Rave culture explodes in HK ahead of handover

By Jason Szep

HONG KONG, June 17 (Reuter) - Joel Lai sifts through a stack of records behind a cramped disc jockey booth in one of Hong Kong's smallest but trendiest clubs.

He slides a new single from London on to the turntable and surveys the dance floor. Five years ago, the crowd would have been 90 percent Westerners. Today, it is 90 percent Chinese.

Outside the club hangs its apocalyptic name -- "1997", underscoring a new era for Hong Kong's brand of nightlife.

The dance culture that has spawned a musical explosion in Britain has infiltrated Hong Kong, ushering in fashion trends, a growing appetite for European music and a surge in drug use.

But some label the trend a legacy of British influence and ponder its fate once China ends 156 years of colonial rule and resumes sovereignty over the territory on July 1.

Will it continue to propel young bodies onto crowded, sweaty dance floors, attracting big-name European DJs, nurturing local talent while spurring an underground frenzy for the so-called designer drug Ecstasy, now popular in Europe?

Or will it surrender to the syrupy sounds of Canto-pop -- the Cantonese pop music of southern China -- and lose momentum once Britain leaves?

"In the last 12 months we've seen the dance scene in Hong Kong take off beyond belief," said Jo Brooks-Nevin, promotion manager of Space, which organizes many of Hong Kong's "raves", including a "Unity" party to mark the handover to Chinese rule.

CLUB CULTURE INCREASINGLY ATTRACTS CHINESE

Most agree and see the trend continuing, fortified by local Chinese drawn to the heavy bass drums and cosmic sounds from electric pianos, sexy, often-skimpy clothing and the simple lure of an alternative form of entertainment.

"Every time I come here the scene has developed," said Paul Oakenfold, a British DJ who has achieved pop icon status in Europe and who will join singer Grace Jones and flamboyant personality Boy George at the June 28 "Unity" party.

"There's more of a local crowd now that's aware of the club culture, listening to European music and getting into the clubbing fashions," he told Reuters.

But the packed local dance floors have also brought the drug of choice at drug European dance parties, Ecstasy, a trend that Hong Kong police say has spread across the southern China border.

Between 1990 and 1994, Hong Kong police seized an average of just six to 27 tablets of Ecstasy a year. In 1995, that number leaped into the hundreds and in 1996 it climbed to 15,000.

So far this year, police have confiscated 40,000 tablets, said Hong Kong Police Chief Inspector Bruce Hawkins.

"It used to be mainly confined to the expatriate community and then, with the rise in rave culture, it sort of exploded into the local community," he said.

Hawkins said most of the drugs appear to come from the Netherlands with small quantities smuggled from southern China, where there appears to be large production of methamphetamines, which form the basis of a drug known as "Ice" and which are sometimes sold as Ecstasy.

But the local community remains undeterred.

DANCE PARTY OFFERS A PERSONALITY CHANGE

Ann Woo, a 23-year-old fashion design student at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, began enjoying dance parties this year.

"Chinese people are not very crazy, but when I go to a dance party it seems like I change to another person.

"It's quite different. It's quite exciting. I like how people are all dressed up, everyone is dancing and getting exhausted," she said.

She said Hong Kong fashion often finds inspiration in styles associated with European clubbing, including bright rayon or plastic shirts, wide pastel-colored shoes and hip-hugging flared pants.

"The local crowd is getting more experienced with the music, with the parties," says Joel Lai, 29, one of Hong Kong's most popular DJs.

But the European records played by Lai and other local DJs face competition from the romantic swooning of Canto-pop, a genre favored by millions of Chinese across Asia.

Canto-pop divas and a handful of male singers enjoy near cult status in Hong Kong, regularly appearing in local films and lighting up back-pages of newspapers.

Brooks-Nevin at Space said the growing numbers of local disc jockeys and the popularity of the parties and the music should keep the imported sounds drumming away in crammed clubs.

Already, a handful of clubs specializing in new European dance music have opened across the border in China's boomtown of Shenzhen.

(Article is no longer on reuters.com)