BEIJING — On the last day of 2023, Irish musician David Carey gave his last performance in Beijing.
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“I’ve been in China for nine years, and just writing this sentence makes me feel the weight of that time,” Carey wrote in both Chinese and English in a tweet promoting the event, “Living in Beijing, this ever-expanding metropolis, has had an impact on me that cannot be ignored. I’ve worked here, formed several bands, and run a cultural space that I’m proud of… I’m still passionate about the people and culture of China, but this time the iron fist of life has fallen on me, so I’m ready to leave here and find a new place to settle down.”
This is why David’s departure and the closure of Nugget, the cultural space he opened with illustrator Alice, are particularly regrettable. This is the story of an outsider who loves the Chinese independent music scene, has goodwill toward the people in Beijing, and has build a deep connection with the place.
But he was investigated by the police for hosting a film screening that included LGBTQ+ elements, and was forced to leave at the risk of being prosecuted for “illegal work.”
If people like David are pushed out, who will support the open, inclusive, diverse and prosperous community life and cultural environment we want?
Life in Beijing
David has a fixed-gear bike. He lives in a hutong (alleys formed by lines of traditional courtyard residences) and likes to ride around the hutongs. Beijing is one of the largest cities in the world, but its heart is low and compact. In the morning, David usually rides to Baochao Hutong to buy bread, or to Guozijian to buy pancakes, and then turns to the street shop on Andingmennei Street to get a cup of coffee.
There is a film store nearby that is dedicated to promoting local music. David often chats with the owner to discover new bands and styles. At night, he either goes to watch performances at the School Bar — the music venue that made him want to stay in Beijing in 2015. Or he goes back to Nugget. In addition to serving coffee during the day and wine at night, Nugget hosts different activities almost every night, including noise scenes, cross-dressing performances, drinking and painting or handicraft nights.
Dave’s personal favorite is Saturday game night. He and drunken customers exchanged usernames, competing for the honor of being the Mario Kart King of the night, with a discount on drinks. Participants are serious but friendly, laughing and cursing at each other, and celebrating the winners together. In this small world, David feels happy and relaxed.
Dave, who now lives in Berlin, said he still dreams about that life he had in Beijing.
The right direction
In 2015, David was studying music at a university in Ireland and dreamed of becoming a musician. But the Irish stage seemed too small; new artists seem to have no choice but to go to the United States or attract fans on YouTube in order to build a career and be loved by local Irish audiences. At the suggestion of a professor of ancient Chinese music, David applied for a six-month student visa to China and went to Beijing, which was said to have a thriving music scene.
Soon after his arrival, David contacted the School Bar to perform. At that time, he didn’t have professional music equipment or fully developed songs. But he received encouragement from the bar owner and a group of curious and friendly listeners. They would applaud and chat with David after the performance — something he had never experienced in Ireland.
Things changed around 2019, with foreign-related performances facing more restrictions.
When his six-month student visa expired, but David decided to stay and live in China. He found a job as a music teacher in a kindergarten. He also formed his first band, Nocturnes, with Weidu, who he met on the Chinese social network Douban and was also passionate about psychedelic electronic music.
In the lively and prosperous independent music industry at that time, Nocturnes had many opportunities to tour and even perform in Europe. These experiences gave them creative motivation. Everything was moving in the right direction.
Racial discrimination
Things changed around 2019. First, foreign-related performances faced more restrictions. According to the “Notice of the General Office of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism on Further Standardizing the Approval of Foreign-Related Commercial Performances,” the provincial cultural and tourism administrative department must approve all foreign-related performances.
Before, Dave’s performances occasionally underwent content review. But after 2019, he had to apply for performances through a licensed music agent and get a license before he could perform. In 2019, he only participated in two music festivals, although his online audience continued to grow.
In March 2021, Dave’s band was invited to perform, but then the venue’s music agent refused them to go on stage due to David’s foreign identity. The agent suggested that David could avoid the risk of “foreign performances” by not standing on stage or by wearing a mask. Carey felt that was absurd and was racial discrimination.
“No, it’s not racial discrimination,” the agent said, “It’s just a rule.”
David gradually felt changes in the social atmosphere. In the street, people would make unfriendly comments to him. Or in the subway, people would silently pull up their masks after he sat down. These small changes gradually affected him.
