MUSIC AND BUSINESS - THE CHINA REALITY - PART 4

Blog 4

Li Jie is a short, loud, confident personality. Any room he walks into, he commands attention. Probably about 40% of Chinese people will know his name. 100% will know his music.

While he is a recording artist, he is primarily a song writer and producer.  Like me, he has written 100’s of songs. But unlike me - we calculated that he has written and produced what would be regarded as 235 “hit songs” in China.

He comes from the province of Liaoning in North Eastern China. Many artists have followed him from there to Beijing, and almost like a godfather, he has greatly influenced the careers of some of China’s biggest names such as Sun Nan, Na Ying and Song Zuying.

He is known to most as Jie Ge (Brother Jie) 

He started his working life selling vegetables from a roadside cart. Then worked in a sock factory. He made it to Beijing and was accepted to study with China’s leading song writing master/ teacher.

He won a one of China’s first TV talent shows in the early 80s and formed a band called Expression who had a few hits. His big break came with the writing of Five Star Red Flag. Recorded by Sun Nan, this became  massive hit. Every Chinese person knows it like Australians know We Are Australian.

It is listed by the Government as a national work of importance.  (At the Official Celebrations of the 60 Year Anniversary of the Government, it was the only modern song used in the televised march past and was turned into an 11 minute version).

More recently his song Pure Land went to number 1, as the theme to one of their top rating TV series in 2012. After a long established career, his achievements are still building.

He has won awards such as the Pride of the Orient from CCTV. He records over 400 hours of music a year for the network, has written many film scores and performed with all the top artists in China on

the biggest TV shows.

He calls himself China’s first child of music. I agree. I have worked with many amazing producers over the years and he is one of the best.

He is mates with China’s political and media leaders. I was the only western artist to release music through his company Oriental Music. He was a major gateway for me to all the highest levels of the music and media industries.

He wants to known as the guy leading the development of music between China and the west.

Li Jie on stage with Sun Nan

While he writes many commercial songs, he has a recent  CD called Music on Lotus. This is a sensational album that is more passion than commercial – it combines modern production with traditional Chinese sounds, instruments and Buddhist philosophies. It is a “World Music” masterpiece – in my opinion.

https://open.spotify.com/album/0k4tgIn31f4qYw0YLB54ju?si=eGhsJiBET9K8nbCbPVjG9Q

 I  released some re-makes if Li Jie’s biggest hits. A western artist, doing such famous songs, with the original artist, was a major industry news story. TV appearances followed.

April 2013 – Driving to the CCTV studios, I was actually feeling  a bit nervous for the first time in many years about a performance.  Since we had recorded Five Star Red Flag and shot the film clip, the feedback we were getting about the song, from within the industry, was great.

For the last eight years, I had thought, wow, if only I could get to the stage where I was appearing on CCTV(China's biggest TV network) – that would be really achieving something special. And here I was.

The show I was heading too was a two hour special on Li Jie and his career.  Also on the show would be a range of major stars, whose careers Li Jie had helped shaped. I was the opening act. Instead of starting at the beginning of his career, they were opening with the future – me and his relationship with the west. With this show, they were actively trying to “cool up” CCTV programming, using a more relaxed program format – and having a westerner involved – all meant there will be a lot of marketing  associated to the show.

In Australia, people don’t get it - no one cared – but this was all pretty big!

China has 1.3 billion TV viewers. CCTV is the biggest network by far.  In China they say there are two world markets – China and the rest of the world, both as big as each other. Here I was at the heart of the China market.

The show was being filmed by CCTV4. This is probably the coolest station of the CCTV network. It is the most western, in that it has subtitles on most shows, and as well as running across the whole nation, it also goes out to over 100 other countries.

It is very, very rare for a westerner to get on CCTV. The network is the Government’s voice in many ways. Now I don’t just mean politically, I mean, nothing runs on the network that isn’t Government approved. Being on CCTV is a massive statement of acceptance.

This show was seen by about 70 million people. 

You may have seen the amazing new CCTV building in East Beijing. One of the world’s most amazing architectural designs. Well unfortunately, they weren't filming shows there at that time. We were heading to the older studios in west Beijing. Entering the building, security wasn't as full on as I thought it would be for the headquarters of China media. Pretty relaxed actually. There are many studios in the building. Tonight they were also filming a show similar to The Voice in the biggest studio, so there were many general public people in the building. The circular hallways were filled with on-lookers, technical people and Chinese stars.

The studio we were in had a huge stage and seating for about 150 audience members. The rehearsal went well. Other acts, who are friends of mine and all associated to Li Jie’s company Oriental Music were there - Sun Tribe, Hou Xu and others.

When I did my rehearsal  I stayed pretty much center stage, letting the cameras do the work. Always feels a bit unnatural to me.  As I finished the director asked could I move more and work the crowd, like a live concert- ah thank you – gotta love that. That is my thing!

