Land Rover - Go Beyond
Land Rover - Go Beyond Campaign
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Editorial Covers
Kaiser Chiefs - True Brits (The Independent)
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Dannii Minogue (Maxim)
Vernon Kay - Fly Boy (Mail on Sunday Live)
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The Darkness - You Love Us (Independent Magazine)
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Shanghai Restoration Project
New York based artist and producer, David Liang’s musical credits include a stint as a producer for Bad Boy Records as well as providing tracks for the likes of Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior. With his first solo album, The Shanghai Restoration Project, Liang combines traditional Chinese instruments with hip-hop beats to create a unique fusion of East and West that is as Shanghai as Xiao Long Bao.
Give us your elevator pitch musical CV.
I am a classically trained pianist and I studied Jazz for a summer at Berkeley School of Music, so I am pretty comfortable across both genres. I also play guitar and I studied trumpet when I was young. But I was never any good at the trumpet.
The latest album is called The Shanghai Restoration Project and features traditional Chinese instruments. What’s your Shanghai connection?
The name comes from my first trip to Shanghai in 1997. My father was born in Shanghai and my parents live there now, but I was born in Kansas and Shanghai was another world. I was really struck then by the fusion between eastern and western culture. I had really never seen anything like that before. I remember going to the Peace Hotel and seeing these old men, playing jazz, but it had an Asian feel and the singer was singing in Mandarin. The sound really struck me. My mum played music and my grandfather played the Chinese flute, so it was familiar. I was also a big jazz fan; I loved Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, all those guys. So this combined two things I was familiar with and loved.
And your renewed interest in the city now?
Recently there has been a lot of renewed attention on China. With the Olympics in Beijing last year and Expo 2010 for Shanghai, you can’t go a day without the New York Times featuring something on China. And more often than not it’s Shanghai taking the headlines. I wanted to create an artistic project that mirrored this interest. The Shanghai Restoration Project is about a cultural restoration of that east/west fusion that got put on hold after World War II, when China became more inwards focused. But instead of jazz, I wanted to blend those sounds and that feel with hip-hop and electronica.
So what qualifies you to restore Shanghai?
I was brought back to thinking about Chinese music when I did a project for China Records, (a joint venture between the China government and a US label). It was to remix old tracks by 5 Shanghai Divas of their day performing those old songs that my Grandmother used to hear walking through the streets of Shanghai. I have done a lot of different things musically, in different genres. I have played jazz piano in clubs and I have produced hip-hop for Bad Boy Records (P-Diddy’s label). I am open to a wide range of styles of music and I think that has all fed into the Shanghai Restoration Project.
Have you collaborated with any of the musicians in this city?
It is my intention to collaborate with musicians in Shanghai over the next few months. It will definitely be a new experience for me. I have only collaborated with artists in the States and Japan before. But there is a new generation of young musicians coming up for whom there is the potential to be artists for a living. That’s exciting.
Can the Chinese flute ever be sexy?
I was surrounded by Chinese music growing up, but having trained in western harmonic techniques through both jazz and classical music I understand why Chinese instruments don’t always go over well in the west. There is a different scale and some of the instruments can be kind of shrill. But these sounds had never been packaged properly. When I put out the first record the response was good from the Asian American population, but now my Facebook and MySpace pages contain fans from Turkey, Europe as well as the US. My music has been used by Luis Vuitton and Christian Dior. NBC used one of my tunes during the Olympics and TV show, The L Word, used one of my tunes in an episode. If you don’t beat people over the head with influences it becomes completely accessible and refreshing.
Where will the first internationally recognised Chinese artist come from?
China is well placed to allow exciting new acts to come to the fore. During the Olympics last year GE here used a Chinese artist for a TV commercial. It was the first time I had ever seen a Chinese language song on US TV (Cao Fang In Summer). Now, when you read the reviews about her you realize people just love her voice. The accepted way to get known in the west is to record and tour and do press. All of that can happen in China too, but there have always been more restrictions – your music needs approval and permits are required to put on festivals. The digital world breaks all of that apart. Internet websites allow people to publish themselves and show off their wares. Today, if you film yourself performing, it is very easy for someone else to see it almost immediately and that’s how a fan base starts. The world is getting smaller and rules that could have prevented artists breaking through before don’t apply anymore.
