Pubdate: Tue, 05 Jun 2001 Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA) Copyright: 2001 San Francisco Chronicle Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388 Author: Shai Oster, Chronicle Foreign Service Bookmarks: http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm (Ecstasy) http://www.mapinc.org/raves.htm (Raves) ALL THE RAVE IN CHINA Police Are Struggling To Control Ecstasy, The Fast-Spreading Club Drug Beijing -- The rave was at fever pitch at Beijing's swank Club Vogue. The dance floor was packed with a sweaty mix of foreign and local hipsters tuned in to the techno beats. Some were wagging their heads back and forth like human metronomes -- a sign that they had probably taken the drug Ecstasy. Known in the mainland as "head-shaking drug," or yaotou wan, Ecstasy has soared in popularity as the party drug of choice since it first filtered in from Hong Kong three years ago through habitues of the rave lifestyle. Suddenly, the music stopped and drama intruded. Police with guns drawn rushed onto the dance floor, throwing the foreigners out and forcing the Chinese patrons to wait for hours while they took urine samples, said Lisa Liu, the 30-year-old co-owner of Club Vogue. Those who tested positive either had to shell out fines of up to $725 or face being sent to a drug addiction center or a mental institution, revelers said. Ecstasy has spread throughout China like no other drug before it, drug enforcement officials say. While heroin and amphetamines remain the most popular, Ecstasy's explosive growth and broad appeal has caught Chinese officials off guard. The drug's rapid ascendance demonstrates how social norms are breaking down as a generation of youth reared on promises of a workers' paradise face a complicated reality of unemployment, broken homes and corruption. Said Geremie Barme, a noted observer of Chinese culture and professor at the Australian National University: "Ecstasy is a perfect drug of leisure and escape for a claustrophobic generation that wants to feel it is up there with international youth decadence, at the same time convincing itself that it is having some profound experience that equates dehydration and sexual oneness with anti-establishment protest." In short, the Party matters less than partying. Chinese University of Hong Kong sociologist Chan Hoi-Man notes a concurrent retreat of politics from the private lives of younger Chinese. "The decline of political authority in a post-revolutionary country and, on the other hand, the globalization of culture, means that more and more youths are looking to Western countries for models and inspiration," Chan said. Government officials are hard put to pin down the number of Ecstasy users, though the size of drug hauls would indicate that hundreds of thousands are taking the pills. While mostly focused in the larger cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, it has begun to crop up in second-tier cities as well, police say. Of course, like other Western imports, Ecstasy has taken on certain Chinese characteristics. Like the head shaking, a feature unique to the mainland that there seems no logical explanation for. Sheng Zhimin, a young movie director, mused: "There is a spiritual emptiness in China. People have money. Now they need something else. That's why something like the Falun Gong is so popular." References to the outlawed spiritual sect, which the government has unsuccessfully tried to crush, come up often in conversations about Ecstasy. The reason? Both phenomenons pose a threat to the regime. "Falun Gong is a cult religion," said a 23-year-old artist, who asked not to be named. "Ecstasy is a cult drug." The Ecstasy boom may signal the first dawn of an irreverent, drug-inspired counterculture for a new century. A popular underground song played at raves by DJs skewers the most sacred of Communist China's symbols in a way that would have been unimaginable a few years ago. Taking its cue from an old Cultural Revolution era ditty, the song goes: "No Communist Party, no New China. No New China, no sex. Without sex, how can I survive?" The song proceeds to mock the saint-like icon Lei Feng, a soldier whose unending love for Chairman Mao and selfless contributions to communism have been held up as a model to millions of students: "Learn from Lei Feng, learn from a good model. If Lei Feng takes Ecstasy, there is no difference between him and me." The current crop of party leaders isn't immune, either. "If a girl doesn't whore herself, it will sadden (President) Jiang Zemin. If a girl doesn't want to be a hooker, it will sadden (Prime Minister) Zhu Rongji." At between $10 and $20 a pill, Ecstasy is relatively affordable to middle class Chinese. So it was just a matter of time before the regime mounted its first national crackdown on Ecstasy use -- a three-month campaign known as Spring Thunder that ended April 1. In the southern province of Guangzhou, police arrested 1,072 suspects after investigating clubs, karaoke parlors and bars where the drug is common, state media reported. Hauls of Ecstasy and methamphetamines have increased 10-fold in the past three years, Guangzhou police say. Nationwide, seizures of the two "party drugs" reached more than 20 tons last year, said Zheng Jiwang, director of the National Institute on Drug Dependence, a leading researcher on addiction in China, and a professor of pharmacology at Beijing University. "Two to three months after Ecstasy appeared in the south it was already in the north," said Zheng. Mainland authorities say that all the Ecstasy sold here is imported from abroad -- most notably the Netherlands, the center for global production -- and smuggled through Hong Kong. But sources with ties to Chinese drug enforcement officials say local criminal gangs have set up mobile labs crammed in the back of trucks in southern China. Some gangs are beginning to export. A recent bust in Shenzhen netted 100, 000 pills bound for Alaska, one source says. Many of the precursor chemicals for both Ecstasy and methamphetamines are produced legally in China, so obtaining them is not hard. Hoping to capitalize on the popularity of raves, Wahaha, a leading Hangzhou-based beverage manufacturer, even has a line of bottled water called ReiwuPaidui, the Mandarin word for rave party. While water bottles are an essential accessory to stave off potentially fatal dehydration, a risk when taking Ecstasy, company officials deny they are targeting pill-poppers. In the meantime, users rave on for whatever private reasons they may have. Ma Zhishun, 23, ran away from his home in the northern industrial town of Shenyang 10 years ago when his family fell apart during a painful divorce. He hasn't spoken to his parents since. Even though he rose from a street-side fruit vendor to exporting shoes to Russia, he still has to confront depression. During a quiet moment at Beijing's Hot Spot Disco, where scantily clad women dance in cages, he explains the drug's appeal. "Ecstasy makes me happy," he said. "It helps me forget my problems." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake