i think the brief is too wide. for beijing, if someone like jon campbell wrote the article perhaps he would prefer to focus on the new generation of live acts that play the traditional “rock” venues. others would focus on the DJs who are making their own music, yan jun would write about waterland kwanyin and the quiet improv group. then there are the folkies, the death metal guys and those holdout punks…

global ear works best for me when it focuses on a single event in a city. like the electronic music fest in istanbul. or even a performance by Wang Lei and IZ at the transmusicales in Rennes, France.

i know nothing about the various taibei scenes. but FM3 have been invited a few times to play gigs there. that it never happened was not a government or transit problem. that was easy to sort out. it was more that the promoters we were dealing with didnt want us once they realised that “rock star” dou wei wasnt a member of FM3!!!

oh well, maybe someday zhang jian will marry someone famous and we can play in taiwan!

Yes, Pangu really did get exiled. After the 2/28/2004 Taipei gig, they were on their way back to China when they got a cell phone call in the Bangkok airport. A friend was telling them their house was under surveillance and not to come back. One Beijing government official was even quoted in the HOng Kong press (Ming Bao, I think) saying they would be “reeducated” if they returned. I’ve been in touch with Ao Bo several times, even spoken to him on the phone in Sweden, and he’s definitely in exile.

Dajuin, I’m guessing you would have wanted a Taipei article focusing more purely on music, and I think with the experimental electronic end of the scale, politics are not an issue. But with concerts like Say Yes to Taiwan (changed this year to East Core Asia, which happened last week, and Pangu was there) where bands are not allowed in if they don’t take certain political positions, the Taiwan-China politics question is something many many Taiwan bands and record labels have to deal with. They wish they didn’t have to, but they do. I’m personally against music getting too political because I think it’s better at building bridges, and I hope it can do that here. A few Taiwanese bands (BB Bomb, Fire E.X.) have done short China tours, but unfortunately no Chinese bands are coming to Taiwan - due to both governments.

Anway, initially, this article was just about Pangu - but the Wire folks didn’t think it appropriate, so we bargained it into a story that also included WIMB and Varo. I even brought up the point that this was a bit of a Frankenstein approach, but they were into it and let it run like that. Sure there were other things to write about, but you can’t cover everything. Feel free to let me know what you think I missed.

the reason it focused on dakou, was the editors specifically asked for an article about dakou in beijing. not a rundown of the beijing music scene (electronic or otherwise).

i met then editor Rob Young at a music festival in rome. at breakfast with him and biosphere, we talked about how kids access music. i mentioned that dakou were a big deal before the whole soulseek download thing… and rob asked me to write a short piece about this… i hate to write, so i put it off for a bit, but then they kept bugging me, and i put some ideas down in an email. it wasnt even meant to be a global ear… but they could find no other place for it in the mag. so thats where it went…

i think, actually, beijing shanghai and sz/guangzhou ALL need a good global ear “scene report” for the Wire. either me or steve barker can arrange to get it printed if anyone out there wants to write it…

btw. was pangu really “exiled” for that show in taibei? i thought he came back to the mainland and i can swear ive seen him in beijing or somewhere down south after that show…