Beijing Minute.

At 1.30pm today I met with Anna Sophie (Su Fei) of Sexy Beijing. She was a lot shorter than on TV but still full of extroverted Sunny California personality. We had a nice chat. She wanted us to work together on a Sexy Beijing episode though due to unforeseen circumstances, such as the national holidays and me leaving soon, we were unable to sort it out. Instead, she knew someone who was part of the Hip Hop show on Sexy Beijing who might be interested in shooting something during this week. He was a graduate of sociology who just obtained a Fulllbright Scholorship to research Hip Hop in Beijing. We agreed to meet that afternoon about 4pm after Su Fei had outlined a brief.

After half a year of watching this great show, there I was, having a cigarette with Su Fei, her making a meeting for me with a Fullbright Scholor student on Beijing Hip Hop and collaborate to make a video that would be posted on their site.

So I met with the student , Jamel, and he was very American at first. As our first exchanges of sentences came out he would reply, ‘word’. But over a time and over beer, we both relaxed and our conversation revolved around the evolution of Hip Hop, American politics and money. He is very intelligent and worldly minded. He can also speak Chinese. We got a long pretty well and decided to shoot something for two bands collaborating at the beginning of next week. First some interviews and then the gig. It’s exciting.

It is low key stuff but I love working on a grassroots level shooting basic stuff and the youth culture in Beijing is pretty interesting to me. Having seen only a little bit of the mainstream and only underground stuff on TV and the internet, it’s great to be able to meet and document some of it.

I dropped myself at Contigo to pick up my Mac and they gave me a whole crab to take back to the hotel to eat as I had only had some skewer food. A whole, take away crab- fresh from Shangdong Province (as their relatives brought down today).

I adore Sexy Beijing shows and it was strange meeting Su Fei finally and even more so that she was trying to set me up to shoot something and moreover she was disappointed we couldn’t find time to work together. I said I would be back next year.

Me and Jamel had some street food and had 7 660ml bottle of beer between us which cost 54rmb, about £4.50. Which is less than what I paid for one 330ml bottle at the Hyatt (60rmb). I met Su Fei this morning and now I am shooting a project for them and for a Fullbright student doing research on this highly fascinating growth of Hip Hop in Beijing.

Things happened fast today.

- J