Ask the average Westerner on a short visit to China what they know about the local pop music industry -- in fact, about the local music industry at all -- and I'm willing to bet that you'd be met by a blank stare and a shrug of the shoulders.
Even foreigners with virtually no knowledge of Chinese -- like me -- can tell that Western pop stars, on the other hand, are common currency. The names of chartbusters like Avril Lavigne stare out at us from lines of Chinese characters on the covers of music magazines.
The chances of seeing a Chinese artist in such a prominent position on the cover of the US Rolling Stone or the UK New Musical Express are scant indeed. It seems a great shame that there is an almost total absence of awareness of the emergent East Asian music scene, especially that of China, in Europe and America. For Chinese music is experiencing a wave of talent in alternative music, and we need look no further than Shanghai for proof.
The Qibao area, deep in the southwestern suburbs of the city, seems an unlikely place to be the site of this renaissance. But it was here that the Far Eastern Economic Review profiled Fanyin Music, Shanghai's first independent, or "indie" rock label.
Fanyin, one of only 20 or so indie labels in China, is a small outfit with big ambitions. With no dominating market force in the music market outside government mass-produced plastic pop publishing, they have as good a chance as any of scoring a hit with China's burgeoning audience of listeners.
It won't be easy for them. Like their counterparts, Fanyin is a young firm -- set up in 2001 -- with not too much experience and mixed success in getting albums produced. They also rely on outside firms for publishing and distribution; these companies tend to put safe profitability first and creativity second.
And of course, there's piracy, which is estimated to account for 95 per cent of China's music sales. Even selling at standard prices of 40-50 yuan, record labels only make a few kuai profit. But how can you sell an album for 40 yuan when the street hawker down the road is flogging it for five? Fortunately, the small indie labels don't tend to get hurt by pirates, who concentrate on big-name mainstream bands.
The only real strength all these small record labels is that -- well, they're small. Their marketing costs and other overheads are negligible, so getting their sound into the shops is very cheap. Despite all the obstacles, there is no room for despondency in the Chinese music market.
The simple fact is, things can only get better, and there is every chance that they will. Already, there have been some major successes. The Beijing-based group The Flowers sold over half a million copies of their indie-produced debut album in 1998.
Chinese music fans are expressing an ever-greater interest in alternative music, and there's only so much home-grown (and Western) pop they can take. Hopefully, with the growth of some more local talent, it won't be long before China's new rock sound is heard not just all over the country, but round the world.
(Shanghai Star June 6, 2003)
