Jazz journalism in China

The JJA has a new student member, Pengwen Chen, currently enrolled in Fordham University. She’s a contributor to the platform 即兴 (pronunciation: ji xing), or Improv, for which she gave the following description:

“Improv is a non-profit independent online jazz magazine/media based on two major Chinese social medias: Weibo and Wechat. We are the only jazz media in China.

“Weibo, you can say, is a Chinese version of twitter, instagram.

“What we are posting on Weibo is just like those Twitter accounts are doing. They are short, instant, and quick. We usually have 5-6 posts per day. Here’s the link of the Weibo account, and as of today [10/22/2019] we have already had 16921 followers. https://www.weibo.com/cjwc

“Wechat is a more complicated thing. It’s the biggest chatting app in China (you’ve probably heard about it before), and with its big audience base, Wechat team has made up a special independent media type themselves, called Official Accounts, based on their chatting app. It could be recognized as a “nowadays Chinese internet” because Chinese people get their information and news mainly via Wechat instead of browsing the websites.

“What we are doing on Wechat Official Accounts is in the form of long articles of length that fits Chinese readers’ habits. We usually have over five articles per month. Here’s the link of Wechat webpage, and as of today we have already had 13166 followers: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/mp/profile_ext?action=home&__biz=MzI5NTAzNDUwMA==&scene=124&#wechat_redirect.

“As for the contents we are doing right now, we do include live reviews. They are posted on Weibo, and we will collect them to make an article regularly and post it on the Wechat Official Account.

“Other contents we are doing right now:

1. The collection of ALL Chinese jazz live performances of each month, and we’ll have our own comments, introduction, and rating before each live performance happens. Link: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzI5NTAzNDUwMA==&mid=2650421424&idx=1&sn=63b4fe0a975b81a632e0d1e47747b828&chksm=f457535bc320da4d6d6f3f54c71b12c7dcb61c5bf099416d066bc4f9b92a8dc7dbb27857af61&token=371269764&lang=zh_CN#rd

2. The Chinese subtitles and translation of Jazz At Lincoln Center educational videos called Jazz Academy. One video per week. Link: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzI5NTAzNDUwMA==&mid=2650421507&idx=1&sn=41cd5895b562bf6edf403735fa9de126&chksm=f45752e8c320dbfe8dfb044dcdb47f21cb220a346e7bf54edd5a48a43a68a4400eb71d6175b6&token=371269764&lang=zh_CN#rd

3. Short music videos or live videos of musicians recommendations are posted on Weibo.

4. Informative content written by our writers just like the articles of JazzTimes.

5. We will send journalists (our writers) to jazz festivals all over the world. We’ve reported on the 2016 Vision Fest in NYC i, and 2018 Jazzwerkstatt Peitz in Berlin. Link: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzI5NTAzNDUwMA==&mid=2650418097&idx=1&sn=8c78372a2e86bc42e054b90552151990&chksm=f457405ac320c94c5544bf50488792d6fd8cb1b598cc806749298dfa4dbd474c0cf16473a4fd&token=371269764&lang=zh_CN#rd

6. Brief introductions and comments on newly released jazz albums.

7. Musicians’ interviews. This is an interview of Andrew Cyrille: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzI5NTAzNDUwMA==&mid=2650421655&idx=1&sn=840a52f1ada04f632b8f11a369c92e4b&chksm=f457527cc320db6a001295ad72f25ebf3808b634ef6f33e1a4097d845480a4efd4d83ef32243&token=371269764&lang=zh_CN#rd

8. Other parts like jazz news translation, Chinese jazz musicians and jazz writers’ album recommendation, etc.

“即兴Improv is literally the only jazz media in China who is doing these things and want to bring jazz to everyone. We have deep connections with Chinese live venues, musicians, and the hosts of jazz festivals. This summer I had an internship in Blue Note Beijing, which probably is the best jazz venue in China till now. If you want to know anything about jazz industry or situation in China, just send me an email to me!

“What we want to do in the following months of 2019 is establish our website for foreign viewers to let them know us better. We did not do it before because as I mentioned: Chinese people hardly ever read websites… They read the articles from Wechat Official Account instead.

“Zheng Yu, the founder and the chief editor of 即兴Improv, is a jazz writer and photographer. He is a die-hard jazz fan who has listened to 20,000 jazz albums, and he used to be the manager of the marketing department in Blue Note Beijing. He is also a planner of Chinese music festival. This year, he planned a jazz concert to China himself, inviting Graham Haynes, Joe Fonda, and Barry Altschul to perform at East Gate Hall, Beijing.”

Pengwen adds, “I’m really interested in the JJA and in jazz journalism in America, and I want to do an interview of a JJA member who knows about jazz journalism and the founding of JJA. Also, during the Winter Fest, I may do some close interviews on behalf of 即兴Improv.”

Welcome to the JJA, Ms Pengwen.