In the 1980s, fears in the United States about an increasingly powerful Japanese economy produced an aesthetic known as techno-orientalism. The term refers to a heavy use of Asian visuals in cyber-punk across Hollywood as well as in video games, literature and pop culture. From neon signs to cloud-grazing skyscrapers and mega-corporations, symbols of North Asian metropolises are still routinely used to depict post-apocalyptic societies, as seen in the films Blade Runner, The Matrix, Cloud Atlas and Ex-Machina, as well as in the StarCraft game series.

Saphy Vong, founder of four-year-old Chinabot, is all about promoting Asian narratives on the global stage. But he's not a fan of the techno-orientalist genre. "By creating this dystopian aesthetic, you aren't really addressing anything about the real Asia," he explained over a lengthy email exchange. "The thing is that there are real-life dystopias, or at least real oppressive situations in Asia, that could be addressed rather than this fictionalised dystopia," he said. "I am ready to see other views of Asia being shown with as much prominence."

Since launching four years ago, London-based Chinabot has broadened and demystified the public perception of Asia’s experimental music scenes by issuing quirky, unpredictable and innovative work by regional artists. Each release is stylistically varied and meaningfully conceptualised through local cultural references: recently, Kyoto-based Jap Kasai paired Japanese Ondo and Minyo folk music with minimal juke and footwork on OWN ℃, while last year saw New Delhi's Bamboo Mystics combine Indonesian and Indian traditional instruments on Swara Suci. Vong himself has showcased Khmer chants, karaoke DVDs and metal drums under his Neo Geodesia alias on 2562 Neon Flames. The majority of the releases in Chinabot's discography are immersive listening experiences that are better suited for avant-garde theatre than dance floors, but many albums bridge the gap between club and experimental realms. They include dubby acid from Japan's King Rambo Sound on Strange Reality, footwork and trap on Laughing Ears' Metamorphosis and Bangkok-based Pisitakun's whirlwind of hard techno and molam on Absolute C.O.U.P..

At a time when several of Asia's electronic players are dabbling in hi-tech rave—think Howie Lee, SVBKVLT, Meuko! Meuko! and Hong Kong label Absurd TRAX—Chinabot's open-minded ethos enables a broader range of expression. "There isn't anything wrong with deconstructed club music in itself, but it seems to take up a disproportionate space in the conversation and it has become somewhat of an easy cliche when people talk about Asian electronic music," said Vong, who also makes music as Lafidki. "As a label, I think it’s important to show the diversity from the [Asian] continent in cultures, genres, traditions, genders."

Saphy Vong

That includes expanding the public's knowledge of the continent beyond Japan and China, which have long represented Asia's creative output on the world stage thanks to their cultural clout and the infrastructure they provide for the arts. "There is a big fetish of China and Japan in experimental music," said Vong. Touring the European Union in pre-pandemic days, he said he personally experienced how promoters, radio hosts and record labels usually booked Chinese and Japanese artists known for deconstructed club music. "It makes me realise that it's not just about race, but also economy. The richest Asian countries have more voice both in the West and East." Compared to Tokyo and Shanghai, subcultures in developing countries are typically still emerging, and they're much smaller in scale. As a result, underground communities in places such as Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar don't receive as much coverage in international media based on their perceived relevance and limited international footprint.

To even out the playing field, Chinabot highlights artists from Asia's developing nations, specifically Southeast and Central Asia. Examples include Ulaanbaatar sound artist Davaajargal Tsaschikher's immersive drone inspired by Mongolian spirituality on Re Exist; Manila-based Auspicious Family's eerie tapestry of local field recordings on Gruff Sequences for Dancefloor; French-Laotian multi-instrumentalist Ayankoko's psychedelic combination of free jazz and samples from the Khmu people of Laos; and Kazakh-Turkish composer Saadet Türköz's recordings from East Turkestan.

"Without Chinabot, it would be difficult to access the work of Southeast Asian artists who face tremendous financial, knowledge and structural obstacles when exporting their message to the world," said Chooc Ly Tan, a visiting lecturer at London's Royal College of Art, an editor of the new Asia-oriented online journal Ying Xiang and a producer whose debut EP is forthcoming on Chinabot. "The region's current context isn't favourable to the development of local artists and platforms. As they struggle locally, they need more allies like Chinabot who build bridges between Southeast Asia and global audiences," she added. "Chinabot has done incredibly at putting the spotlight on the sound of marginalised artists and catching the attention of those starved for new sounds."

Chooc Ly Tan

Vong's dedication to presenting a wide array of Asian voices is a by-product of subtle and direct discrimination he's faced throughout his life. Born in a refugee camp in Thailand to Cambodian parents fleeing Pol Pot's regime, he was raised in France and now resides in London. When touring abroad with hardcore bands as a singer years ago, he was frequently mistaken as Japanese. Vong is used to being the subject of stereotypical assumptions, but these particular interactions revealed a certain interplay between music and race. "It was not really common to see Asian musicians in hardcore bands in Europe, so everybody thinks you are Japanese," he recounted. "I played in a festival in Sweden with Melt Banana once and people kept asking me if I was the guitarist, but we really don’t look like each other, we’re both just Asian. The audience always thinks you are Japanese because you play noise music and you are Asian."

