:: for more from Blueprint on NeochaEDGE, link here. // AjS
This post was originally published on NeochaEDGE, a site I regularly contribute to. To see more of my posts on NeochaEDGE, link here.
NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.
:: for more from Sulumi on NeochaEDGE, link here. /// AjS
This post was originally published on NeochaEDGE, a site I regularly contribute to. To see more of my posts on NeochaEDGE, link here.
NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.
:: Shanghai is the next stop for A Nice Set, a traveling exhibition of customized slipmats designed by leading artists from around the world. Presented by NeochaEDGE and Jellymon, A Nice Set | Shanghai will feature slipmat designs from international artists as well as the first showing of original slipmat designs from emerging Chinese artists. Further integrating the music + art theme, a set of Aerial7 headphones will receive a custom-design treatment by Chinese artists and displayed at the exhibition.
A Nice Set | Shanghai exhibition will open at 7:30 PM on September 12th at SOURCE’s gallery space, and run until September 28. Original slipmats, reproductions, IdN’s commemorative book, and custom-designed Aerial7 headphones will all be available for sale throughout the exhibition. // AjS
Exhibition Opening Party :: Sept 12, 2009, 19:30
Exhibition Dates :: Sept 12 – Sept 28, 2009
Location :: SOURCE (158 Xinle Road, Near Donghu Road)
Participating Artists ::
China
Raylei, B6, Tyakasha, Yan Wei, Nini Sum, Jellymon, Kidplastik, Chairman, Shinjil, 96k, Rubberpixy
International
Asif Mian, Ben Loiz & Carolina Chaves, Bob Kronbauer, Build, Carlos Rodriguez, David Ellis, Genevieve Gauckler, Gerry Villareal, Harmen Liemburg, Hanna Werning, Hort, Ian Wright, Ian “Swifty” Swift, Jeff Staple, Jeff Zimmermann, Jenni Kim, Jeremy Hollister, Jeremyville, Maki Kawakita, Marc Atlan, Ray Smith, Republic of Regina, Stephen Bliss, Judy Wellfare, Kai and Sunny, Kenn Sakurai, Kustaa Saksi, Luca Ionesco, Maceo Villareal, Stephan “Maze” Georges, Timothy Saccenti, Universal Everything, Value and Service, Yuko Shimizu and many more
What is a slipmat?
A slipmat is a circular piece of felt material that DJs use on turntables to manipulate a record.
The Concept ::
Just as DJs sample the work of many musicians into the new mixes, visual artists tap into their own cultural surroundings, sampling the influences they have accumulated and integrate them into their work. Both the visual artist and the DJ can be seen as “selectors” who draw inspiration from their respective environments, as well as its trends and fads, with the finished product of a painting or a mix being their interpretation of the world around them.
First conceptualised by Jeremy Hollister of New York creative studio Plus et Plus and Jeff Staple of Staple Designs and The Reed Space, A Nice Set invites leading artists to customize a pair of blank slipmats with dimensions of the canvas as their only constraints.
The Artists ::
The selection of participating artists for A Nice Set is not based on any universal visual aesthetic, but rather on talent, uniqueness and a passion for music – in both the work and the lives of the chosen artists.
Since its debut in Hong Kong, A Nice Set has been on tour for the past three years, travelling from Tokyo to Spain, Paris, Australia and Singapore hitting Shanghai this September. In each city, a selection of local talent is chosen to be included in each exhibition alongside the original collective. The works of the local artists then travel to the next city of the tour, ever expanding global pool of customized designs.
Organizers ::
NeochaEDGE
NeochaEDGE is a full-service idea and execution house passionate about helping clients understand, engage, and co-create with Chinese creative communities, trendsetters, and youth culture opinion leaders.
NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.
NeochaEDGE is a product of Neocha.com, an online community and social network that empowers Chinese creatives to promote their work, collaborate with other creatives, and engage with fans.
Jellymon
Jellymon / JMGS is a multi-discipline design studio that creates Artwork, Toys, Fashion, Lifestyle products, Branding, Creative Direction. Jellymon was set up by Lin Lin and Sam Jacobs. The pair met at Chelsea School of Art in 2002 and have been working together ever since. Jellymon is about art and products with a fun and thoughtful twist. JMGS works closely with brands and advertising agencies. The projects we work on are very wide ranging but most focus mainly on the Youth Market.
