Christian Petersen-Clausen

Today I'm finishing up the edit on the next episode of Living History. Janet Yang had incredible stories about the production of "Last Empire of the Sun" and many more topics.

The episode should be live Friday.

I have been through German Xmas markets. I have seen them HoHoHo it up on Hollywood Blvd.

But rarely have I experienced aggressively-loud xmas music like on my annual trip to IFC in Pudong last night.

The economy truly must be in shambles.

I'm not a fan of this.

We need the various Great Firewalls of the world to come down, not for more to be erected.

Taipology | Angelica Oung | Substack Hot takes on Taiwan from the Silicon Island’s #1 Neoliberal Shill. Click to read Taipology, by Angelica Oung, a Substack publication with thousands of subscribers.

From Taipology: "Taiwanese authorities blocked Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote, citing fraud concerns."

and:

"previous news articles suggest(ed) the ruling DPP has been considering cutting Taiwanese off from Chinese e-Commerce sites such as Taobao."

taipology.substack.com

There is zero upside now, unlike during the Covid Shanghai Lockdowns.

Welp, I've gone viral on Twitter again. I am not enjoying this.

Unlike in prior years, the algorithm no longer produces quality interactions or even just followers. It's all drive-by-liking what is randomly served up.

Jennifer Pak joins NPR as China Correspondent In a note to newsroom staff, Chief International Editor, Didi Schanche, announced Jennifer Park as NPR's new China Correspondent

***MORE NEWS*** Here's what I'm up to next ... heading to Beijing (visa pending). Excited to join the talented NPR lot! I'll still continue to post my tasty finds on IG at jpakradio. And thanks to @memostothefuture.bsky.social I finally got the Shanghai skyline in the backdrop of my profile pic.

Wouldn't the shop be cleared out then? Rent inside the terminal is crazy expensive.

The Muji shop at Pudong's T2 is currently closed, it's business apparently suspended by Avinex, the airport operator. Probably related to Muji being a Japanese brand.

The show is on 11/28 at Jazz Lincoln in Shanghai.
You can buy tickets on Showstart and Damai.

We very much appreciate your support.

If you choose to purchase a ticket and the event is cancelled the online platforms will refund you automatically.

This is, obviously, us playing poker.
Maybe someone forgot to cancel the show.

We certainly already paid for flights, hotels, buses, stage, instrument rentals.

This may just work out and it may be the only chance to see him in China in a while!

Shanghai friends: very special Concert Alert!

Perhaps you already know that all our concerts with Japanese musicians in China were cancelled.

But nobody has cancelled this Shanghai performance with the legendary Japanese Jazz drummer Toshio Osumi.

So we are taking a chance.

Checklists demand flaps to be dropped upon engine start, I believe?

Another day, another flight.

I have five of these scheduled in the coming seven days. This one is taking me back to Shanghai.

Unusually, the pilots are dropping flaps only as they enter the runway today. I wonder if they forgot?

do tell more

Jennifer Pak joins NPR as China Correspondent In a note to newsroom staff, Chief International Editor, Didi Schanche, announced Jennifer Park as NPR's new China Correspondent

Huge congratulations to the awesome @jpak25.bsky.social on joining NPR as China Correspondent.

Happy I could help a little bit with that photo.

www.npr.org/sections/npr...

I appreciate you saying that.

I find the customization of cultural influences here in China so fascinating and have lots more on that to say.

Also special about Jazz in China is how quickly word spreads through social media. I expect the crowd tomorrow to be small and by Saturday to have doubled in size. The most passionate fans soft-brag to each other on Xiaohongshu, creating the fear of missing out.

My gut feeling is that this is because Jazz here wasn't the music of previous generations; young Chinese fans discovered Jazz for themselves and see it as "their thing" that fits into their desire for a higher-quality lifestyle.

Chinese Jazz fans are also often extremely knowledgable and in spite of often coming from ordinary backgrounds willing to spend significant sums on original first-edition vinyl records that they'll bring to get signed.

I fully expect to see some show up with Suzuki's "Friends."

Jazz in China attracts a unique crowd: the average age range here is 20-35 whereas Jazz musicians in Japan attract people in their 70s and 80s. This often deeply impresses and delights the musicians and has made us (as Concert organizers in China) quite popular with them abroad.

Suzuki is a really exciting member of the Japanese jazz scene and we are proud to have gotten his Quintet for China. He spent many years in NYC, where he played for years with Stan Getz and Art Blakey.

Hello again Beijing.

I am in town with Jazz bassist Yoshio Suzuki, who will be performing for the first time in China at DDC Beijing tomorrow (Thursday) and Saturday.

Hello again Beijing.

I am in town with Jazz bassist Yoshio Suzuki, who will be performing for the first time in China at DDC Beijing tomorrow (Thursday) and Saturday.

Another day, another flight.

Booked just two hours ago, I'm on a China Eastern 777 to Beijing, where I will be meeting a group of wonderful Japanese Jazz musicians.

I'm curious how many people will come to the concert given the diplomatic spat right now.

We'll see.

Yes, you can.

But I don't see evidence that you should.

After the completion of the Hotel, Andy Andreasen went on to lead Baker McKenzie in China. Later, he became the first Executive Director of the Stanford Center at Peking University.

Read more about this incredible life and this project on Substack:

livinghistorychina.substack.com/p/andy-andre...

The man who managed to convince banks to let him bring an astonishing $72million into China in 1979 ($295mm today) was the legendary CB Sung, who also started the Beijing Jeep Joint Venture.

The Great Wall Hotel was the largest of the first three approved Joint Ventures.

The Great Wall Hotel was designed by the same architects that envisioned the LAX Theme Building.

During its four decades in operation it hosted foreign dignitaries like Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Li-Ka-shing 李嘉诚 or, on one random day I stayed there, North Korean diplomats.

YouTube video by Living History: Stories from the Opening of China Andy Andreasen | Building Beijing's First Western Luxury Hotel

New on Living History: Andy Andreasen and the inside story of the making of Beijing’s first Western five-star hotel — and the Americans and Chinese who dared to build it in the 1980s. youtu.be/33Nho0H2VSQ