Beijing's Most Interesting People 2014: Helen Feng

The year is drawing to a close, and once again we wanted to look at the people who are helping to shape our lives here in Beijing. So we looked at the artists, the chefs, the entrepreneurs, and a whole lot of other people who are making their mark on the city – and on us and our lifestyle – and put together this look at 10 individuals who are giving it their all. Each one of them is a true Beijinger, regardless of the length of their stay: creative, determined, and hard-working.

Helen Feng
Co-Founder/Lead Singer, Nova Heart
Co-Founder/Lead Singer, Pet Conspiracy
We were so tempted to put Helen Feng back on the cover for this issue, having graced our May issue with what was easily our best of the year, China’s top musical front woman on the front page.

Feng is a woman who bleeds for her art – literally, in the case of Nova Heart’s set at this year’s Zhangbei Music Festival, when an onstage nosebleed (caused by the grasslands’ dry air, she insists) made her normally heavy performances even more intense.

“As a musician, you can either go the session route and become untouchably good at your instrument, or be inventive and create new sh*t,” she told us in May. Clearly Feng has chosen the latter.

Beijing gets to see just how inventive on December 12, when Nova Heart take the stage at Yugong Yishan to debut their new, self-titled album.

More stories by this author here.

Email: stevenschwankert@thebeijinger.com
Twitter: @greatwriteshark
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Photo: Mitchell Pe Masilun/the Beijinger