What came first, Chinese pop or Karaoke?
A lot of kids in China get their music from Karaoke and a lot of people listen to Chinese pop which has a very specific sound. But there are definitely pockets of people listening to very independent music. There’s a great site, neo char which gives you access to all these great independent artists in China. But it is hard to find that when you are sitting in the US. The more I explored, the more pleasantly surprised I became about how broad tastes can be in this country.
What’s your personal Karaoke standby?
Believe it or not I love singing John Denver’s Thank God I’m A Country Boy. It’s not easy to find in Shanghai though. I love country music. I find it honest and refreshing.
Tall Tales
Emerging on a smog free day from Shanghai’s metro system into the beating heart of China’s new economy is to confront one of the most iconic skylines of the 21st century. While Tokyo will be forever associated with Bladerunner and New York a 1970s Copolla backdrop, now more notable for it’s absences than additions, Shanghai with its kitsch, candy-bar Pearl Tower and wide designer avenues is the world champion of post-modernity. If director, Robert Rodriguez, weren’t a pixel kind of guy, he could have shot this year’s Jetsons movie right here on Century Avenue without changing a thing.
While Beijing is said to hold China’s culture, Shanghai lays claim to it’s style and nothing is safe from the wrecking ball as anything remotely ‘traditional’ is raised to the ground to make way for newer, shinier shopping malls. The result, from ground level is as exhilarating as it is vertiginous. It’s also bloody impossible to walk around. The sheer scale of the 6 lane avenues that separate block after block of looming super-towers make just crossing the road a twenty minute process and the constant building work means that entire streets can vanish behind construction hoardings at a moment’s notice.
Consequently when I arrive on foot at the discreet, private entrance to the Shanghai Park Hyatt I am disgruntled, out of breath and sporting a shiny patina of early spring perspiration. But if the tall, dignified doorman registers my dishevelment he is far too well trained to display anything more than faint surprise. “No car sir” he asks, raising one eyebrow as he takes my case.
I mutter something about wanting see the skyline and he smiles. “You’ll find the view is very good from the hotel, sir,” he says guiding me gently to the lift.
The Shanghai World Financial Centre, which contains the Shanghai’s Park Hyatt, is at 492 metres and 101 floors, the city’s tallest building. Occupying the 79th to 93rd floors, for now, the hotel lays claim to world’s highest beds and the Hyatt’s bright, shiny lift delivers me to its lobby in less than 7 seconds, without so much as a shudder. It would take someone with a greater understanding of equations than I tell you exactly how fast that is. But it’s fast. So fast in fact it makes your ears pop.
Emerging into the Shanghai Park Hyatt is like stepping into a Bond villain’s lair. All glass and soft dark wood and high above the smog line, with floor to ceiling windows deliberately positioned to look down on its sky-scraping competition, the doorman is right. The view from up here is really very good.
Stretching as far as the eye can see in every direction, the city from above is a place of peace and colour. Like every truly great city, Shanghai is bisected by a river, the Huangpi, which coils through it’s heart, separating the towers and boulevards of Pudong (referred to by China old-hands as Pu-Jersey) from the tight winding streets of the city’s older west bank, Puxi (think Connery calling for Ms Galore in Goldfinger and you’re about there for pronunciation). From up here the city’s 22million residents are invisible to the naked eye, the only clue to their existence the constant stream of Tonka sized vehicles that fill the wide streets below.
It’s a dizzying perspective and after a few minutes staring my knees become quite weak and I am forced to sit. Luckily a passing waitress notices my condition and pauses to offer concern. “It’s a long way down” she smiles in perfect English. “You look like you could use a drink.” Accepting her timely offer I am soon recovered enough to be led to my room.