“It seemed that everyone has changed from wanting to connect with the rest of the world to feeling that their culture is strong enough and no longer cares about other people’s things. This made me a little sad,” he said
Pandemic charity
In 2019, David and his colleague Alice, a illustrator, started the independent music label Nugget Records, out of their common interest in tape music. As two cassette tape lovers, David and Alice had been working with musicians since the end of 2019 to make music tapes and sell them online.
During COVID-19, the two saw that many pets were trapped at home without food, water or the care of their owners, so they decided to launch a charity sale. They united 26 music groups and made two tapes: one electronic and one pop.
Nugget was also a safe space for the LGBTQ+ community.
The first batch of 150 tapes sold out quickly after they were released online. David and Alice immediately remade 400 copies and eventually donated the ,700 they made from the sales to charities in Wuhan. The popularity of the tapes also gave them initial confidence to open the Nugget café.
It was not easy to operate a cultural space during the epidemic. Every morning when David woke up, he didn’t know whether the café would be allowed to open. Over the past three years, Nugget was closed three or four times for a total of about four months — although as a smaller venue, Nugget was often the only bar allowed to operate in the area.
Open mic night
A number of live concert venues closed during the pandemic, including DDC Shanlao Hutong Store, 13club and Tan Temple. Continuing to hold live events was a struggle. But David and Alice’s investment in creating an environment to share music and art and to connect with the community paid off. Cultural spaces and music scenes like Nugget received a lot of support from audience and customers, who cherished these gatherings.
In order to support independent musicians who are just starting out, David proposed the “Music Open Mic Night.” After one such evening, where Zhuzi, who works at an internet company, performed two songs she wrote, David offered to release her first EP.
Zhuzi said Nugget supported people who love music, which is not easy in the current capital-oriented music market. She said that David would listen to and respect the ideas of musicians in the process of making the mini album, and would also come up with many fresh ideas in the subsequent publicity, and take the initiative to help her find performance opportunities.
A promising future
Nugget was also a safe space for the LGBTQ+ community. Every Tuesday night, they would host drag variety shows or show LGBTQ+ movies. Drag parties were also held from time to time, where participants with exaggerated clothing and makeup could safely and freely express their gender. In summer 2021, a “gender bending dance party” was particularly popular, with an endless line of participants showing off their carefully made costumes and wigs.
But Nugget was often reported for disturbing the public — despite having standard sound insulation equipment. Once, when an urban management officer arrived and saw how people were dressed, he was shocked and began to shout and swear; he ending the party and kicked everyone out. The heavy atmosphere was heavy, but as the clients slowly walked out, several people shouted “I love you Nugget!” Those moments built a stronger sense of community.
Jesse, an Australian and a frequent visitor of Nugget, said that other bars in Beijing that are operated by foreigners mainly serve foreign groups, but that Nugget’s customers were more diverse; its foreign clients were deeply involved in the local cultural scene, could speak fluent Chinese or engage in writing related to Chinese and domestic events. And because David paid close attention to Chinese independent music and bands, many performances and activities attracted Chinese audiences.
Since COVID-19, Nugget’s business — both its music scene and bar — improved and received more attention. David saved some money and began to prepare to open new stores in other cities. He opened Nugget Guangzhou in May 2022. he also began to to consider moving Nugget Beijing to a larger venue to further develop the brand. At the time, the future seemed promising.
No joke
But the police were not kidding. They later determined that David’s work situation was illegal. Because David’s latest work visa was attributed to a small place in Guangzhou, when he actually lived in Beijing. They told David that he could face 30 days of administrative detention, a fine or 5 to 10 years of deportation.
At the end of the interrogation, the police printed an eight-page document. When the translator explained the content to David and Alice, the police kept urging telling the translator that the information was not important and didn’t need to communicate it. David noticed that some of the questions and answers were not the original content, and the police were reluctant to modify them. Finally, the police said that if they didn’t sign, they would be locked up for another two days. Exhausted, David finally signed.
David and Alice, spoke with a partner at Perkins Coie LLP in Beijing and honorary chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China. He said that their case is not unique; in recent years, the police and national security agencies have paid close attention to organizations and business venues thought to be nurturing sensitive social and civil activities, such as women’s rights, workers’ rights, LGBTQ rights, retirees, veterans, religious freedom, press freedom, environmental protection and academic freedom.