Sponsors ::
Aerial7
Aerial7 was founded in 2008 based on the idea that great sound can be combined with awesome, eye-catching design. Our headphones are influenced by our devotion to art, streetwear, action sports, and DJ culture. They deliver unsurpassed audio quality in models that are as much a statement of individualism as they are a practical necessity.
Vedett
Vedett is a premium Belgian beer brand with a somewhat different attitude; taking itself not too serious (except when it comes to quality, then we’re damn serious!), a bit quirky, modest, not telling you what to do or how to behave.
:: over the past year or so, Converse (China) has made a big push in China to align itself with local indie / creative culture, particularly the music scene. Last August, as part of its LoveNoise (爱噪音) tour, Converse sponsored two well-known Chinese indie rock bands ( and Queen Sea Big Shark) for a 6000 km, one-bus road trip that included concerts in five second-tier Chinese cities: Xi’an, Wuhan, Changsha, Hangzhou, and Nanjing (plus a free grand finale show at Mao Live House in Beijing).
Bravo to W+K Shanghai and Split Works for engineering and executing the effort. It’s proven itself to be the most successful example to-date of a big brand engaging the Chinese indie music community – the verdict is still out on Pepsi’s Battle of the Bands / Voice of the Next Generation campaign.
See below for a full-length documentary capturing the Converse LoveNoise tour. The film was directed by the Beijing filmmaker Liu Feng and features interviews with the bands and their fans, as well as appearances and performance footage of Echo Rush, Hualun, 48V, Self Party, and , among other Chinese indie bands. Enjoy.
For more NeochaEDGE posts on Converse, link here. // AjS
This post was originally published on NeochaEDGE, a site I regularly contribute to. To see more of my posts on NeochaEDGE, link here.
NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.
:: for more from Leto on NeochaEDGE, link here. // AjS
This post was originally published on NeochaEDGE, a site I regularly contribute to. To see more of my posts on NeochaEDGE, link here.
NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.
:: from “shanzhai” iPhones to the Shanghai Government bootleg edition of Windows XP, knock-offs and intellectual property violations are a part of life on the Chinese mainland. The below five-point brief provides some context to how Chinese netizens use the Internet to find, download, and share bootleg / pirated content.
why bootleg / pirate content online in China?
A few years ago in China, if you wanted to watch a movie you could go to the nearest supermarket, where a guy with a cardboard box of DVDs would be standing outside the front door. You’d rifle through the collection and pick out a selection of titles that caught your interest, and then go back home and see which ones would actually work in your DVD player. But with increasingly speedy Internet connections in China today and the wealth of content available online, why pay for pirated DVDs of uncertain quality when you don’t have to? More and more Chinese Internet users are no longer turning to the “the DVD guys / shop on the corner.” Movies are just the tip of the iceberg – music, TV shows, animation, games, software, and magazines are all easily available online for free. Sure, there’s something called “copyright law” which makes downloading this content slightly against the law, but everyone else is doing it, and when the government mandates the use of software despite allegations that it contains pirated code (see the recent Green Dam debacle), it makes you wonder how seriously any of this really is. Software piracy has been dropping over the past few years, but is still quite high: According to a BSA survey, China’s piracy rate for software was 80% in 2008, down from 90% in 2004. Arguments can be made that software piracy hurts the domestic software industry, and the same argument could be made for bootlegs in other sectors. But the combination of easy + free makes bootleg information very attractive to China’s netizens, obviously.
what can you pirate online in China?