If the hotel foyer is impressive, my room is sublime. Of course there is a top of the range flat screen TV, noiseless air conditioning, immense white, soft bed and opulent, walk in cupboard space. But the mark of any truly great hotel room lies is in the details and here the mini bar comes stocked with chilled champagne and 5 different malt whiskies as standard, while for caffeine heads, there’s a personal espresso machine replete with beans from every coffee growing nation. And forget about hanging anything so quaint as a paper Do Not Disturb sign on your door – here the flick of a switch offers electronic choices that range from ‘leave me alone’ to ‘bring me a sandwich right now’.
It is the bathroom that really raises the bar. Containing a bathtub the size of an Olympic pool, as well as a rainforest shower, I could happily spend my entire weekend right here. There’s even a miniature TV screen, sunk into shaving mirror for those who absolutely, positively have to have the latest BBC headlines as they ablute.
The piece de resistance however is the toilet. Separated discreetly from the bathing suite, nothing so mundane as a toilet roll holder breaks up the smoothly designed space. Instead a space age a control panel blinks gently from an adjacent wall, directing temperature controllable jets of frothy spume into areas of my body I have never knowingly cleaned before. It is worth noting that the pulse function, when discovered, causes me question my own sexuality.
Shaken and stirred by this discovery, I order a Wagyu steak sandwich (if only to reassert my masculinity) and head up to the hotel’s spa floor to properly relax.
Floating idly in the hotel’s 85th floor infinity pool, sipping ginger tea and looking down on my adopted home is probably the closest I will ever come to yogic flying. Legend has it that Bodhidarma, the Indian monk who brought Zen Buddhism to China in the 5th century once sat so long in meditation in his quest for enlightenment that his legs became gangrenous and had to be amputated. The idiot. Within 45 minutes on the Hyatt’s spa floor I have achieved a similar natural high, without any of the associated discomfort and enter an ecstatic trance that lasts for the remainder of my stay. Days pass in a haze of bathing, eating and quite unnecessary trips to the toilet until, finally, it is time to leave my cosy hotel womb and head back to the real world below.
Once disgorged back onto the street, back among the bustling hoi polloi I find myself a little depressed and disoriented. Perhaps it’s the change in altitude – more likely it is the cruel realization that down here no one is waiting to act on my every whim. As I waver with indecision, the smartly pressed doorman again comes to my aid and hails a cab. Reluctantly, I climb inside and am driven home.
Piano Man
Shanghai born Huang Jian Yi is, at 35, the Godfather of Shanghai jazz. A graduate of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where he studied classical piano, Huang’s first band, Footprints, founded in 1999, was among the first revivalist jazz acts to come out of China. Now a veteran of the world jazz festival circuit and musical director at JZ Kids Music School Huang is a pillar of the Shanghai jazz scene.
So you’re playing at Oriental Arts Center on Sunday afternoon (8 Feb). 3pm seems a little early for Jazz?
3pm is a great time to play jazz. I’ve played gigs before lunch that have been great and these monthly JZ concerts are really popular. In the concert hall you don’t know what time it is. It’s a great place to play and the sound is fantastic. You just turn up with your instruments and get on with it.
Speaking of sideways, Jazz at the Oriental Arts Centre? Shanghai’s Jazz scene must be unrecognizable from when you started out?
I am Shanghainese and I have seen the jazz scene in Shanghai change dramatically over the last 10 years. Back then it was hard to make money as a musician. There was nowhere to play and there were very few bands. I think there was probably only one Chinese band in the whole city. Today Shanghai is a place where you can make a living as a musician. There are lots of opportunities and jazz players from Beijing are moving here to be part of it. I doubt that young kids in the US or Europe would be able to play what they love and get paid enough to live on.
Originally you trained at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music as a classical pianist – what happened?
We had to play Chopin all of the time. Really, I tried my best, but after 4 years of study I realized I was never going to be a classical pianist. It was just too hard. I was 24 before I first heard any jazz. My roommate at the Conservatory was also a pianist and he played me this tape of ‘Take The A Train’ (Duke Ellington’s signature tune). I was immediately hooked. I just couldn’t see how these musicians worked together. How did they know when to start and stop? It was amazing. So, when another student asked me to join his jazz band I accepted immediately and started to learn. These days, I enjoy playing jazz far more than I ever did classical. It is so much freer. There are no wrong notes in jazz and in my classical playing there were many.