Most of the investigations do not reach the criminal justice system; they are simply intended to produce a broad and systemic chilling effect to maintain maximum control over any perceived threat or trigger of instability.
Beijing has tightened its control over independent cultural spaces since the pandemic. Although foreign cultural institutions with official backgrounds — such as the French Cultural Center that provided screening venues for the IQ Film Week — still enjoy the freedom to hold cultural events, the restrictions and censorship on small cultural spaces operated by private individuals have become increasingly severe.
Accusations
In March 2023, Nugget organized a series of activities to celebrate International Women’s Day, including the screening of Saving Face, by Taiwanese-American director Wu Siwei. The film tells the story of Wilhelmina, a young Chinese American surgeon. While taking care of her unwed pregnant mother and helping her face her true love, Wil also is also exploring her sexuality and eventually comes out as a lesbian to her conservative mother.
David said that while the film involves homosexual elements that are not welcomed by the authorities, he believed it would be safe to screen because it explores relationship between mother and daughter. Moreover, the film can be found on the domestic internet, and David had watched the film in another bar in Beijing.
As usual, Nugget posted the event notice on its official account. But that was was reposted by a WeChat account that focuses on gay rights in China. According to the screenshots that the landlord later provided to David and Alice, someone learned about the event and reported it to the police.
The police asked David asked him if he was a spy.
David, who was in Guangzhou at the time, was asked to return to Beijing immediately. When he arrived at Nugget, six or seven police officers from the Dongcheng District Culture and Tourism Bureau were waiting for him. They questioned David and Alice, asking them why they planned the event, why they promoted LGBTQ+ culture in China, and even whether David himself was gay.
That night another group of police from the Exit and Entry Administration of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau came to Nugget and ordered David to close the store.
The next day, David and Alice were called to the police station and questioned for about eight hours. They asked David why he was doing charity activities and why was he so fluent in Chinese. David said he been in China for eight years; it was naturally learn and master Chinese.
The police then asked him if he was a spy. David thought they were joking: Ireland has only 5 million citizens — fewer than Beijing — and it did not have an army. Why would an Irish spy come to Beijing and open a small bar? What intelligence could he collect?
Always an outsider
After this experience, David and Alice decided to close the bar and leave China. Running a business in China is like living in a gray area, the boundaries of what you can and cannot do are blurry. David thought he had not done anything illegal; he thought he knew where the “border” was. He thought that as his Chinese proficiency improved, he would be able to better integrate into this place he regarded as his home. Being a foreigner always attracted more attention, so he was always careful to follow the rules. Nugget had been supporting independent Chinese culture. But after that experience, it was no longer possible to take risks.
David said that when the police came to Nugget after receiving a noise complaint, he showed the video of himself checking that the noise level was not exceeded. So then the police began to check the fire protection system and the labels of alcohol products as if they were determined to find something wrong. David is well aware of the Chinese way of doing things, but hoped to push forward within the scope of the rules.
“These things keep reminding me that I don’t belong here and never will.”
“All the progress I saw from 2015 to 2019 disappeared, and people became selfish, cruel and paranoid. People told me to leave their country, called me an idiot, and threatened to fight with me… Every day I feel like an outsider. These things keep reminding me that I don’t belong here and never will,” he said.
In summer 2023, David closed Nugget Beijing and sold the space in Guangzhou. After his farewell performance at the end of last year, David returned to Ireland to see his family and then moved to Berlin to continue exploring the development of his music career. Alice has moved to Thailand. As for Nugget, David hopes to try to continue the collaboration online.
“I really like Beijing and China, it feels like home to me, so I very much hope that the environment here can be improved. The most effective way is to hold the activities we do, set a good example, and then hope that people can be inspired by it and promote change. Like a slowly accumulating wave, it gradually forms a huge wave, rather than like a flash of lightning that passes in an instant,” he said.
Beijing was once the birthplace of many original, independent and community-based spaces where people embraced differences, built connections and created together. Under censorship, their living environment is disappearing. Who will help these originally vigorous and diverse voices be heard?
