Dazed and Confused - But Going Pretty Well in China! - PART 1

Blog 1
In thinking about a photo to put on this blog, I came across this one.

I look tired, dazed and confused – yep that sums up a lot of my time in China.

For those who don’t know me, I am an Australian musician, based in the comfortable city of Brisbane. I have been a professional musician here for over 30 years. I have released 6 albums (CDs), had a lot of critical acclaim and moderate success.

And now I spend a lot of my performing time in China….

In 2008 I signed with a Chinese Government record company, released a song which inspired some events that raised a lot of money for the Chinese Red  Cross and the victims of the Sichuan earthquake. I’ve had a song get to number 4 on China’s largest radio network and then signed with a company run by one of China’s most successful song writer and producer. I sing in English and Chinese (though I cannot speak Chinese), I have friends who are mega stars there, who are Government and corporate leaders. I have appeared on major national TV shows that went out to 100's of millions of people. There are over 300 000 internet stories floating around about me in China.

And all of this at a time when most of the world’s biggest stars, couldn't get to do anything in China.

The story behind all of this is quite epic.

I don’t talk about it much, because it is so big, I’m never sure where to begin. So I thought …. Maybe I should write about it.

And in doing so, maybe I can share a bit of knowledge about a country and people, that I never expected  to have anything to do with, but now have come to love and enjoy.

My journey is full on, crazy, exciting, confusing and amazing – which brings me back to my picture – much of the time I am - tired, dazed and confused.

It had been quite a day.

The photo was taken in Beijing November 2013 at about 10 pm at night. We had spent the day shooting my new film clip for a song called Flying Red Flag (Wu Xing Piao Piao). We had started doing make-up at about 5 in the morning.  The first location was in Tienanmen Square, in front of the Forbidden City. There was Charlie (my manager and great friend), Johnny (Charlie’s cousin and our major assistant) a make-up girl (who Johnny spent most of the day chatting up), director, 2 camera and sound guys and Leo and Sanni from the music company Oriental Music.

So with this team and equipment in hand, we walked towards Tienanmen  Now this was the day before the Central Government’s national conference was due to begin. Tourist from all over China had flocked here. The square is surrounded by the main Government buildings. Security is usually very tight here, on this day of was extremely full on. People were being searched, there were police and army – and us rocking in to shoot a film clip!! I was – let’s say concerned.

Anyway we started filming. I was singing, crowds were gathering, security was circling. The guys kept telling me relax – yeah right. Mingling with the crowds, in front of the famous Mao picture, singing to tourists. At one stage a security guy came rolling up to Johnny on one of those Segways. Asked what we are doing, in a very serious tone.  Johnny, being the natural guy he is, came up with the great line “We are shooting a film clip for an Australian singer”. The soldier looked at me, nodded his head, and rolled away.  I was dumb struck!

About an hour later, we left, having got the required shots. I was still confused about how we did that!

Next scene, the Hutong area and the rickshaws. Hutongs are older areas, with little alleys. People live and work here. The ones in Beijing are very trendy. The guys had organised for 5 rickshaws to ride through them while I sang, waved and laughed my way with the locals. I scaled ancient walls, stood on cars and generally acted the fool. Much more relaxing than in Tiananmen!!

I sang walking through traffic, had many people coming to meet me – it was great.

Next scene – the commercial center of Beijing. With the CCTV building behind me, my favourite shot of the clip was in this scene. With traffic running, people everywhere, there is a guy on roller skates going down the road. Love it.

After surviving numerous traffic jams, we eventually made it to the Great Wall about 5pm. It was freezing cold, light snow on the ground and not a soul in sight. I had never seen the wall so empty. It was wonderful. I was getting very tired by now, but I ran up stairs, jumped cameras and kept thinking, bloody hell, how amazing is this. Little Nik, feeling like he was owning the Great Wall.