VeryCD provides a searchable archive of digital information and content along with an active community of peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharers. It doesn’t host any of the files itself – instead, it links to files that allow netizens to download bootlegged content from other netizens. The front page of VeryCD prominently features movies and music, but the site indexes a wide range of materials. The categories listed in the sidebar are movies, TV series, music, games, animation, art, software, and “resources,” a category that encompasses anything from instructional DVDs to PDFs of magazine scans. One of the things that VeryCD brought to file sharing was a charter for sharing mp3 collections. Titles, format, tags, and packaging were all standardized, and the idealistic goal of the site’s “MP3! Project” was for “every individual to share two or three albums to establish the largest mp3 music library in the P2P world.” Because the eMule system (see below) does not have any central file repositories but relies on users themselves to share files, participants in the “MP3! Project” are requested to share a few albums long-term so that they’ll always be accessible to other netizens in search of them. Xiami is a music sharing platform. The website provides a substantial archive of music for online listening through Xiami.FM, a music widget, but it also offers Shark, a P2P application designed for sharing music libraries with other Xiami users . Users who download and install the software achieve far better speeds on future music downloads, and they can broadcast songs they possess that are not present in Xiami’s own library to other users. Kugou is a similar service that has been around for years, and there is a wealth of smaller services around as well. A number of services have arisen to serve movies and TV shows over P2P services. Poco’s movie channel and PP365 are two examples; each requires installing a proprietary piece of software that handles the movie download process. There are, of course, legitimate uses of this technology – streaming authorized television programs or movies for which permission has been received, but, it safe to say, that doesn’t make up the majority of use.
how do you pirate online in China? ::
P2P software – an application that transfers files to a netizen’s computer from the computers of other netizens directly, rather than pulling content from a central location – is frequently used for sharing pirated data. The files indexed on VeryCD are shared through the eMule program, and the site provides its own version of the application: EasyMule. The software registers its own protocol (ed2k) with the users’ web browser so that links to resources are automatically passed to the eMule program, which then searches for the content on other users’ machines. Other eMule-related services include Vagaa (哇嘎), which provides its own application that promises accelerated eMule and BitTorrent downloads, as well as its own proprietary file download service. The China eMule (中国电骡) is an almost identical copy of the Vagaa homepage and offers links to the Vagaa application and shared files but does not seem to be related to Vagaa – a bootleg of a bootleg service? All very dodgy. BitTorrent is another file sharing protocol. Netizens access a seed file (with the extension .torrent), and their BT application connects to a tracker to find out which other users (known as peers) are sharing the file. Once peers are identified, the BT application downloads that file bit-by-bit from multiple users. The BT@China Alliance unifies several dozen smaller BBS discussion forums where netizens post the locations of BT seed files (which can essentially be anywhere). BT@China is searchable by keyword, file name, or “hash” – a unique ID that identifies a specific file for download. Xunlei, also known as “Thunder,” is one of the most popular file sharing services. It’s a combination of proprietary software and a group of associated websites, but it is also shunned by more civic-minded P2P users for enabling “leeching”: the software is designed to allow users to suck bandwidth by downloading from BT or eMule networks without contributing a corresponding amount of uploaded information. This goes against standard / culture of file-sharing etiquette and may result in users of these programs getting banned from central servers. Xunlei also provides a website for online viewing of HD videos served through the software from its own network rather than individual users’ machines. Google owns a small stake in Xunlei, and the software is part of Baidu’s search alliance, which embeds a Baidu search bar into the program. As a testament to its popularity, Xunlei is a perennial entry on Baidu’s rankings of top search terms. It’s currently at #15.
what else can you pirate online in China? ::
There’s niche pirating going on as well, although not much of it is large enough in size to require the use of P2P transfers. Academic publications, for example, can be prohibitively expensive if your university doesn’t subscribe, so communities have sprung up to fill the need for reduced-cost or free academic books and journals. From time to time people will discover loopholes or back doors in online journal archives, and they’ll share the technique on a forum like Pet2008, one of the major communities for academic journal sharing. Other times, a student or faculty member at a university that subscribes to a particular archive will set up a proxy service to allow off-campus netizens access to an on-campus IP address, which will get them into the archive. This is very common. The Yuyu College forum has a page for “free access” that lists a number of these servers. The practice has developed its own economy: payment in virtual currency is required to read many of the posts, and netizens earn credits by posting resources or purchasing them outright, but the cost is far less than what legitimate access to academic archives would require. Namipan is a file host that uses its own proprietary software and protocol, as well as offering slower, less reliable web-based downloads. Users upload files to the Namipan servers, and when other netizens wish to download them, their web browser will hand off the link to the Namipan download application (like many of these programs, the interoperability is seamless for IE users but less reliable for users of other web browsers). All kinds of information is shared this way, from music albums to book scans – a scanned Chinese edition of the mainland China-censored Zhao Ziyang memoir was available on Namipan right after it hit the streets. Damipan (大米盘), whose name seems inspired by Namipan, does not have its own download application but allows users to share files through various protocols, including eMule and Xunlei. Many of the most popular file sharing sites restrict the quantity of data unregistered users can download, and a fair number of them have policies in place that remove pornographic material. So porn is frequently shared through BitTorrent, with the .torrent seed files uploaded to a file sharing site. Or else they’re simply shared through Xunlei. See the movie download sections of overseas sites like 92xxoo or Xiao77 (a well-known site that frequently changes IP addresses and URLs to ensure easy access from mainland porn enthusiasts). For those that thought the Chinese Internet has been thoroughly scrubbed of politically sensitive, pornographic, or otherwise “unharmonious” content, think again. It’s all readily available to the average Chinese netizen.
