We hope you all had a wonderful Chinese New Year. It is now year of the Tiger, and you can expect the following from the year (according to City Weekend)
The Tiger in 2010:
Tigers are the courageous iconoclasts of the Chinese zodiac. Brave and competitive, you Tigers dive into challenges at work, in life, and in love with unabashed zeal. But in the Year of the Tiger, you big cats tend to get kinda insecure and emotional. And all those tender little feelings will manifest themselves in the worst way imaginable.
If you get an inkling that something’s not going to your liking at work, your first instinct will be to get impatient. Who cares if your actions will offend subordinates and bosses? Pounce first, ask questions later! In love, on the other hand, insecurity takes its hold on you like a niggling ache. At best, you’ll find yourself relying on your partner for affirmation. At worst, you’ll focus all your nervous energy on your other half, demanding that he or she change to your liking. Needless to say, that’s a lot of pressure.
So in 2010, Tiger, when you’re unhappy and you know it, and you really want to change the world, there’s one word for you: Don’t. The Year of the Tiger is truly unsuitable for making any big changes. You must view any bad decisions made as good experiences had. Control your temper and seek inner peace.
So what should we in the music industry expect from this year of the Tiger here in China? Casting an eye into the immediate future, we don’t think we’ve ever seen a busier month for the small to mid-size part of the market. Venues such as the Maos, Yugong Yishan, Yuyintang, the Shelter, new Beijing clubs Lantern and White Rabbit (2) are all full to bursting this coming month, and at the bigger end of the market, Korea’s Super Junior and the Backstreet Boys are moving in for some stadium action.
Some of the highlights
- Shelter has an INSANE schedule – Andy Smith, Rhythm and Sound, DJ Vadim, LTJ Bukem, Optimo, Mungos HiFi, Inigo Kenedy
- the JUE festival kicks off for the second time, featuring a massive slate of art and music, including the likes of St. Vincent, Olafur Arnalds, Omnipotent Youth Hotel, Bigger Bang, the Mushrooms in Beijing. We will write more about that soon.
- Secret Machines come through China.
- Modern Sky bring the Thermals on a short tour through the Middle Kingdom
This is probably the biggest month for international and domestic music that China has ever seen. There are certainly lots of promoters and clubs out there but the worry is that the audience is growing more slowly than the number of events. Sure, the bigger events will all probably sell a bunch of tickets, but more effort has to be put into widening the reach of these shows and embedding the artists into the consciousness of the average Chinese. Plus, the mainstream media needs to step up to the plate and notice that there is a real movement at work in urban China.
Still, this level of activity can only bode well for us here, trying to move things forward…