Books, Films & Music

Living in China you will inevitably watch the odd Chinese film and become slightly more familiar with the local music scene (unfortunately). Most people will also want to keep up with current films, books and music as well though. Depending what you are looking for this ranges from very easy to impossible.

Bookstores that sell English books are not terribly common however every Chinese city would have at least a handful of places that you will be able to buy English books in. They usually don’t have a whole lot of books on offer but you can certainly pick up some good items. They generally have quite a good selection of classics, from Shakespeare to Moby Dick you can find quite a lot of titles on sale. For newer books they fall down a little bit, whilst you will probably be able to find the Harry Potter and Twilight series, for other recent titles it is a bit of a lottery. Of course if you really like reading then I’d give you one bit of advice – get a Kindle.

Due to the thriving industry in pirated films, buying DVDs is slightly easier than books. In fairness there are fewer stores selling pirate DVDs than there used to be but it is still pretty easy to get hold of them. Because of the cap on the amount of foreign films shown in Chinese cinemas, unless you do opt for the pirate DVD option then there are a lot of new films that you just won’t be able to see. Probably the best thing about the DVDs are the price, usually about £1 equivalent, on the downside you very  much get what you pay for – after the second viewing (and sometimes before the first) they have a tendency to start skipping and freezing so perhaps don’t look to build your DVD library with these. I should mention as well that along with movies, TV series are also widely available and most big shows are on sale, though unfortunately the most common shows are vampire diaries and gossip girl – doesn’t speak highly of the Chinese viewing habits.

Music is basically a no-go. The biggest foreign artists here are Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga and Adele – as far as other artists go if it isn’t mainstream pop then they probably haven’t heard of it. There is of course a large music industry in China, though from my own experience the Chinese music industry is dominated by saccharine pop which I have little taste for. While you will meet people who are into their music, and may even find some independently run cafes with a good playlist on the go (generally owned by former art students) these cases are few and far between.

When it comes to keeping up with pop culture such as films, books and music China is very much a mixed bag. Essentially if Chinese people also have an interest in it then you’ll be fine, if not then you are really going to struggle. Foreign books are not terribly common nor is music that is not either a) Chinese or b) Mainstream pop. Foreign films and TV shows on the other hand are widely seen and enjoyed by many Chinese people and are far easier to get hold of. Of course if you want to really keep up with everything then my best piece of advice would be: get a kindle, get a subscription to Netflix and subscribe to Spotify.