Xiamen is China’s new capital of cool – these are the people making it that way

For some, the essence of the word “cool” can be can be found in a hipster’s bespoke beard, fortified by single-origin coffee and soundtracked by expensive vinyl records featuring songs available free online.

For others, the opposite of contrived hipsterdom is what it’s all about – to not acknowledge cool is to truly be cool.

Regardless of how it’s defined, cool has been used a heck of a lot recently to describe Xiamen, the island city in China’s southeast Fujian province, right next to the Taiwan Strait.

The city used to be largely known as a fishing hub, but a few years ago CNN deemed it the country’s “new capital of cool”, followed by the New York Times and fashion bible Vogue reporting on Xiamen becoming hallowed ground for fashionistas rather than fishermen.

But is the cacophony of cool claims about a city of 3.5 million justified? I head to Xiamen to test its temperature and meet its creative community.

David Krings: Fat Fat Beer Horse

Shapowei Art Zone’s flagship bar, Fat Fat Beer Horse has certainly helped raise Xiamen’s cool reputation since opening in 2015.

Its steampunk-style architecture derives from the bar being converted from a fish processing plant – customers sip crisp pilsner beneath enormous metal tubes that used to dispense cascades of ice.

“Xiamen has a very different cool to, say, Berlin or Beijing. Those cities are big and rough and have strong cultural scenes,” the bar’s owner, David Krings, explains, knocking back ale at the bar as he chats.

The 40-something German has been living in Xiamen for six years. “Xiamen is smaller. The pressure isn’t so high. People who have ideas can come here to fulfil them.”

Situ Zhiwei & Cotton Yu: Thank You bar

After downing a couple of pints, I head south of Shapowei, traversing through a tidal wave of students gushing down the coffee shop-lined Daxue Road, to put Krings’ comment to Situ Zhiwei, the founder of café and bar Thank You.

The place is even trendier than Fat Fat Beer Horse: colorful records are piled up behind the DJ booth, vintage furniture has been brought in from Tokyo and it is here that I’m served one of the best whisky sours I’ve ever had.

“People here are more chill and less competitive,” says Situ, who is from the buzz-bustle metropolis of Guangzhou.

Speaking from beneath his beanie hat after sliding a second cocktail my way, the 40-something adds that the geography of the island is a big reason for this breezy mentality.

“Everything in my mind changed when I moved to Xiamen. When I feel depressed and catch sight of the open sea, everything negative drops, and you relax.”

It’s hard to imagine the permanently smiling Situ being depressed about anything, aside from perhaps scratching one of his records.

The friendly, open mentality that he and his wife, fashion designer Cotton Yu, who runs the label Mymymy, have poured into Thank You has made it the main meeting point for the city’s young creative types.

On my visit it’s a flurry of neatly trimmed moustaches, ultra-light laptops and people wearing hats indoors.

Vega Wang: Fashion designer

At the center of Xiamen’s network is the so-called Xiamen Gang, a group of young fashion designers who are helping the city’s fashion industry punch above the weight a place of its size arguably should.

Vega Wang is a core member of this group. She is doing well thanks to her super-sleek, often minimalist designs. “I’m happy with the tag Xiamen Gang – to me, it means community,” she says.

I meet Wang in her huge workshop and office in an unassuming gated residential area on the south coast of the island – through driving rain, we can just about see the ocean as we chat at her desk.

Originally from Liaoning in the northeast, Wang worked in Beijing for seven years before moving here in September 2017. “I wanted to focus on life, not just work,” she says.

In 2014, she got so depressed in the capital that she named one of her fashion lines “The Dark Night of the Soul”, though moving to Xiamen lifted the cloud. “In Beijing, when I got up in the morning I was already wearing armor to fight the day,” she tells me. “Here I get up by the sea.”

We have community [in China], but the rules of the community belong to the government. But this local build-up of unity here – it’s cool

Wang agrees with Krings and Situ about Xiamen’s size helping to cultivate an atmosphere that’s increasingly attractive to young creatives.

The city is big enough to provide access to all the logistical requirements an independent fashion brand needs to operate, but with studio rent far lower than in the likes of Beijing and Shanghai.

It’s still small enough to ensure that creative people easily find each other – often at Thank You.

“That feeling of community is something China seems to be missing elsewhere,” says Wang. “We have community [in China], but the rules of the community belong to the government. But this local build-up of unity here – it’s cool.”

Zing! There’s that word again – and totally unprompted, too.

Wan Yifang & Sheng Jiang: Fashion designer & sculptor

Moving north the quiet, sweeping highways that hug the south coast give way to taxi-crammed bustle as I pass through the shadow of the imposing Xiamen Twin Towers, that for better or worse look like they should be jutting out of a man-made Dubai beach rather than an island in southeast China.

Entering Huli district, calm is restored. “It’s relaxing and creative here,” says Wan Yifang, 33, another member of the Xiamen Gang who, like Wang, runs an eponymous fashion label. Wan’s studio is in a complex of work spaces that was converted from old factory buildings in early 2015.

Next door is a studio run by her artist husband, 27-year-old Sheng Jiang, who makes beautiful Buddha statues from wood, stone, jade, porcelain and glass, and sells them to temples, private customers and shops.

There are many cool places in China, but Xiamen is always a place you want to come back to

“This building used to be a cigarette factory,” reveals Wan, walking between plinths displaying Sheng’s works. “Loads of designers and creative companies have moved here, so it’s like we’re all neighbors. It’s got a [special] vibe.”

Unlike the others I’ve spoken to, both Wan and Sheng are from Xiamen. “I’ve been to a lot of places around China but there isn’t anywhere like Xiamen,” Sheng says. “It feels cozy, and I need somewhere cozy to create.”

Indeed, artists such as Sheng have an ever-increasing range of galleries in which to explore art, such as the Three Shadows Photography Art Centre, Zhangting Art Museum and the Qianji Gallery.

But, I have to ask Sheng, does this make Xiamen unquestionably cool? “Well, there are many cool places in China, but Xiamen is always a place you want to come back to,” he says with a chuckle. “It has a sense of belonging, rather than just being cool.”