does pirating in China ever suck? ::
Installing programs designed to facilitate the sharing of copyrighted material has always come with an element of risk. eMule is known to be free of adware and spyware, but because it is an open source program, other providers are able to offer their own eMule packages that may include dodgier add-ons. Apart from coming bundled with adware and dodgy browser redirects, Xunlei’s implementation of its own P2P network came under fire for consuming all of its user’s upload bandwidth: the program would scan a user’s entire hard drive and upload files that other Xunlei users are requesting. Users would unwittingly max out their bandwidth. In the face of widespread user dissatisfaction, the company tweaked the software to throttle uploads. Tuotu (脱兔) was launched by developers who liked the Xunlei software itself but were disgusted by the way the associated service leeched files from other archives. It supports a number of popular sharing protocols including eMule and BT, but doesn’t seem to have any source of income at the moment, or much to distinguish it from all of the rest of the marketplace. One additional problem – more of an annoyance, really – comes when the ISP gets tired of downloaders hogging bandwidth and throttles the standard ports that many protocols use. It’s a game of cat-and-mouse: in response to ISPs placing limits on standard eMule ports, the software now comes with options to choose random ports in the hopes that the ISP will simply ignore the gigabytes of IPR infringing content you’re copying to your hard drive.
// AjS
[Friday 5 is the product of my work at Edelman Digital (China). Link here for the full Friday 5 archive. If you'd like to be added to the bilingual (English & Chinese) Friday 5 email distribution list, please send me an email at: adam DOT schokora AT edelman DOT com.]
:: Neocha.com’s Editor-in-Chief (not China, as printed below) Liu Hao was recently interviewed by City Weekend about the Neocha NEXT player. Link here for the full interview on City Weekend’s website. // AjS
[full disclosure: 56minus1 is a partner at Neocha.com]
:: last week, Lindi (林笛), the lead singer and pipa player for the well-known Shanghainese band Cold Fairyland, shared with me some videos from a recent performance by her new band Bad Himo at Shanghai’s Yuyintang music club. Bad Himo is a two-person band (Lindi and her husband) whose songs are written entirely about the couple’s cat, Himo. In chatting with Lindi about Bad Himo, she said they formed the band because she has always wanted to play more straight forward rock and punk-styled music, but is too shy to actually write overly aggressive / provocative lyrics with curse words, etc. According to Lindi, the next best thing was to write songs that complain about her naughty cat, Himo.
The songs are silly, playful, definitely not punk, and sung in Mandarin, Shanghainese, and English, as those are the three languages Lindi and her husband speak to the cat at home. However, Lindi admits that during the show she forgot most of lyrics and just sorta made them up as she went along. Lindi is unsure how often, or even if, the band will play again, but they are looking for a drummer if anyone knows anyone.