Now you are considered the Godfather of Shanghai jazz. Why?
Around 1999 I formed a band called Footprints, which was one of the first, real Shanghai jazz bands. Our first gig was at a place called The George V, which was on Wulumuqi Lu. We would literally play there for free beer on a Sunday. At that time we just played the old standards. Getting jazz CDs was really hard. There were almost no fake CDs available on the streets, but occasionally you would find CDs that had been damaged, but were still playable. We’d swap these precious items between ourselves and play them over and over. Then we would find arrangements for these songs in books and started to experiment. We didn’t know anything else. Little by little we started to create our own arrangements. Then in 2002 we had a concert at the Conservatory and it was a huge success. We were the first Chinese jazz band ever to play at this traditional music school and the place was packed.
These days your day job is mentoring the next generation of Shanghai musicians at JZ Kids Music School. Were you a child prodigy?
No. Not al all. My family are engineers and practical people. But there is a bit of natural talent in the family. We all had piano lessons as children and my father, uncle and grandmother all play. When I was 7 my grandmother asked me if I wanted to learn, so I said ‘OK’. I’d never thought about it before, but they took me to for a lesson and I just never stopped playing.
So is the future bright for Shanghai jazz?
Economics plays a large part in music’s growth in any country. Music is a luxury for most people. If you have money then they can afford the arts. As China gets wealthier, more and more young people are learning to play a musical instrument. It will just take time to grow.
What are you waiting to see?
Jazz and music generally in China is still very young. There has yet to be a truly important modern Chinese musician who creates a style and a sound that defines us. We are still feeling our way. There is a tradition of improvisation in Chinese folk music and there are good players here in China. Some of them are pretty damn great! But a real master has yet to emerge. There are a few people around who maybe have that potential. It will be exciting to see.
Shakespearean Dynamite
British based TNT are among the world’s leading Shakespeare touring companies. Creative Director, Paul Stebbings tells us about returning to Shanghai with Romeo and Juliet.
When are you coming back to Shanghai?
We are coming out on the 13 April and we will do two weeks of Romeo and Juliet and then a week of Oliver Twist.
What’s the link?
Both plays start as comedies and end as tragedies. I think that’s a fairly satisfying format. These shows are very much part of our Asian touring. Shanghai will be our Asia premier. Romeo and Juliet goes from Shanghai to Vietnam, Singapore, Dubai, Bangkok and three weeks in Japan. Then it comes back and does three months at the castles and palaces of Europe for the summer. Oliver twist was really our break through show in China. It was what got people excited in 2007 and it worked so well we decided we wanted to bring it back for a tour.
How do you adapt your plays for an Asian audience?
We don’t change the plays wherever we perform. This version of Romeo and Juliet will play in Britain as well as Shanghai and Singapore. So it’s not a question of adapting the play. What TNT hope is the mark our style, which allows us to tour around the world, is that we create a style that is accessible without dumbing down. And I think that is a style that is close to Shakespeare’s original.
With no women you mean?
No of course not. Shakespeare didn’t have lights or stage sets or even costumes particularly, but he certainly had musicians. He writes them into his plays. We always have an originally commissioned score for each play we tour, played live and the audience enjoy it. For example if you choose a beautiful piece music to lead into Romeo and Juliet’s balcony scene, then you set up the mood for the scene immediately, even if the audience don’t understand every word of the English text.
Are your audiences predominantly expat or local?
I’m very happy when anyone comes to see us, but the purpose of going to China is obviously to perform to Chinese people and whenever we play in Asia the majority of our audiences are local. When we came to China we were surprised to find these fantastic audiences. They are extremely keen on going to the theatre. They are also an audience who know English, but are desperate to get more out of it than just staring at a computer screen. It has taken off in a way we never expected. In many ways it’s better than playing in the UK.
Watch and Learn
visit chinesepod
Shanghai success story, Chinesepod.com attracts 250,000 unique visitors every month, all attempting to learn Mandarin. Senior product manager John Pasden tells us how they do it.
