In 2010, Josh Feola moved from the U.S. to Beijing, where he is a writer, musician, and former booking manager at two of Beijing’s leading live music venues. He has written about Chinese music and art for a variety of foreign and Chinese publications, operates the net-label Sinotronics, curates Sally Can’t Dance (China’s leading experimental and avant garde music festival), and plays drums in Beijing band SUBS.
From the rise of the Yuan Dynasty to the fall of the Qing, the “hutongs” were largely residences for the elite. As China continues to grow in economic clout, Beijing may be reverting to this model.
The Chinese underground music scene lives on social media—but not on the platforms the rest of the world uses
Singles’ Day and its staggering sales numbers stand out not just in economic terms but as an expression of China’s emerging urban culture.
Gentrification in Beijing’s hutong takes on a distinct local shape, for better and for worse, perhaps as the front line of a transformation in urban Chinese culture.
