Chinese Rolling Stone is smash hit

Monday March 06th 2006, 6:58 pm
Filed under: Newspapers

Chinese readers bought nearly every copy of the inaugural edition of Rolling Stone in Beijing yesterday.

On the cover of the first edition in Chinese of the American bible of pop culture is Cui Jian, the godfather of Chinese rock and roll. Featuring the 44-year-old rock star was a bold choice. Cui only last September played his first public concert in China in 12 years, to nearly 10,000 fans in the Workers’ Stadium in Beijing.

The magazine features Jay Chou, a pop star from Taiwan, Nigo, a Japanese hip hop artist and Muzimei, a Chinese blogger famous for her sex diary, to round out its Asian input. More than half of the content is translated from the U.S. edition.

… Robby Yung of One Media, based in Hong Kong, which publishes the magazine under licence, said that it would rely more on strong writing and photo-journalism than the pop and gossip of its English-language sister publication. “We feel Chinese music and arts are maturing rapidly and that a Chinese edition will be viable.”

Britney spears