Film fiction captures hip-hop, China style

Poster of Chedan Dongwu. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Chedan Dongwu, a film about China's hip-hop artists, was released online across platforms on Friday.

The film, touted as the country's first hip-hop themed detective film, is the brainchild of J Fever (Zhao Hong), a well-known free-style hip-hop artist from Beijing.

The film is based on J Fever's 2015 tour with music producer Jeff Liang (also known as Soulspeak). As they showcased their award-winning 2015 album Color Blind in major Chinese cities, they also mingled with hip-hop artists and enthusiasts from across the country, taking note of how hip-hop, a music style that originated in 1970s New York, had gradually taken root in China.

"There is no other music style that gives one so much freedom as hip-hop," says J Fever, known for his imaginative, poetic compositions. "Free-styling is what you do when you are most devoted to where you are, but at the same time, most detached from it."

The half-hour film, much in tune with his music style with out-of-the-box sequences and imagination, is loosely woven around a fictional hunt for Soulspeak's murderer. Other local hip-hop artists who made guest appearances were cast as suspects. It showed hip-hop's thriving scene from Beijing to Guangzhou. In different locales, the music, often dialectic, is becoming indigenous and diverse as the imported style matures in China.

"You can see half of what Chinese hip-hop has to offer from the film," Yang Xin, a commentator, says.

J Fever will perform at Revolver, a Taipei live house, on Jan 23.

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