Alice Han

And we talked about it previously, James.

I think part of this push is really consumer-led.

The government really wants to boost the consumption related to music tourism.

According to China Association of Performing Arts, for every single yuan spent on concert tickets, it generates around 5 yuan in surrounding consumption for the local city.

So that's a 5x return.

And at a time where China really wants to boost consumption throughout the nation, I think this can be seen as one of the pillars in which it wants to achieve this.

But it's been a big reversal because if you recall, really from 2020, I would say to 2024, there was a real slowdown and even clampdown on Chinese music concerts and the underground music scene.

I'll give you an example.

I see Michael Pettis, who is a well-known China economist and expert quite regularly in China.

I remember just after COVID, I think around 2023, seeing him in his Beijing huotong and he said that unfortunately the underground scene, which he's really involved in the music scene, has pretty much died.

He said prior to that, you know, Beijing was one of the most dynamic places.

underground rock scenes around the world which is part of why he funds underground rock artists and he's got his own label I believe still in China so he's a very very cool bloke but last year when I saw him he was saying that a club that he's involved with has just started up again and that even though they're not going back to the heydays of Beijing rock things are starting to improve and come back to life again but this is a good representation of how we're starting to see

This new generation approach music, there's a Chinese expression for these underground raves.

Effectively, it's called ye di, which means wild dances.

And these Chinese youngsters who get involved in this, they are told where these events are very last minute and in cryptic ways, so as not to attract the attention of local authorities.

And they advertise it online to would-be listeners and fans.

So it's an interesting way in which Chinese youths are trying to go about it to avoid too much attention from authorities.

Because remember, drugs are illegal.

The Chinese authorities heavily frown down on profanities and a lot of things.

the culture attendant to underground music scene or rap culture you know tattoos drugs for instance but we're starting to see things trickle back and that's been interesting to see in tandem with government support of of music tourism and music concerts there's more talk i've seen recently about trying to create super concerts kind of like coachella in china there's a couple already that are happening but expanding that so that china becomes a big music festival scene