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Published: September 30th 2010
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Here's an entry from the cultural side of the ledger: Chinese Disco
Chinese Discos (the ones I've been to in Yunnan, at least) are not like discos in the west. Dancefloor? Don't make me laugh. There's room to dance, but with enough room for 3 people at a time, max. Mostly, it's tables full of beer bottles with drinking games going on, and oh yes, lots of cigarette smoking. And every hour or so there's a performance with karaoke style singing with dancers backing the singers. At the Babi club, their singers aren't half bad. And I've got to admit, it's a fun 10 or 15 minutes, sometimes.
On Monday the 20th, after Chinese class, my friend called with a half question, half announcement. Do I want to DJ at the Babi Club Friday and Saturday nights? It was only a question to see if I had the time. Since I went to a disco in Yuxi, I knew I wanted to DJ there. Then a couple months ago my friends took me to the Babi Club. I knew for sure that was the club I wanted to play at. The soundsystem is great, the decor is nice, and the crowd is solid. Everything about this club was nicer than the first disco I went to in Yuxi. This is the top club in town. (Not that the list is very long, though.)
Okay, back to last week. I was fortunate that I had an easy week of work so that I could prepare music for the weekend. I usually have full days teaching on Saturdays and Sundays. This week, because of the October National Festival, I didn't have to teach. Combine and easy week with looking forward to an easy weekend, and the timing could hardly have been better for a weekend of partying and DJing.
And still better yet, Caz (the teacher I replaced at my school) came down from Kunming with 3 of her friends. I think I had been out late every night since Tuesday, , and had spun fire on Thursday night. By the time 3.am. Saturday morning rolled around I was dog tired.
After working all week on putting sets together, I go to the club Friday afternoon for a soundcheck. I roll up on my bike to a crowd of giggly girls in front of the club. And sand. Lots of sand. This is a beach themed party weekend after all. I wait for my friend Emi for a minute, and we walk into the dark club and find beachy decorations hanging from the ceiling. Yes, this is good. Although during one of my sets I punched an inflatable something or other during the apex of a massive track. I get my computer setup, and a huge grin lights up my face as the first bass kicks boom out from the subwoofers. I've not played on so good a system before. I'm thrilled. So, I practice mixing a few tracks, playing some things I think the staff might like, and am quite satisfied with the sound of everything. Soundcheck successful, I go get some dinner before I teach that night. But before I leave I see there's a tall poster in front of the club with my picture on it! "DJ Michael: Top DJ from America" or something like that. I can only read a little Chinese at this point, but that's what Emi told me.
After class I leave as quickly as I can to go home, change, grab my stuff, and get to the club. I find out they want me on for an hour. (See prior note about karaoke singing and dance routines), So, I mentally adjust my set. And at 10:30, with a "Da jia wan shang hao" ("good night everybody!") I start my set with an epic bass shaking remix of Beethoven's 5th symphony. Wicked. Friday's set goes for about an hour, and I'm utterly frickin' thrilled. I was high from it, my friends were high, everybody was high, really. I met my friends afterwards, cheersed all of them, and then about half the club after that. =) Epic, really.
Saturday night I was a bit more calm, and more tired, as everybody else seemed as well. Still a good set, I was really happy with. It had a much different feeling than Friday, but it still worked. The dancers really loved it, especially the first half. Anyway, here's the links to the mixes. Happy downloading, happy listening.
http://soundcloud.com/leo-xing
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kevin
non-member comment
good job
you should get paid higher than teaching as an imported Top DJ from America.