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Be Happy In Your Own Skin
PeTA/Tim Franco, photographer
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On January 11, 2010, something happened in Shanghai that has never happened before in mainland China: A PETA photo shoot. I know this because one of the people most responsible for this breakthrough is writer and musician, Andy Best—a regular visitor and contributor to my blog.
The shoot happened in advance of free concert to be held on February 25 at Shanghai's premier rock club on the underground, Yu Yin Tang. It will feature two local acts: Candy Shop, a rock-rap style indie pop act and Forget and Forgive, an up-and-coming Emo band.
"The show is focused on anti-fur and is meant to promote awareness of the PETA Asia-Pacific China website 81fur.com," says Best, who explained that "81" is a homophone of "bu yao" or "don't want." "Or in this case 'no'," he adds. "So it's a current and snappy way to have 'no fur dot com' that catches local sensibilities. The show will also feature Mandarin language flyers and info."
FYI: China is an infamous base for the fur trade.
The "Be Happy In Your Own Skin" PETA photo shoot featured the two singers of Candy Shop (Sammi and M.C. YKE), Andy Best himself, and local artist Kaine Lu. Says Best: "With tough official controls on culture and an almost non-existent domestic music industry, the Shanghai citywide rock/art scene has decided to do things as they always do: DIY."
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How This Groundbreaking Event Came To Be
While searching the internets for information on a local tree planting project, Best stumbled upon a video of Jane Goodall on The Daily Show. "I was horrified to see Jon Stewart and Goodall, both respected liberals, riffing on PETA and calling them extremists and fundamentalists," says Best. They stated that these extremists were part of the problem." Moving on to the PETA site, Best discovered that they had a small China operation and website. "I then checked the how-to-volunteer guide and saw some main areas listed as suggestions: Recruit like minded volunteers, do an info table, distribute flyers, hold an event to promote PETA and, finally, create a PETA style photo ad," he explains. "I thought to myself, I'm doing all of them."
A phone call to Kaine (Little K), a local artist, led to this conversation:
Best: "Hey, do we know anyone on the scene who is vegetarian and cares about animal rights that might be up for a PETA event?"
K: "Yeah ... me."
Best: "Really?"
K: "Yeah."
Best: "Well, I want to do a racy shoot too and it'll be hard work and we will have to be in the photo. We don't ask anyone to do anything we won't do ourselves. We have to lead."
K: "I'm in."
Next up was convincing Yuyintang, the two bands, a pro photographer, and studio to all step up, free of charge. "Our team was unstoppable," says Best. "It's like a snowball rolling down a hill and it all started because of a simple moment where someone said: 'I'm doing this, and I'm starting right now'."
Stay tuned for exclusive Planet Green coverage of the February 25, 2010 PETA/music event in Shanghai, China.
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