2010 Sep 02 Noise Woes on Nanluogu Xiang: Police Visit Live Venues
Over the past week or so, the police have been dropping into bars in and around Nanluogu Xiang asking live acts to turn down the volume. Beijing Daze even carried a post late last week entitled “Lockdown in Nanluogu Xiang or the Days the music died?”
When we made enquiries on the strip, several bar owners indicated that visits from police responding to noise complaints have long been common on Nanluogu Xiang. Actually long term residences have the right to be angry about their life in colorful pajamas being invaded by colorful lights and amplified sounds. There's actually no law or regulation against the sound, however, so there's really nothing the police can do.
One real problem the bars there might face is that none of them have licenses for live performances, which is essential if they want to sell tickets according to the law. The two obvious questions are: do the bars want licenses and are they hard to get? The answers are yes and yes. There are very few places we are familiar with that actually has the relevant license (we are obviously not talking about places like the NCPA). I'm not going to mention the ones who don't.
The Ministry of Culture gives out this kind of license, but they choose to ignore applications for as long as they can. It's obviously too much trouble for them to make things more regular. The less regulations the bars follow, the easier it is for them to be shut down when some “important people” are not being paid, or if something tragic happens authorities can always say the venue was not under their control.
Good news is that, from what we have heard, the noise problem has been resolved for the time being on Nanluogu Xiang. Amazing what a few well placed RMB can achieve.
But it's hard to predict when it might flare up again.
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