Oh and the technical guys were just the same as everywhere else in the world. While the artists are nervous, excited – the floor crew are calm, basically bored – some things never change!

Green room – everyone’s relaxing – scoffing food – laughing. It’s a good group of people.

Show time. I’m side of stage with Na Ying and Sun Nan. These singers are two of China’s biggest stars. Kind of like Robbie Williams and Jennifer Lopez! Apparently I would be introduced, sing, then they get introduced, we chat ….. Oh – I just remembered. Sun Nan was the original singer of 5 Star Red Flag, the song I was about to sing – it was an iconic hit for him. I hope he likes my version, he could shoot me down in one sentence if he doesn't like it!! Shit shit shit.. Just relax…..

The performance went really well – worked the crowd. You could tell they were very surprised by the new version of the song and loved it.  Sun Nan was very complimentary and Na Ying suggested he includes this version into his shows. Ah yes please – he is only one of China’s highest paid singers.

After my performance I had to sit in the front row of the audience through the rest of the filming, pretending to understand what was being said. Laugh when everyone one else laughed, nod your head when the host does … it was fun. 

It was a good day. I like good days…

A few others come to mind. Not all strictly music related. Now the thing with music in China is that it often aligns with business interests. Many of the Government and business leaders have arts and Chinese literature backgrounds.  They  also have a national obsession with singing.  Music in general is a passion.

Add to that that I am a westerner singing their songs – it draws a lot of attention. It touches an emotional factor.

In China music gets utilized by businesses in two ways. Firstly, media coverage is very expensive and difficult to get. Companies will often align with artists and create cross over music/business marketing plans. Secondly, events created around music and the arts are often used as meeting grounds for business development.  Every city has an arts festival – generally to develop business alignments as much as celebrate music.

So while in Australia, music is rarely associated to business activities, it is common in China.

One of the more fun performances was at an event for the CICPMC. This stands for the China International Council for the Promotion of Multinational Corporations  - rolls of the tongue, hey!

Set up by the Ministry of Commerce, they help multinational companies in managing operations between China and the west. Their membership comes from China’s top 1000 companies and the top 500 western companies.

One of my close friends is the China General Manager and manages the relationships with all the big companies.  He is an economic adviser to the United Nations and was involved in developing the Zhuhai  Agreement, which lays out the way that multinationals should morally act.

Being the 1^st westerner to perform at their annual conference, in front of Ministers and global corporate leaders was a fantastic and unique experience and led to many amazing connections. One of the songs I sang, had an associated film clip which we had shot at Sirromet Wines in Brisbane. It was great to be able to highlight Australian product to such a high level audience.

Another memorable “business day” happened in 2011.

Through a mutual friend, a meeting was set up with a Mr Y. (Won’t use full names here). I really had no idea who we were meeting, Charlie had a rough idea – apparently he was the son of a pretty powerful Government person. We met. He was a lovely man, mid 50’s, reasonable English. He was a Doctor by trade but for about 20 years had been an independent adviser for many of China’s biggest companies, working often on projects at the request of the Chinese Premier.

At the end of the meeting, Charlie was looking pretty white (for a Chinese guy).  He is used to meeting high level people, but even he was a bit shocked by this meeting.

Ends up Mr Y’s father was basically the number two guy in the biggest Economic Ministry in China for over 30 years. He is the only living person to have been involved in formulating every Five Year Plan the Government has developed, (which are the plans the country follows religiously).

During the Cultural Revolution, when all the leaders were being purged at one stage or another, his father avoided that because, even through the madness, someone had to try to run the country's economy.  Though now retired, he is currently Chairman of an organisation made up from China’s top 150 economic people who advise to the Central Government.

So basically the son, Mr Y, had grown up all his life with the people who now run the Chinese Government and the biggest Companies. He grew up with them in Government estates, schooled and played sport with them.

Through Mr Y, who is now a very close friend, we have been able to introduce some Australian companies to the highest levels of some of China’s biggest organisations and companies.

The advantage for Charlie and myself is that we are not corporate. We meet these people through music and that creates a level of curiosity.

When Government and Corporations go to China, all the parties have agendas and meeting plans outlined. Each side is “competing” with the other. In our case, we make the friends, then business questions come to us on the back end.

Nik, Charlie, Sun Tribe and the former Australian Ambassador Ms Adamson.

I am fortunate that I can get a very good understanding of what happens internally within the big Chinese companies and am then able to assist international companies in travelling through that vast maze. 

But what is most exciting to me is that a lot of the potential for companies lies in the digital media and e-commerce sectors, which have boomed in the last few years and literally have changed the country. These sectors grew out of the music and media industries.

But the real opportunities will be created as the people of China and other countries get to know each other better.

I look forward to seeing where that is heading to.