How did you start out in China?
I came over to China to teach English and studied Mandarin on the side and really enjoyed it. I like languages and I like linguistics, so eventually I moved to Shanghai and had enough Chinese to get into a graduate school program here where I earned my masters in applied linguistics.
And Chinese pod?
Around that time Chinesepod approached me and asked if I would like to join their team. I have been there ever since. Chinesepod was built for people who have the need and the motivation to learn Chinese, but for whom making time for class wasn’t working.
How does it work?
Chinesepod lessons are modular and they are actually relevant to your life. You can study the areas that interest you or that you need. The reality is lots of people sign up for classes and end up quite disappointed with the results. I think a big problem is the material that you are studying. A lot of it is just so boring and not relevant to the needs of living here. Podcasts make the classroom irrelevant. If you have an iPod or a laptop you can do the exercises anywhere. And you never have to feel bad about cutting class.
But you must need the dedication of a monk?
You have to be realistic. A lot of people count on the guilt of not letting down a teacher for their motivation to go to class. Then they count on being in the class, no matter how passively, to somehow make them learn the language. Learning Mandarin does require quite a lot of engagement. You have to put in time listening and learning to pronounce the tones. They aren’t easy and require persistent effort. But if it feels like a boring slog, then you are doing it wrong.
Who’s Line is it Anyway?
The Punchline Comedy Club returns in February to O’Malley’s with everyone’s favourite TV game show.
“Between us we have been doing improvised comedy for about 125 years. That’s why our show’s are so good.” Boasts comedian and original Who’s Line is it Anyway cast member, Stephen Frost. Despite having been woken obscenely early (10am) to chat about the show’s imminent arrival in Shanghai, Frost is already riffing like a man possessed, taking off on flights of fancy as we Skype. “Because the show is different every night it stays fresh.” He insists. “That’s 125 years of freshness! We are the Tupperware of comedy.”
So, for all fans of plastic, food-storage based comedy (amongst a whole universe of other random subjects), the world’s least predictable game show returns to Shanghai this month, for three nights of improvised shenanigans and meandering madness as the Punchline comedy club makes it’s regular, bi-monthly visit to O’Malley’s in the old French Concession.
“We’re really excited about bringing Whose Line Is It Anyway to Shanghai” says promoter and Punchline supremo, John Moorhead. “Shanghai loves it’s comedy and these guys are the best. Everyone knows the format from the TV show and live it’s even better. And certainly naughtier.” He says. “We go to 11 cities across Asia with Punchline Comedy Club, including Hong Kong, Beijing and Bangkok and nowhere has the atmosphere of Shanghai. It is the fastest selling show I have.”
The crowds certainly flock to Punchline’s regular outings in the city, with shows often selling out more than a month in advance. The popularity of this firm TV favorite means O’Malley’s will be hosting the show for three consecutive nights this month (12,13,14) in the longest run since Punchline started coming to Shanghai in February last year.
Based on a stage show created at London’s Comedy Store in the early 1980s, the Whose Line is it Anyway format transferred to TV in 1987 and then went around the English-speaking world via Satellite TV. Featuring original cast members, Ian Coppinger, Andy Smart, Richard Vranch, Steven Steen and Stephen Frost and based around audience suggestions, 20 years on comedy fans still sell out the show wherever it goes, so just what is it about this script-less, set-less, lazy-man’s theatre that we love so much?
“Our show isn’t political and doesn’t rely on cultural reference points,” explains Whose Liner, Ian Coppinger. “It comes entirely from audience suggestions on the night. That makes it very inclusive. Everyone in the room is involved right from the start. With improvisation, audiences really want you to succeed and the more you do, the more excited they become. It’s like watching a tightrope walker, knowing they could fall at any moment.”
Just a note of caution: “Toilet, Gynecologist and taxidermist are all suggestions we never need to hear again.” Says Frost. “These are only funny words until they leave your lips, then they fall upon the stage like dead fish and we will ridicule you.” You have been warned.