WHEEL ME OUT

The Boat nightclub in Beijing

Club owner BB drops it about DJ school, all-female radio stations and the boat that pushed her to open Beijing's only floating club

Interview by Carissa Welton

Where are you from originally? I was born in Hong Kong and we lived there until I was 12. I went to an international school so I grew up with friends from all over the world.

Taipei in Taiwan was totally different. I lost all of my English. I started going out and having fun.

When did you start DJing? I was in college. I got a job at the Roxy, one of the clubs I hung out at all the time. It's a pretty famous club in Taipei and it's been around for years. The owner, Ling Wei, has a huge vinyl collection. He's gone around since the 70s and collected all this rare, second hand vinyl. It's overwhelming to see all his records there in the club.

I was working as Ling Wei's assistant for his radio show, Rock Time. While I was there, the station turned into an all-female radio station and produced a show called Women in Rock. That's how I started DJing.

At Roxy every DJ has to go through training. You stand next to the DJ playing in the club every night for a while and watch them, write down their playlist and then go to a board and copy it down. They give you music history books to study and train you to connect songs between different genres and how to mix songs with lyrics or guitar solos – not necessarily just with beats. The sets should tell a story and should build from beginning to end. I think I started out DJing after about three months of learning how to do it. I played at a lot of Ling Wei's clubs: Roxy, Zip, Vibe, 99 from 1998 to 2002.

What made you come to Beijing? DJing in Taiwan was very comforting, but the music changed, the scene changed. And I think I just wanted something different in my life.

You just opened your first club, The Boat, last April. How did that come about? I had been DJing for a few years and kept looking for an underground space to play electronic music. The Boat was available for rent and [my two partners and I] had a similar idea; upstairs would be live music and downstairs would be electronic music.

We made our decision within two weeks, found lawyers, signed the contract in mid-January, installed new windows, built the stage, made the ceiling higher downstairs, designed all the sofas... and we had a soft launch opening in March.

Has owning and running a club been something you've always wanted to do? It's never been a life-long dream but nightlife is definitely something that I've always been involved with, so I know it's something I like and I'm good at. Of course, you think you know nightlife in Beijing , and you see people try and fail, and you learn from experience. But I think in the end your personality takes over and that shows in the bar. WMO