The Beijing Jazz Scene

Abstract

This chapter discusses the jazz scene in Beijing. While Shanghai has been the main focus of the evolution of jazz in China, the jazz scene in Beijing has also evolved since the late 1980s. As in Shanghai, one can find jazz in some large venues, hotel bars and food courts, and especially in a few small clubs dedicated to jazz performance. The Beijing jazz scene over the last several decades has clearly evolved. As diplomat Martin Fleischer reports, when he arrived in Beijing in the late 1980s there were no jazz clubs in China's capital. It was not until the early 1990s that jazz becomes a public presence in Beijing with the emergence of the Beijing International Jazz Festival created and curated by German entrepreneur Udo Hoffman.