The past years China showed figures of economic growth the West can only dream of. Even today, now that this growth rate seems to have flattened out a bit, the figure is still just under 10 percent. Without doubt with the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games China is heading into another year of success in terms of economics and sportive achievements.
But how about music? China may have a cultural heritage like no other part of the world - but when it comes to popular music, there's no Chinese pop or rock star yet who made it to the international charts. Of course this is due to the political situation, but China is changing, and when browsing sites like MySpace you'll find there's a musical underground developing.
The Chinese hip hop scene seems an interesting one. Time to learn something more about it. We asked Young Kin - MC/rapper from Beijing - some ins and outs.
Can you tell a bit about yourself and how you ended up performing in China?
"I'm a mixed kid (Chinese father, Swiss mother) that grew up in Beijing and attended a German school from age 6 to 19 (Germans have 13 years of school), where I and my sister were pretty much the only kids, who weren't German. Naturally we had to put up with a lot of bullshit. I think that school is more international now. Other than that I generally praise the German educational system, it did well with me.
"Growing up in a third world country made me somewhat down to earth. Here people are less concerned about petty psychological issues. They simply concentrate on surviving and raising their living standard. It's a very in your face materialism. For a while it was hard for me to see past that. I too wanted a nice car as a status symbol, a luxurious house and as much money as Donald Duck's uncle, the grouch. Recently I found out that that doesn't make you a man.
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