Below I’ve shared a video from the performance last week. The song in the video, titled Little White Horse (小白马), is mostly sung in Shanghainese. For videos of all the songs from the Yuyintang performance, link here. Related, I recently produced a short video with Lindi performing solo / acoustic out of her home studio, link here to check it out. // AjS
:: I came across this music video for Minilogue’s song Animals done by Varelsen Animation Studio – it’s excellent. This is one of those videos that you bookmark and come come back to when you need a does of happy. The Twitter Fail Whale even makes an appearance! Link here for more of Varelsen’s work. // AjS
:: a fun animation short / MV titled Road from Chinese photo-blogger Wang Chengzhi (王承之, A.K.A. Photobluer) about an upset child running away from his bickering parents and an overbearing teacher. The clip ends with “我们一直奔跑, 但找不到尽头,” meaning: “We are always running, but we can’t escape.” Background music by Beijing-based band The Gar (嘎调), a song titled Quan (圈). The Gar is also on Douban. // AjS
:: happy memorial day weekend. A rather good show this week, if we do say so ourselves. Dirty gospel and sophisticated ladies, Cooke covers and Superflys, unsigned Cubs, plus Otis and more! If it doesn’t make you happy, then perhaps you’re just not the happy type. Have fun! Thank you. // a
[if you're having problems with the above player, click here.]
miles davis – ’round midnight’
mable john – ’same time, same place’
curtis mayfield – ‘think’
candi staton* – ‘he called me baby’
lester young – ‘[back home again in] indiana’
cubworld – ‘good morning, love’
wilson pickett – ‘bring it on home to me’
sarah vaughn – ‘it might as well be spring’
edward clayborn – ‘then we’ll need that true religion’
otis redding – ‘direct me’
*I couldn’t tell you why I pronounced it ‘station‘ – I really couldn’t.
download, link to, or embed ‘rough sundays show 8′
[Aric S. Queen is a guest contributor to 56minus1]
:: from the bus sitting just off the strip in Las Vegas. Recorded in the daytime, thus the birds. Temptings, Scots, deep-southern gospel and much, much more. I hope you like it. Thank you. // a
[if you're having problems with the above player, click here.]
sam cooke & the soul stirrers – ‘Jesus, i’ll never forget’
gene krupa & buddy rich – ‘I never knew’
mae west – ‘I’m in the mood for love’
belle & sebastian – ’sleep the clock around’
frank sinatra, dean martin & sammy davis jr. – ‘me & my shadow’
the meters – ‘a message from the meters’
lucky millinder – ‘who threw the whiskey in the well?’
the temptations – ‘who’s lovin’ you?’
hunter’s chapel singers – ‘I’m so glad I got good religion’
otis redding – ‘champagne & wine’
download, link to, or embed ‘rough sundays show 7′
[Aric S. Queen is a guest contributor to 56minus1]
:: with the growing popularity of independent music in China, musicians, labels, and promoters are all seeking to understand and benefit from various business models. On Thursday (May 14) night, Neocha.com will bring together three representatives from various fields of China’s independent music scene to share their thoughts and experiences in a panel discussion titled “How Can Independent Music Make Money in China?” at the newly opened Factory in Shanghai. // SL
Panelists:
Date / Time: May 14 (Thursday), 19:30
Language: the discussion will primarily be in Chinese with English interpretation available.
Location: Factory – 1933 Creative Complex 1st floor, building 4, 29 Shajing Rd., Hongkou district, Shanghai
Phone: Email:
Event links: | Douban
[full disclosure: Sean Leow is the CEO of Neocha.com]
:: from a very creepy R.V. park in Roswell, New Mexico, this week we have everything from a reverend to a sister, the biggest band in the world covering the best artist of all time, moon on moons, two from the Big O, and much more. // a
[...and don't forget to join - 6 more people and I can finally tell my parents I've done something with my life]
[if you're having problems with the above player, click here]
sister clara hudmon – ‘my loved ones are waiting for me’
the rolling stones – ‘pain in my heart’
ray barreto* – ’soul call’
ben harper – ‘where could I go’ [live]
edith piaf – ‘c’est l’amour’
al greene – ‘belle’
charlie parker – ‘my old flame’
joe tex – ‘the love you save [may be your own]‘
sun kil moon – ‘gentle moon’
otis redding – ’stay in school’
otis redding – ‘i’ve been loving you too long [live]‘
*a few people have emailed me about this being the wrong spelling of his last name, when, in fact, his name was misspelled on his birth certificate. [thank you world wide web]
download, link to, or embed ‘rough sundays show 6′
[Aric S. Queen is a guest contributor to 56minus1]
