As SmartBeijing reports, this labour of love is something that every muso in China and beyond will appreciate. John Yingling has been out in the field touring with bands including P.K.14, Hi Person and Stolen, whilst filming a series he calls The World Underground. From Chengdu to Wuhan, to Beijing, he’s been all over and is probably one of few foreigners to have been exposed so intimately to the full diversity of China’s nation-wide music scene. That’s why his project is so important: it captures the dirt and grime, the raw, unrefined and honest talent that marks this year (and even this decade).
Yingling’s project is more than a creative initiative; it’s like ethnography. It captures the small things that are often lost to time. You can read more about his trip in a detailed account posted by Impose Magazine. But beyond helping to expose the project, we also encourage you to do your part, and to support the completion of the doc.
Please go to the project’s Indiegogo page – a crowd-sourced funding platform (like Kickstarter) and chip in whatever you can manage. The project is in its final post-production stage. In Yingling’s words:
“This film will not come out soon if this fundraiser does not succeed. I don’t want to sit on this footage. The footage and sound is amazing, and it deserves proper nurturing. This is something I currently do not have the skills to do by myself. Not to the level this footage deserves. If it succeeds I hope to have the first episode up by MAY of 2014.”
The documentary features so many class acts (47!), including Hi Person, Stolen, Nova Heart, DIDERS, Hedgehog, SUBS, Wang Xu (White+), Speak Chinese or Die and more.
Radar readers UNITE! $2900 – let’s do this…