There have been a lot of laowai-led China-tribute pastiche music videos circling the interwebs over the last year or so, which is why when “Beijing State of Mind” began buzzing through the tubes about a week ago, I only gave it a raised eyebrow and moved along. My bad.
Filmed by one-time-laowai Mark Griffith, and starring Andrew Dougherty and Princess Fortier, the video is a very well done Beijing-tweaked redux of the 2009 Jay Z/Alicia Keys hit “Empire State of Mind”.
If you want to read a rather detailed account of the 14-month process that went into making the video, check out Mark Griffith’s blog post about it.
Taiwan State of Mind
And while it goes to great effort to draw a strait line between Republic and the People’s Republic yet has a slightly conflated view of where “your gadgets came from”, the very excellent Next Media Animation also recently released an “Empire State of Mind” parody entitled “Taiwan State of Mind” (odd that both these came out within a week of each other).
I suppose it wouldn’t be a Next Media production without some stiff-dancing animated people, but between the two I’ve got to give it to Beijing for delivering a bit more style — plus Princess just nails that chorus.
Hong Kong State of Mind (aka SAR State of Mind)
Thanks to Trey Menefee for pointing me towards another China-themed _____ State of Mind vid:
