Gangnam Mentality: the Beijinger's "Beijing Style"

If you wish "Gangnam Style" would go away, allow it at least another three-and-a-half minutes of your time. Do it for us - we're celebrating our 11th birthday, after all. And we promise, this is the last "Gangnam Style" parody we'll ever ask you to watch. Maybe.

The video stars DJ Pancake Lee of Haze, along with featuring a cameo from Sanlitun's legendary Michael Jackson impersonator, the dancing skills of a fair number of our True Run Media colleagues and the help and good humor of many other Beijingers. The video was shot (in a single day), directed and edited by the esteemed talents of Vicky Mohieddeen of cinema enthusiasts Electric Shadows. Spot the locations and other stars for yourselves.

Let's get straight into it then. As part of our 11th anniversary celebrations, the Beijinger is proud to present ... "Beijing Style" (Youku link here) We hope you like it.

Want a few more China-related Gangnam parodies? Oh, go on then. First up, let's start close to home with "Laowai Style." Filmed in Beijing, this effort racked up over 200,000 views on Youku in its first seven days. According to Tech in Asia, the man responsible is an American called Jesse Appell, "who has recently come to Beijing to undertake a sort of China comedy research project." You can read more about what Mr. Appell is up to via the Tech in Asia post, but what you really want is the video, so here we go ...

Next, a couple of fun examples of organizations jumping on the "Gangnam Style" bandwagon to promote what they do. Firstly, the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding deserves a big shout-out for creating (with the help of Ogilvy) "
Chengdu Style" ...

Credit also to the Hyatt Regency in Jinan for perhaps the best promotional video the Chinese hotel industry has ever produced.

Next up, "China Style," which is the most annoying of the bunch to listen to, although the video has its moments ...

And finally, all the way from Guangxi province, this is "Nanning Style" ...

Of course, there's more out there, but I think that's about enough video for you for now. For more Gangnam-related reading, Beijing Cream put together a bunch of stats last week on the rise of Gangnam Style in China. There's also the debate over why (depending on who you believe) China didn't, couldn't, can't or will never produce its own "Gangnam Style": here are links to the views of Evan Osnos for The New Yorker, Leslie Hook for FT.com, Matthew Stinson for our sister publication Agenda, and the contribution of People's Daily. And that, we think, is that.

Did we just kill "Gangnam Style"? Not just yet, I hope ... (Exits stage left, doing the "Gangnam Style" horse dance into the night ...)