Yuyintang Comes Home

New Digs for Shanghai Concert Promoters, Yuyintang - By Morgan Short, Aug 20, 07



The latest stop of the Yuyintang promoters' nomadic journey around Shanghai has them shacked up in a house at No. 1731 Ya¡¯an Xi Lu. It's not a bar, it's not a factory, it's not even a warehouse - - the venue is literally a house sandwiched between the Ya'an Xi Lu station (Line 3) and Tian Shan Park. I rang the buzzer on a wooden gate and was let in by one of the spiky-haired sound guys. We walked up a short path through a little front yard and through a glass-walled foyer. Beyond the foyer in what should be the living room, the familiar staples of the old Yuyintang Warehouse had been installed: the blown up band photos circa 2005, the singed wall, the marshal amps, the beat up, maroon Pearl drums, the old logo and poster, a little stage and Zhang Hai Sheng behind the soundboard. The first thing that popped into my mind was, ¡®including bands, they can fit maybe 17 people in here.' According to Zhang Hai Sheng, the actual capacity is "maybe one hundred." I didn't even bother asking if they had a performance license.

"We started out three years ago with a practice space for bands to come practice in. Then we got a bigger one [the Yuyintang Warehouse] and it was big enough to have people come see the bands. Now, three years later we are back to a practice space again."

The Yuyintang Warehouse at Longcao Lu was shut down last May in the midst of a concert by Beijing skate punk band Brain Failure. The Culture Bureau sees rock and punk music as threatening to a stable society, says Zhang Hai Sheng with a laugh. Brain Failure (who are apparently China's Marilyn Manson) were shut down again the very next night in Hongzhou. As for the polar opposite reception live music has in Beijing, Zhang Hai Sheng argues that the cultures of north and south China are very dissimilar and that rock music has been around for a long time in north China. He argues that many members of the police or local government may have been in college bands themselves at one time, and thus they are more open about live punk music. "And they've had Cui Jian," says Zhang Hai Sheng.

When asked about why large dance clubs with DJ performances are permitted in Shanghai, Zhang Hai Sheng mentions "guanxi" and argues that the authorities don't see the two in the same light. At dance clubs the kids are dancing rather than slam dancing, "and they don't have singers."

Touring the house with Zhang Hai Sheng, it's hard not to get excited about the place with him, despite that, due to its size (not to mention its illegality), the location is obviously less than ideal for live concerts. His optimism borders on pathological, and as he talked about turning a pair of rooms into a recording studio (currently the rooms are home to the YYT
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