Beijing Boyce

A contest Dukakis would support.

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Barbed wire, shouting comrades, and tanks are making me a bit nervous these days. Why not lighten the mood and think about what we would like to see in the October 1 parade?

I would like to see a fleet of Xiali taxis, with their fapiao machines sychronized, amplified, and providing militant background noise as they crank out smudged  receipts. I would like to see thousands of people in Fuwa outfits and armed to the teeth. Even better, I would like to see the October 1 holiday have its own mascots – since the Fuwa originally were called “The Friendlies“, I suggest “The PLAyies.”

I know others have dwelled on this topic. These include chadcat on Twitter, who wrote that he, “would like to see the Sanlitun Carlsberg girls goosestepping in the parade.”

So, what do you want to see? Leave a reasonable comment, one that doesn’t get my site blocked, and I’ll enter your name into a draw for a nice bottle of laowai baijiu, otherwise known as vodka.  (Note: You have to live in Beijing and be willing to pick the prize up in Sanlitun to win.)

The New York Times just published a story called “From Wii to Hideaway, Beijing’s New Breed of Bars” that offers this perplexing opening:

What if karaoke just isn’t your thing? A handful of bars are slowly transforming Beijing’s nightlife landscape from one of back-alley boardgames and off-key karaoke to one distinctly more cosmopolitan.

It lists Wain Wain, Q Bar, and Fubar as among that handful. I don’t know much about Wain Wain, but Q is arguably the most successful bar of the past three years, while Fubar has the potential to wreak havoc on drink lists if other bars raise their games and similarly serve spirits such as 42 Below and Bombay Sapphire at budget prices (though based on my dozen visits  I would hardly describe the place as “cosmopolitan”).

The problem: The New York Times contrasting these bars with karoake and boardgames is like presenting a theory of evolution based solely on the skeletons of a trilobite and a human (not to knock karaoke, or anything).

Consider one missing link, First Cafe, which five years ago pulled off the impressive feat of charging RMB50 for quality cocktails in a non-hotel setting and drew both Beijingers and a wide array of expatriates.  Two of the three Q Bar owners built their reputations at this small former bar in Sanlitun. The owners at Fubar also cite it as one of their inspirations. The point: the scene is not suddenly becoming “cosmopolitan” due to a “handful” of bars, but is part of a long process that goes back more than a decade. Other readers can cite their own evolutionary examples, perhaps spots such as Henry Li’s Vogue and Neo Lounge.

Looking for current bars? Since Q opened, Beijing has seen plenty pop up, including a handful of Whiskey and cocktail joints alone, places such as Glenn and Promise that have taken consumer choice to new levels, and that follow in the footsteps of Ichikura, which has given the city a “speakeasy” feel for more than five years. There are many more, including bars as diverse as Salud, Xiu, and Face.

Yes, the New York Times piece is short, and I guess we can’t expect much, but the omniscent air is sadly representative of many of its articles coming out of China. Frankly, I like my Whiskey, not my journalism, neat.