< SambAsia Grows In China

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Heard on All Things Considered

July 4, 2008 - ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

Well, samba was born out of the meeting of cultures in Brazil, African, Indian, Portuguese, not to mention influences from Cuba and from German polka.

And now, as reporter Alison Klayman describes it, samba has spread to China.

(Soundbite of music)

ALISON KLAYMAN: The beat that first moved bodies in Rio now pulsates through the walls of a gutted warehouse in Beijing's university district. This is where the band SambAsia practices.

(Soundbite of music)

The warehouse stretches the length of two basketball courts, but the samba band has squeezed itself into a tiny makeshift room created amidst the piles of scrap wood and metal. But they managed to cook up a tropical beat, pounding away at almost 20 drums. The music draws a curious crowd of construction workers. They can't avoid it. Their temporary housing is right next door.

The founder of SambAsia, Jimmy Biala, dances at the front of the room. He is not surprised that the band attracts a crowd.

Mr. JIMMY BIALA (Founder, SambAsia): We're in Beijing. It's like this big circus that's, you know, and we're one of the attractions, right?

KLAYMAN: Back when samba got its start in Brazil, it was the poor people who embraced it. But here in Beijing, the music doesn't quite work that way.

Mr. WANG ZUCHIANG (Migrant Worker): (Through translator) We don't understand when we listen to this music. It sounds like playing on a garbage can.

KLAYMAN: This migrant worker from Anwei Province still hasn't figured out what samba is all about. His name is Wang Zuchiang and he lives in one of the huts outside the practice space. The migrant laborers stay to hear the band rehearse, though the musicians are young, white-collar urbanites. They work as graphic designers, photographers and sales people.

Jimmy Biala started SambAsia in 2003 in California. There, he used drumming to connect Asian and Latin communities in the Bay Area. His classes combined samba with Asian styles of percussion and dance. One of those San Francisco students moved to Beijing in 2005. His name is Lian Lee(ph). He talked Biala into coming to China to teach a weeklong workshop. Lee remembers the music was an instant hit.

Mr. LIAN LEE (Student): People took three, four hours of their day, some people even took a sick leave from their work to come and play. After the first day, it was like they were hooked.

KLAYMAN: Convinced, Jimmy Biala moved fulltime to Beijing a few years later.

(Soundbite of music)

KLAYMAN: Lian Lee said it's not just the pounding beat that makes samba so popular. He said that it fills a void in the cultural and social landscape of modern China.

Mr. LEE: You have your Japanese cultural center, Chinese cultural center, you have your Latin American cultural center and stuff. But also, you have all these different communities that were already pretty well-formed. I mean, look at China, there is no civic society. You don't have a nonprofit culture. You don't have grassroots organizations.

KLAYMAN: SambAsia has succeeded through word of mouth and the undeniable appeal of an exotic sound. SambAsia even caught the ears of Cui Jian, a music icon known as the father of Chinese rock. Twenty-nine-year-old Xiao Yong(ph) from Northeastern China was one of Jimmy's first students in Beijing.

Mr. XIAO YONG (Student): (Through translator) Chinese traditional music also has drum instrumentals and drum ensembles. But that feeling is totally different. Chinese drummers more often express themes about people, weather, natural things and scenery. Samba is about the rhythm and the breaks.

(Soundbite of music)

KLAYMAN: In Brazil, an established samba school will write its own anthem. The song tells their unique story and marks their place in the community. This young Chinese group has not yet composed its anthem, but when they do, it will tell the story of how samba came to Beijing.

For NPR News, I'm Alison Klayman in Beijing.

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