Anthony Kuhn — As China Cracks Down On Cultural Fringe, Indie Rock Finds A Home In Beijing [Michael Pettis]

"Some guys have sports cars I have this."

That's how Michael Pettis, an American economist based in Beijing, has always explained his rather extravagant hobby: running his very own corner of the Chinese music scene via his record label, Maybe Mars, and a couple of gritty rock dives.

As a label- and club-owner, Pettis has been key in curating a specific, traditionally American sound aligned with his own background in the noisy, avant-garde, punk-aligned no wave scene of 1980s New York. He's assembled a stable of Chinese bands similar in sound to American and British groups from that era, like Sonic Youth, Television and The Fall.

Pettis's dual identity started while he was in business school and, later, working as an investment banker. He ran a rock club in lower Manhattan, at the same time that bands like Blondie, Talking Heads and the Ramones were rocking CBGB on the Bowery. 

"When I was in New York, I wanted to hang out with all these amazing musicians that I really admired," Pettis says. "But I wasn't cool enough. So I figured, well, if I create a club and they all play there, then I get to hang out with them."

The same idea led Pettis to delve into Beijing's underground music scene, which runs the gamut from hip-hop to grunge to noise. Four years after arriving in China in 2002, Pettis opened a rock club called D-22. In 2012, he started an experimental music venue called XP. Most nights, when he wasn't busy working, Pettis spent much of his time behind the bar at one of the two clubs, wearing flannel and sensible sandals and offering a bit of levity as he soaked in the latest sounds.…

Rock on.

GPB News
As China Cracks Down On Cultural Fringe, Indie Rock Finds A Home In Beijing
Anthony Kuhn