More than just a noble vegetable

There’s a certain type of promoter I especially like in Beijing. It’s not really based on any musical preference, it’s more to do with their approach to business. Put simply, I like promoters who are broke: They are so much more charming. Sure we need the big guns out there with their Chivas sponsorships and Top 100 DJ lists, but my favorite nights are inevitably smaller, more intimate affairs where promoters worry less about recouping cost than ensuring a fantastic night out. Bai Cai has been doing just this for almost a year now.

Since starting off with excellent outdoor parties at The Stone Boat, Bai Cai has since been whittled down to three main members, Maxime Bureau, Thomas Gaestadius and Zhiqi. They’ve built a loyal following who flock to their electronica, house and minimal techno nights at Inner Affair. “We really started because we felt no one was putting on the kind of nights we wanted to go to,” Bureau says. “Making loads of money wasn’t that important to us.” Gaestadius, who spins under the name Tom Foolery, adds, “In Beijing the clubbing experience can feel kind of impersonal. Often the DJ will leave immediately after their set, or the club will put on their resident DJ who plays 50 Cent. This can lead to the clubbing experience feeling disjointed. At our parties we like to see people dancing until the sun comes up, the DJs on our line- ups always complement each other well, none of this jerking between genres that’s typical of the Gongti scene.” Gaestadius echoes the opinions of many Beijingers, and the most recent Bai Cai parties have been full of a mostly foreign, late-twenties crowd, the kind of people who have lived in Beijing for a while.

The three usually handle different aspects of the night. Bureau on promotion, Gaestadius works with the DJs and Zhiqi (one half of Beijing VJ superstars HaoBuHao) designs the fliers. “We felt the cabbage represented Beijing,” Bureau reveals. “Bai Cai is a simple Chinese word that almost all of the laowai understand.” Zhiqi adds, “It also gives us a lot of room to be original and funny with the fliers.”

Truly, it is a noble, versatile vegetable. If you haven’t made it down to a Bai Cai night, then catch their party on April 6 at Inner Affair featuring DJ Small from France. Gaestadius says, “I think people appreciate an event like this, where the DJs create a continuous musical journey, with peaks and troughs throughout. We get a lot of people returning to our nights, and, in the future, we hope to see more and more people coming along and dancing till 6 a.m. That’s what clubbing means to us.”