Experiences like this led to a tipping point. In 2014 and 2015, Vong lived in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, where he ran an arts space for gigs, screenings and exhibitions called Lop Loy. "I was frustrated by the power of the French community in culture," he described. As a French protectorate for 90 years—from 1863 to 1953—the Southeast Asian state remains heavily influenced by France. "A lot of bad DJs and cover bands in Phnom Penh are by French expats who get support from French institutes and live luxury lifestyles. I think this frustration is why I wanted to start a label with other Asian folks to talk about our shared experiences within scenes."

Similar decolonial approaches underpin the rise of other Asia-oriented platforms such as Daytimers, which highlights South Asian artists and Eastern Margins in London. “It's clear by now that minority communities need to build their own infrastructure,” Vong stated. "I realise that the Eurocentric world needs to make room for people like us, instead of driving us away."

Pisitakun

Beyond representing diversity in genres and geography, Chinabot also showcases Asian current affairs and political discourse as part of its modus operandi. Much of its output is thematic, centering around governments, geopolitics and the environment in an effort to spur discussion and shine a light on underrepresented issues.

Last year's HKH Cryosphere compilation was inspired by climate change in the Hindu Kush Himalayas, the intersection of ten Asian river systems. Contributors came from countries that link these waterways to the region, tying together drone, noise, prayer chants and other hypnotic sounds in ambient soundscapes. 2018's Dângrêk Mountains compilation reacted to border disputes between Thailand, Laos and Cambodia as artists from each country explored the concepts of intensity and nature through glitch, IDM, dissonant rhythms and textural samples. Elsewhere, Pisitakun's Absolute C.O.U.P. concentrated on Thailand's history of coup d'etats with track titles referring to institutions such as the army and the courts while its hardcore energy mirrored political volatility.

"I want to give a voice to things that happen in the world but are ignored," said Vong. "I’m not interested in making compilations about bubble tea, martial arts or rice cookers." Reflecting on future themes, he noted similarities between the recent US withdrawal from Afghanistan and Washington's 1975 exit from Cambodia that left the country in the Khmer Rouge's hands. "History repeating itself could be another theme for a compilation."

Chinabot's political leanings are valuable in regions such as Southeast Asia, where state-led censorship and strict laws obstruct freedom of speech. In Thailand, where it's illegal to insult the monarchy, it would be impossible for Pisitakun to release Absolute C.O.U.P. on a local label. "Chinabot has always had a strong political message of solidarity across the Asian diaspora, where we can come together artistically and have the freedom to express political art as cultural workers of the world," said US-based Tavishi, a research instructor on molecular genetics whose 2019 LP, Voices In My Head, combined industrial and abstract textures. "Many record labels, especially experimental ones, shy away from political expression and choose to focus on aesthetics to be more popular and palatable. On Chinabot, several artists have made extremely important art, for example Pisitakun, Ohyung, Arexibo, Sabiwa, Lafidki, Sarah Haras, Saadet Türköz, to only name a few, whose works span from topics like national unrest, anti-colonization, feminism, gender fluidity and cyborg futurism," Tavishi wrote over email. "In [the] company of such artists I felt comfortable in sharing, expressing and being my whole queer, disabled, political/artistic/scientific self without any censoring."

Resident Advisor · Label Of The Month Mix: Chinabot mixed by Jaeho Hwang

Chinabot, as mixed by Jaeho Hwang
Tracklist/
Neo Geodesia -Tungsa TV
Dagshenma - VJCP2
FAUXE - G A U T
Jap Kasai - 酔鴨 yoi kamo
Arexibo - 쌍둥이자리 Gemini
Bamboo Mystics - Rainbow Mother (Irama Sounds)
Tavishi - Notch signaling pathway
King Rambo Sound - Gaia
Laughing Ears - Resistance 反
Mona Evie - Demorreel
Juan Arminandi - Potong Tanah
Neo Geodesia - Typhoon Ω Moni Mekhala
Davaajargal Tsaschikher - 07.27
Keito - Lotus Root
Sarah Haras - Wish That I
Jaeho Hwang - Stop or Carry on (Feat. Soohyun & Jihwan)
Pal Hwang Dan - Jungchon Alpine Club 중촌 산악회
Auspicious Family - Hundrum misfit
Neo Geodesia - Fanta Rouge
OHYUNG - Shenme Gui (ft. space meow doll, qing liberty)
Pisitakun - MoMoNarNarChy
Pilgrim Raid - Cardboard creek
Rắn Cap̣ Đuôi - Waltz
Tampuan Community - Temple Song