China Reggae: The Chinese influence on Reggae Music

 

Reggae music has been the soundtrack to my life.  It has stayed with me from when I was a teenager and first hearing Long Shot Kick De Bucket by the Pioneers emanating through my mate’s sister’s bedroom door sometime long ago in the UK during the late 60’s/early 1970’s. Little did I know then about the huge Chinese influence that bought reggae into my life. A subtle irony now that I, in fact, live in China.  Recently, I was chatting with Marlon Ransome, lead singer with the band Nightshift, who gig at the Midtown bar in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. He told me about his own Chinese ancestry, his mum is from Hong Kong and he enlightened me about the Chinese connection with Jamaica and in particular with reggae music, which, of course, they play in their set.

 

China and Chinese people have a long connection with Jamaica, the first waves of immigration happened in the late nineteenth century. Most being descendants of the Hakka people from Guangdong province. Local traditions and customs have been maintained in Jamaica although they have integrated with the Jamaican community and as Marlon pointed out, there are no China Towns in Jamaica.

 

And yet, all these years later, I never realised the Chinese connection.  Leslie Kong, the Jamaican/Chinese record shop owner and restaurateur, was hugely influential in the music I listened and danced to.  He first “discovered” Jimmy Cliff leading him to start his own record label, Beverley's. Throughout the 1960’s Leslie Kong’s discography includes stellar names like Bob Marley, Desmond Decker, Toots and the Maytals and including the Pioneers and their eponymous hit Long Shot Kick De Bucket (about the horse “Long Shot” dying in a race). Kong heard about the death of Long Shot and so he had the Pioneers write and record this song. It was not only an immediate hit, but it became a staple of Jamaican music.

 

Leslie Kong is not the only Chinese entrepreneur involved in the reggae music industry. Others include, most notably, Patricia and Victor Chin of VP Records, Byron Lee and the Dragonaires, the Hoo Kim brothers of Channel One Studios and Justin Yap, record producer plus many more. The Chins were amongst the first to issue locally recorded music in Jamaica, also working with Toots and the Maytals and the Skatalites as did Yap. Throughout the 1970’s the Chin’s also worked with Bob Marley and the Wailers, Gregory Isaacs, Dennis Brown and the American singer Johnny Nash. Their VP label now controls over 15,000 titles, and Billboard named them the number one reggae label in 1999.

 

The Hoo Kim Channel One Studios also saw artists such as drummer Sly Dunbar, bassist Robbie Shakespeare, keyboard player Ansel Collins, Leroy Smart, Delroy Wilson, Black Uhuru, Horace Andy, John Holt, and many others record there.  Leslie Kong was also instrumental in setting up Island Records with Chris Blackwell. Blackwell was named by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as “… the single person most responsible for turning the world on to reggae music."

 

Today, the Chinese community continue to influence and play reggae music. I Kong (Errol Kong) is the nephew of Leslie Kong who continues in the industry as does his son Shaquille “Skunga” Kong.  I Kong is described as one of the reggae industry's real characters, a dreadlocked Rasta dressed in traditional Chinese clothing.  I Kong, with his son, has also returned to China to work and play with Chinese reggae artists. In 2018 they visited around eight cities in China playing at reggae venues and meeting with local artists such as the Cantonese singer Mouse FX. Skunga Kong has also been working with Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare which squares the circle started by his great uncle Leslie Kong.

 

Another contemporary Chinese connection is Mikey “Mao” Chung who visited China and reconnected with some of his family there. Mikey Chung is a renowned reggae guitarist, keyboard, and percussion player, arranger and record producer who has worked with Lee Perry, Sly and Robbie, the Stones, Grace Jones and James Brown to name a few. His brother is Geoffrey Chung a great producer and engineer who worked with Peter Tosh, The Upsetters, Maxi Priest and others but who sadly passed away in 1995.

 

Meanwhile, reggae music has also found a home in China amongst Chinese musicians. It is also notable that Vincent Chin’s son Clive came – or returned – to China in 2009 to perform reggae and dub in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, reconnecting with his Chinese roots. But it is in the south-western provinces of Guangdong, the home of the Hakka people who moved to Jamaica, and Yunnan where reggae music and lifestyles have taken off. Some of the bigger names to come out of this region have been bands such as Jiang Liang Sound System (蒋亮的声音系统), Yunnan Reggae (云南雷鬼), Pu’er Dub Allstars (云南民间的回响), San Duo Jiao (三跺脚) and Kawa (樂隊) led by Lao Han.

 

It is somewhat heartening, now that I am living in Hangzhou, and married to a Chinese woman, that the soundtrack of my life and the music I loved in my youth, and still do, was developed and made popular by Chinese businessmen and musical impresarios. And, even today, it remains common to see Chinese surnames in the liner notes of reggae music, attesting to their continuing influence in this genre.

 

Let’s finish with Bob Marley who was first recorded by Leslie Kong in 1962. These 1976 lyrics still inspire me:

 

Play I some music: (dis a) reggae music!

Play I some music: (dis a) reggae music!

Roots, rock, reggae: dis a reggae music!

Roots, rock, reggae: dis a reggae music!