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China is many things, but a haven of underground electronic music? It doesn't quite mesh with the familiar Western rubric on China (rice, peasants, communism, Tiananmen Square, cheap consumer electronics, etc). On the other - is anything impossible in China? After all, they're conjuring up architectural fantasies by the dozen for the next Olympics, making money like there's no tomorrow and establishing themselves as the superpower of the 21st century. Surely techno isn't too much to ask?

Thanks to BaiCai the answer is no. An event company founded by five friends in 2006, BaiCai is devoted to bringing a new sound to pop-loving China: underground electro and techno. Their mission is: "To create world peace (and to get as much music possible to the dancefloors of the People's Republic of China)." A lofty sounding ambition, but the principles behind BaiCai are at ease with ambition. In particular Maxime Bureau, a transplanted Parisian, fluent in Mandarin, and popping with ideas.

He moved to China three years ago to study at the Beijing University of Economics - "people in Paris were too slow, to narrow minded, too obsolete" - by contrast Beijing is: "like a video game, I've never seen such development". When he arrived in China he was "20 years old with too much energy to spend." Unfortunately, the nightlife choices were bars or the occasional gig from a big-name DJ like Paul Van Dyk or Carl Cox. It wasn't enough to satisfy Maxime and his friends and - talking one night - he and Thomas Gaestadius, a Swedish expat, decided the time was right to bring their own sound to the Beijing underground.

So BaiCai was born (it means "cabbage" - "a very typical food in Beijing, like baguette in France or fish and chips in England" Maxime says). The fledging event company's first party was in 30 degree heat at Stone Boat, a stunning classical Chinese-style floating pleasure palace. These days, though, the regular home of their events is the Gaestadius' aptly named disco, the White Rabbit which Maxime describes as "very Berlin style… grey walls, no pretension."

Within these "grey walls" a stream of hip DJs has entertained a growing cross-section of Chinese clubbers. There is a definite French connection going on, thanks to Maxime, with the likes of Paul Ritch, D'Julz, Shonky and Chris Carrier among recent invitees. But equally important are local DJs like Yang Bing, Mickey Zhang and Ben Huang, all BaiCai regulars. These rising stars have to work a little harder because - despite its size - there are no record stores in Beijing. As in the early rave days in Europe, DJs have to travel abroad to buy vinyl or exploit the 21st century option: use Serato and download their music from Beatport.

Baicai Videos:
Loco Dice  @ The Bank, Beijing 

Paul Ritch @ Tango, Beijing

It's just one of the quirks of Beijing clubbing. In a world where "shitty pop - Avril, Beyonce and the Backstreet Boys" rules promoting an almost unheard-of brand of music requires creative thinking. Hence the BaiCai Family card, which gives regulars half-price entry, and promotions where you get in the club free if you bring a cabbage.
It feels like the people were in a cage for a long time and then set free. Don´t think we are still living in the time of Mao...As for spreading the word, flyers still rule but they also hit local radio stations and magazines and spread the word through their expat friends. The result? An audience that mingles clued up Chinese with open-minded Westerners and kids just looking for a good time.


"Clubbers don't always know that much about the music, but they dance like crazy anyway," Maxime says with a grin. Among the dancers are workers, students and - naturally - young people in the ever-hip fashion, music and art industries who come out to take advantage of China's functional lack of licensing laws. "We don't have anything telling us when to stop. When the staff is fed up with us they just turn the lights on," Maxime explains. There aren't many after-parties, apparently, but when you can open till 8AM or later, they probably aren't missed.

Maxime is coy about the level of chemical intake at the parties "you can imagine" he says, delicately. Though a Facebook comment reading: "damn I was wasted. But it was fun !" hints that China's nightlife is no different in that respect from anywhere else in the world. And BaiCai take their duties as tour guides to the new China very seriously. "We're like a holiday tour agency - when DJs come we're with them, eating, visiting, taking them to other parties. They get a good view of the city." Interestingly, despite China's questionable human rights record Maxime says no DJ has ever turned them down on political grounds (which probably says more about DJ politics than it says about China, in all honesty...).

But nor have the had the opportunity to invite over their "dream list" DJs: Sven Vath, Richie Hawtin, Ricardo Villalobos. "We're not sponsored yet so they will come a bit later. For now, we focus on rising stars - we keep an eye on the web so we know who's hot at the moment."

The web, it happens, plays a vital role in BaiCai. Their site: www.ibaicai.cn is one of the first in China dedicated to electronic music. With a listening post, DJ charts, label profiles (Cadenza currently features) it looks utterly familiar, except for the Mandarin script, and brings Chinese music fans a step closer to Western-style music-orientated social networking. Though China still has a serious level of web censorship it doesn't seem to have affected BaiCai who rely heavily on Facebook to engage young, English-speaking Chinese clubbers.

In fact, says Maxime, the whole "communist repression" thing is gradually becoming a thing of the past. "It feels like the people were in a cage for a long time and then set free. The young generation especially ask so many questions about your life. And we have a lot of sophisticated people coming to our parties who have travelled to the United States or Europe."

With that in mind, Maxime has these final words of advice for prospective visitors: "Be ready to eat weird stuff, don't think we are still living in the time of Mao, don't be paranoid, open your eyes and learn about this amazing culture and people. And watch out for the Chinese girls… they love DJs !"  

www.myspace.cn/baicai - www.ibaicai.cn