Beijing rock - Marley, Jamaica 50 fab team in China

Sadeke Brooks and Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writers

Coming out of a recent visit to China to celebrate Jamaica's 50th anniversary of Independence and Bob Marley's 67th birthday, former vice-chair of the Jamaica Reggae Industry Association (JaRIA) Howard McIntosh says Jamaica needs to explore China as a possible buyer of its cultural exports.

McIntosh said he was contacted by Jamaica's Ambassador to China Courtney Rattray to help organise the event, held on February 4. With Abijah as the guest artiste backed by Chinese band Mitabe, McIntosh said the event was a significant one, with 700 persons partaking in the festivities at the Yugongyishan Centre in Beijing, China, where Jamaica's music, food and culture were celebrated.

He added that Rattray also hosted a VIP reception with 100 special guests, including his colleague ambassadors, numerous diplomats and Chinese VIPs.

There was Jamaican food like jerk chicken, Jamaican patties (beef and chicken) that were all provided by Rose lin Zamo, who specialises in Caribbean cuisine. Appleton was also flowing, with a promotion set up by Glenn Thain CEO of Racine Ashpool, Asian representatives for Appleton rum.

Also helping in the organisation of the event were Oscar Chirizzi (Ultimate Productions), Samuel Adahu, the Bob Marley Museum and the Bob Marley Foundation, which was represented by the general manager, Jackie Lynch Stewart, and also the Jamaica 50 Secretariat.

Lynch Stewart described the experience as "absolutely overwhelming". She noted the number of persons working in other countries' embassies who turned out and related two especially memorable experiences.

"A lady from Thailand came to me, hugged me and said 'I can't tell you how much I want to reach Jamaica. I love Bob Marley'. She said that she plays Bob when she is not feeling on top of the world. And when her children are giving her trouble she plays Bob and they calm down. It is not the first time I have heard that from a parent," Lynch Stewart said.

Then there was a lady from Finland, who said Marley's music helped her get through her divorce.

With music big on the year-long celebrations in Jamaica, it will also be a part of the observances in China. Ambassador Courtney Rattray said "the embassy's schedule of Jamaica 50 activities is yet to be finally determined, although we will definitely place an emphasis on ensuring that our traditional Independence Day reception will be a very special occasion this year. We usually have approximately 300 guests, and will, likely, have a live performance of Jamaican music".

"Furthermore, as the month of November will also mark the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Jamaica and China, we will stage an event that can showcase Jamaican culture, such as an art exhibition," he said.

After what he deemed to be a successful event, McIntosh says Jamaica needs to capitalise on the Chinese market, which he says is "ripe for the picking".

"Everybody that you meet talks about Jamaica, so we need to capitalise on that. We are definitely popular in China because of what the athletes did at the Olympics," he told The Sunday Gleaner.

Rattray has seen the long-term effects of Jamaica's exploits in the Bird's Nest Stadium, saying the team was remembered "although the lasting and deep impression that remains in the consciousness of the average Chinese is of Bolt, who they have dubbed 'The Flying Man'".

McIntosh said Jamaica should look to that market for opportunities in music and culture.

"The traditional markets we look to are European and North American markets and those markets are depressed now, so we will have to start looking at places like China and Brazil," said McIntosh.

He said this is especially so because one per cent of China's population is about twice the size of the Caribbean's population. The Jamaican presence in Beijing is miniscule, as Rattray said that in Beijing "the Jamaican diaspora community is relatively small, in the region of between 50 and 70 persons, inclusive of our students".

no formal plan

On a cold night in Beijing, Lynch Stewart said with the audience singing along to Abijah's delivery of mostly Bob Marley songs, along with his own material, "the heat of the Caribbean was right in that venue".

With Jamaica importing heavily from China and China Harbour presently conducting major projects in Jamaica, a commercial connection already exists outside of cultural products. Ambassador Rattray says there is no formal plan in place to tie the Jamaica 50 celebrations to business ventures.

"Not directly, although there is scope for it to serve as a platform to market and promote our creative industry. As was shown at the Bob Marley Day/Jamaica 50 concert, Brand Jamaica has a powerful resonance which, when allied to the enduring appeal of our music and the legacy of Bob Marley's transcendent message, serves to bridge the divide of nationality, race, ethnicity and religion," Rattray said.

"The challenge is to develop a business model that can extract greater value from our creative resources, based on the monetisation of our Intellectual Property Rights."

Presentation is key. "Thereafter, we must package it in a fashion so that it can be marketed to a potential investor. A strategic approach needs to be adopted towards developing a fresh and forward-looking business-case for the promotion and commercialisation of our creative and cultural industries. We should be thinking about how to expand the number of profit centres from which our artistes and purveyors of creativity have traditionally derived value, rather than rely on the old model that confines the business into just a few revenue streams," Rattray said.

And, although he did not spend a lot of time in Beijing, McIntosh said the experience was a worthwhile one.

"It was a very short trip; 75 hours of travel time and 50 hours in Beijing. It was a tremendous experience seeing all these people in Beijing enjoying the experience. Eventually it was like United Nations there 'cause you had people from all these places enjoying Jamaica and Jamaican music. It confirmed the love for Bob Marley and Jamaica," he told The Sunday Gleaner.

McIntosh added that there are plans to do another staging of the event next year. In addition, he said a three-city China tour and another tour of Asia with Jamaican acts might take place later this year.