: after that, or every other day. He was working on
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: his cool music tech stuff. I was narrating books in
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: the cabin, but we swapped stories about school bar and
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: wudau ying and mostly talked about how often we were
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: there and how crazy it was that we now met
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: up literally on the other side of the world randomly
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: and temporary housing together. That might be the most statistically
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: bizarre thing that's ever happened to me. My mind sending
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: red flags when I say that. So there might be
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: other ones, but that one's a big one. That's a
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: personal connection on the other side of the world in
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: a random city that I chose with a dart on
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: a map, basically because that's always how I travel. Okay,
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: I've probably reiterated that like six times, so I'll shut
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: up now. But the insanity of that aside, it was
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: great to talk to someone who knew exactly what I
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: was talking about when I shared how amazing it was
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: to see this new cultural experience in Beijing where I
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: never expected it to be, this new art being created
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: in this tiny alleyway in a pocket of Beijing, and
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: he felt the same way, and we talked about how
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: cool it was people from so many different countries thrived
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: in this area, shared creativity and cultural experiences. It was
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: so cool. We also both agreed that the Chinese goth
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: girls looked good, real good. Andre played in a few
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: bands over there and even played with ol of her
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: a couple times. I think he filled in for the drummer,
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: or he filled in for someone that wasn't there a
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: few times, something like that, And yeah, I think that's
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: a good note to go out on. It was such
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: a fascinating closing chapter of what had been a huge
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: part of my life while I was living in Beijing,
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: going to see this live music every day and being
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: so happy that there was such a creative culture in
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: a city that I was worried would be dead and sterile,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: and they did, like I said, sterilize culturally, sterilize Wu
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: dao Ying, so that alley has nothing of interest anymore
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: if you go there. But because I never would have
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: expected it originally, I cannot help but think there is
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: a pocket somewhere still in Beijing where this cool stuff
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: is happening. People are making new connections and creating new
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: music and art. And I'll meet those people when I
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: go back and visit, or they'll meet each other in
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: other countries across the world. Someday. The punks in Beijing
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: made that entire country more alive for me because I knew,
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: despite any general cultural ignorance or authoritarian crackdowns by the
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: government or some extremely narrow opinionated take like the goofy,
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: Chinese people aren't creative. Really, you know, all a billion
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: and a half of them. You visited all three thousand
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: miles wide and two thousand miles tall of that country
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: and have enough experience to make that claim. You've seen
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: every corner where every artist and calligrapher and musician is playing,
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: and have concluded that they have no creativity. That is
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: absurd and is a lonelier, more boring world. But you
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: hear things in the news, and people who aren't familiar
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: with the country might only believe what they are told
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: from a third party, from someone who's never been to
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: China but is reporting on it. So for me, knowing
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: this happened, knowing these cultural experiences were shared and friendships
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: and relationships started and art thrived in the middle of
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: yes authoritarian Beijing is such an important memory for me
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: to carry around and to share when I can, because
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: I have a lot of stories about China, and I
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: think this is one of the ones. I think the
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: punks and body piercing, tattooed goths playing loud punk rock
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: music every other day in this alley is a reifying,
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: mind broadening experience. To understand that it happened, that's something
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: that happened historically. It's a piece of history of that
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: city now that there were punks and a awesome punk
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: rock alley, and there are still people visiting China right now.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: There are still people from many other countries, and there
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: are still musicians and there are artists that I know there. So,
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: like I said, there's got to be a pocket somewhere
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: of awesome people making multicultural experiences together, creating new th together,
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: and just fucking rocking out. And I will be looking
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: for those people next time I am in China. So
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: if you know where they are, you could save me
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: some time and just you know, let me know a
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: bit of a rambler at gmail dot com or all
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: thesocials send me a message. I want to know where
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: the art is. Thank you so much for listening, and
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: I will talk to you next time.