Beijing

Sounds of youth

Mars recording studios has begun its fifth year. To celebrate, it will bring eight of its bands, including Carsick Cars and Mr. Graceless, together on one night. With original music and songs, the bands will bring out the voice of young Chinese people. Pre-orders could secure you an original limited CD collection.

8 pm, Sept 1. Yugong Yishan, 3-2 Zhang Zizhong Lu, Dongcheng district. 010-6404-2711

Otaka takes baton

NHK Symphony Orchestra is to present a concert in Beijing, conducted by one of Japan's leading conductors, Tadaaki Otaka. The program: Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No 1 in B Minor and Symphony No 5 in E Minor, and Toru Takemitsu's How Slow the Wind. Chen Sa, one of the influential young Chinese pianists in the world today, is to lead the performance.

7:30 pm, Sept 1. Concert Hall, National Center for the Performing Arts, 2 West Chang'an Avenue, Xicheng district. 010-6655-0000

Shanghai

Indie rock night

Rebuilding the Rights of Statues is a Chinese rock band founded in 2003. It was inspired by the punk music of the 1970s. RRS is making experimental music and will give their first concert of this year in Shanghai. The band will present its past repertory as well as three new songs from an album to be released next year.

8:30 pm, Sept 1. Mao Live House Shanghai, 3F, 308 Chongqing Nanlu. 021-6445-0086

Color it Maroon

The American pop group Maroon Five will give a gig in Mercedez-Benz Arena. This will be the Grammy-award winning band's only stop in the Chinese mainland on its global tour for the new album Overexposed. The most popular hits of Maroon Five includes Moves Like Jagger, She Will Be Loved and Payphone.

8 pm, Sept 25. Mercedez-Benz Arena, 1200 Expo Avenue, Pudong New Area. 021-5150-9199

Water and ink

The upcoming exhibition, Undoing Shuimo, is a philosophical debate about water-ink art. Curator Peng Feng has invited 21 artists from home and abroad to present their paintings, installation, video and even performance projects. "The works look like real shuimo (water-ink), but when we undo water-ink with water-ink, we are not eliminating the art form, but liberating it - it's not the termination, but new birth of shuimo," says Peng.

9 am-5 pm, Sept 2-7. Duolun Museum of Modern Art, 27 Duolun Lu. 021-6587-5996

Hong Kong

Art or craft

In architectural circles, William Lim is known for being the founder and managing director of CL3 and past president of the American Institute of Architects, Hong Kong chapter.

In the art world, though, he is known for his large-scale installations that straddle the boundaries between art and architecture. Lantern Wonderland at Victoria Park's Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations made his work accessible to a wider audience.

Space Journey: William Lim, A Decade of Installations takes a look back at this and other important works, both in Hong Kong and abroad.

Until Sept 2. ArtisTree, 1/F Cornwall House, Taikoo Place, 979 King's Road, Quarry Bay. 852-2844-5095

Blues brother

The third concert in its monthly series, Tommy Chung and his band will play a Friday Night Blues Concert at Dada Bar + Lounge.

The Hong Kong-based blues guitarist first broke onto the city's club circuit in 2001, when Chung opened the city's first live-music venue dedicated to 48th Street Chicago-style blues.

Since then, he has released LPs including Play My Blues, Blues Talk and Blues Time, and is regarded as Asia's best blues musician - in spite of his former career as a successful barrister.

10 pm, Aug 31. Dada Bar + Lounge, 2/F The Luxe Manor, 39 Kimberley Road, Tsim Sha Tsui. 852-3763-8778

China Daily

(China Daily 08/26/2012 page13)