Good luck for a Beijing musician

Hao Yun is a Beijing-based musician whose first album, Hao Yun Beijing (郝云 北京), was released in March of this year.

Many of the songs on the album are inspired by Hao’s experiences during the decade he has lived in the capital. Here’s the video for his song “Beijing, Beijing” (北京北京):

The title of the album is also a homophone for the well-known Olympic slogan, “Good Luck Beijing” (好运北京).

Before he signed with Universal in 2007, Hao had been involved in the Beijing music scene for years doing film and event soundtracks, and was a founding member of the band The Frogs (which he left in 2000). Hao Yun Beijing was recorded in 2006.

An interview with Hao Yun in this month’s FHM is translated below:

FHM: You looked really unnatural throughout the photo shoot, nothing like a well-trained entertainer…

Hao Yun: Some innate things can’t be changed, like how I still can’t speak without stuttering. There wasn’t much of a change after I signed with Universal, except for some work the company set up, like recording my next album. But everything else went on as usual, and my wife and I still live the simple life.

FHM: Do you have fans?

Hao: I don’t like the term “fans” (粉丝). It’s enough just to have people who like my music. Besides, I’m not the idol type. When my friends joke around, they mock me by calling me an “entertainer.”

FHM: Your music hasn’t taken off. Why do you think that is?

Hao: I really haven’t stuck my music into any particular style. On the album, the song “Beijing, Beijing” is pretty focused, but it’s a completely tone from songs like Chuanr and Xiaoxitian in Prosperity. The lyrics and music aren’t in any set model. They’re just personal expression. It took a long time to make this album, and it shows the imprint of different times in my life.

FHM: Which of those times do you care about the most?

Hao: Beijing. Absolutely Beijing. My time in this city has been the most important experience of my life, and songs like “Xiaoxitian,” “This City,” “Shoes,” “Sea Breeze,” and “Unhappy Birthday” are records of my actual life in Beijing, the things that I need to absorb from my experiences. Beijing is a very tolerant city. In Huoying and Shucun, you can see young punks in mohawks and elderly landlords squatting in the yard talking and snapping vegetables. But Beijing is also a bewildering city whose very breadth and depth always make me think. The last song on the album is one that I wrote after working on the grounds of a temple near Yonghe Temple, where I listened to the bells and drums and the lamas chanting scripture. I’ve had a youth that can’t be duplicated during these ten-plus years in Beijing.

FHM: And there’s “Shanshan,” who can’t be duplicated, either.

Hao: It’s kind of embarrassing…when we first met, she was 13 and I was 15, so it was young love. Later, we lost touch because of college, and then I randomly learned that she was going to the Central University for Nationalites, and I was teaching at the Beijing Dance Academy, with just a wall separating us. And then it was simply a matter of beguiling her (laughs).

FHM: Your wife might read FMH…

Hao: (laughs) Everyone knows the score. We’d had innocent, young love, so when we ran into each other again….

FHM: Do you think your changing roles, from a guitar-playing, racing music teacher to the music producer and folk musician you are today, are the result of the demands of age, or because of your own changing interests?

Hao: There’ve been both physical and mental changes, and my interests have changed as well. When a guy’s in his early thirties, he’s got to do something credible. Besides, music can continue to bring me pleasure, so I hope that I will always enjoy my work. Sometimes when I’m talking to my musician friends, we all bemoan the fact that the music we hear these days isn’t sincere at all. Insincere music has a hard time getting me interested.

FHM: So have you ever done insincere music?

Hao: Taking someone’s money to do music that’s not really sincere is called employment, but I usually don’t call it my “work.” It doesn’t necessarily say what I want to express.

FHM: Apart from music, how do you spend your days?

Hao: It’s mostly centered around creative work, but the company does have other events and tasks that need doing. Writing is a long-term process. Sometimes when a person wins an award, they’ll talk about how arduous that process was, but I’ve always though that it was a source of boundless enjoyment. Oh, and I’ve got problems with the vertebrae in my neck. Tell me later if you know of any remedies.

FHM: Holding one pose for a long time could have that sort of effect…

Hao: It’s possible! When I used to play the guitar or race motorcycles, and then when I started doing music (recording and mixing at my home), they all had a fixed pose held for a long time. It wouldn’t be surprising for problems to happen.

FHM: Music, guitar playing, motorcycles — these are money sinks.

Hao: Who said I have money? People with money are all off racing cars.

FHM: OK, let’s talk about something exciting. What’s the fastest you’ve gone racing a motorbike?

Hao: That needs to be kept confidential, because I’m worried that my parents will read this piece. They’ve always thought I rode a motorcycle simply as an alternative to walking.

FHM: Why did you sign with Universal?

Hao: Signing with Universal was pretty random. Someone told Hung Tik [formerly director of Universal HK, now with Live Nation], who then saw a show at MAO Livehouse and thought it was pretty good. Discussions started up. They listened to my whole completed album and were satisfied in every way. They wanted to cultivate some native Chinese music, so I signed up. It took about a month from start to finish. I don’t want to call it luck, because it’s the same old story: opportunities fall to people who are prepared. I’m more concerned with the approval of people in the industry.

FHM: Do you think you’re successful?

Hao: Success is too big of a word. I won’t say that. I hope that I can be a steady sort of person, and I really am steady. Right now I feel like everything is normal, that everything is proceeding step by step.

FHM: Are you easily satisfied?

Hao: I’m really easily satisfied. Let me give you an example: the album launch at the Deyun Society had a big media presence. I didn’t really expect the reporters and music critics to identify with my music much, because after ll there’s no objective standard for music. So my expectations for the listeners weren’t too high. Later, one of my biddis told me that when I first started, the reporters weren’t really paying attention, but after I finished the second song, the place was absolutely silent. Everyone was absorbed in the music. That really impressed me when I heard it, and I was quite satisfied.

This issue of FHM is notable for a set of photos featuring actress Zhou Xianxin that have upset some readers. The 18 or 20 photos (available here) are loosely organized around the story of a lost guqin, a threatened woman, and a brave heroine (all scantily clad, of course).

Earlier this week, a Mirror reporter noticed angry comments posted to an online gallery of the photos:

On a page titled “Photoset from the November FHM,” this reporter saw three photos that told the story of a woman who was attacked by thugs in the middle of the night and then was rescued by a car-driving heroine. Each photo had young women wearing revealing clothes, and even the heroine herself was dressed in a bikini.

“What a weird story!” “Unbearably vulgar!” “Why did the young women have to be attacked by thugs?” “Wear more when you go out! You’ll freeze if you go outside like that this time of year!” The majority of the commenters said that using such unhealthy images to attract viewers was incredibly crass.

The well-meaning reporter even called up GAPP to ask for their opinion, and was told that deciding whether a magazine is pornographic would be left up to an expert review.

In the comments to the Mirror article, many readers suggested that it may have been a planted story to hype up this issue of the magazine. It worked in our case: few things attract Danwei’s attention quite so much as the prospect of a GAPP smack-down.