As night fell we made it to Wangfujing, a major modern shopping area. There was a square there where a group of women were setting up to do some mass crowd Tai Chi dancing. They joined in singing with me. Next, in the middle of a major intersection, the general crowd in the street joined in for some time freeze shots. I mixed and mingled - and eventually lost my patience a bit. I was so tired.

Then came that photo.

This was the last day of my trip, (I think it was my 25^th trip to China). In the morning I was flying home.

I had been in Beijing for 3 weeks. During that time we had some business associates visit. It’s quite amazing, but my music and media work has actually opened up doors and relationships with some of China’s biggest political and business leaders. More about that later, but on this trip, we had been assisting with communications between a major Australian mining company and China’s biggest investment holding company. This company owns 25 power stations and 15 ports. They manage China’s reserves of natural resources. They are worth over 90 billion USD. And Nik and Charlie are assisting them in their international communications. Insane.

That had been a very stressful week.

I had also started working with Oriental Music. Oriental is owned by Li Jie. He has written and produced 235 major hits in China and developed the careers of more than 10 of their biggest stars. He wants to turn his company into the major gateway for Chinese and western musicians to work together. I am the 1^st western artist with the company.

Li Jie has become a very good friend. More about him later, but he is like so many of my friends over there. We cannot talk to each other. I am not fluent in Mandarin, he has very little English. But the vibe is right. This has been one of the surprising parts of the journey for me - I now realize that words often get in the way. To look beyond the sounds to the energy surrounding a person, has been new territory for me.

I had first met Li Jie 6 months earlier. Charlie said we were going to meet some music friends who were well known in China. We arrived at a small bar and went up onto the roof. About 20 people were sitting around a table, with dozens of beer bottles and a guitar being passed around. I was handed the guitar, sang, and we all had a typical Aussie style night. As it progressed, I began to understand that these people were major entities from National Music Societies and companies, famous and emerging artists, writers, TV producers …. And the leader clearly was Li Jie.

Now, at the end of the trip I was tired and keen to get back to Brisbane. I was met in the morning of my flight by Xiao Fang and the other members of a local covers band called Blue Tomato. They are actually some of the best musicians I have ever met. Again, we can’t talk, but are very close friends. They insisted on taking me to the airport.

In the past we had performed together at the club they play at 7 night a week, they have cooked 2 am BBQ's for me on closed freeway overpasses, we hung out for 10 days with Andy Summers from the band The Police (lost and found him again on the Great Wall), we've drunk and eaten at back alley restaurants until dawn. They have recorded with me, met and looked after my family and generally taken me into their world.

They have shown me just how similar Aussies and Chinese are in many, many ways.

Look, I know I see the best of China. I know it has many faces.

China is bigger than a country, it is more like a continent. You cannot take a blanket approach and say Chinese people are like this, or this happens in China, or this is going on with the economy or people think this way …… it would be like saying all of Europe is similar.

Some of the population live in massive cities and have high standards of living, some are in extreme poverty.

The northern people are very different from the south and the western minority groups seem to be a blend of Chinese, Russian and Indian.

While Mandarin and Cantonese are mainly used, there are actually over 130 languages across China.

If you go to China on a typical tourist bus trip, expect to see tacky places where everyone wants to rip you off - just like Hollywood! I suggest that people should go to China, hire their own guide, car and driver – and get out and meet the real people. I have found the real people to be very warm.

My favorite example of this – my family was visiting with me on one occasion. We were in a Shandong city called Weifang. We ended up stuck pretty much in the middle of nowhere outside of town, on the highway, close to midnight. Across the road was a dingy little run down restaurant. It started raining. We had no hope of getting a cab. The restaurant owner came across to help us find one. When that failed, he phoned his brother, woke him up and got him to drive down and be our taxi into town. We paid regular taxi prices, were looked after – it was northern hospitality at its best.

Anyway, I am going to write a few of these blogs. They will be about the people I have met, the things I have seen and experienced. Some people will say, I am telling a one sided story about China. Maybe, but its my story. 

And central to all most of my stories is a guy called Wu Chao. Charlie who? Charlie Wu!

I’ll write about him and other special friends next!