Bay Area Study on Asian Rave Culture

[Le Sheng Liu]

I just called to request my participation. Apparently, I've done more than enough partying to qualify for the study :) They need more interviews, so check it out. It's confidential, and you earn $50.

Asian Americans and Asians Get $50 cash for
participating in research!

The Institute for Scientific Analysis is a
non-profit academic research institute and is
conducting interviews for a sociological research
study on ethnic identity, the culture of the
club/rave/dance scenes and the culture of drug
use. We are interviewing people from a variety of
Asian ethnic backgrounds, including Chinese,
Filipinos, Japanese, Koreans, Indians, Vietnamese,
Indonesians, Thais, and others. The interviews
are face-to-face, and participants should
currently reside in the greater Bay Area. If you
qualify, you will receive $50 for your time.

The interview is completely confidential and no
identifying information will be associated with
it. The data is used only for academic and
research purposes, and most of our results are
published in academic journals and presented at
sociology/youth culture conferences.

For more information, please call our office at
510.865.6225 or email: isainfo@sonic.net . We
will need to speak with each person who is
interested in participating so that we can
describe the details of the interview process and
ask some questions to determine eligibility.

The interviews typically last 3-4 hours and you
receive $50 cash at the end of the interview.
There will also be the opportunity to earn
additional money for friends you refer to the
study that complete the interview. The people at
the office are nice folks so call today. Pass it
on. Thanks.

[TRAINWRECK]

asian rave culture? you got to be kidding me. a bunch of idiots taking ecstacy feeling lovely dovely on a psychedelic dancefloor passing on friendship bracelets and playing with glowsticks is NOT a culture.

[ellencho]

And you must be completely unaware of rave culture at all if you buy into all those stereotypes, unless of course that's how YOU spent YOUR time at raves, and if so I feel sorry for you.

Good luck on your study LSL.

[xian]

asian rave culture? you got to be kidding me. a bunch of idiots taking ecstacy feeling lovely dovely on a psychedelic dancefloor passing on friendship bracelets and playing with glowsticks is NOT a culture.

What's your culture?

[Le Sheng Liu]

...taking ecstacy feeling lovely dovely on a psychedelic dancefloor passing on friendship bracelets and playing with glowsticks...

Wow, you got it down pretty good. Throw in the love for the music and you've basically covered most of what raving is about. Whether or not this constitutes a culture is the topic of a discussion I don't wanna get into right now. I've gotten into one too many angry debates with people I've come to hate over this. Not worth it.

Anyway, I participated in the study a few weeks ago. My interview took about four hours just cuz I kept talking and talking :lol: It was broken down into three sections: 1) bio & background, 2) drug experiences, 3) rave experiences, and integrated into the conversation throughout was my cultural and ethnic identity issues.

The first part was very comprehensive. I was asked questions about who raised me, all my possible influences growing up, etc. I pretty much spit out my entire life story. During certain times, I was concerned that this study had an agenda of looking for ravers with troubled childhoods and linking that with their drug use to formulate the whole "Only fucked up people like to get high" conclusion. But that suspicion wore off pretty quickly. This organization (non-profit, non-government funded) seems pretty cool, and they've done similar studies in the past that my friends have participated in.

The other sections were a bit easier. I just described the drugs I've done, with whom and at where I did it, how I liked/disliked each substance, etc. The third part was interesting because I had to describe the appeal of raves to this young woman (the interviewer) who knew nothing about it beyond what she has learned in conducting her studies. It was really difficult to put into words, but I did it the best I could. And towards the end of the interview, she said, "Wow, now I really wanna go to a rave." I took that as a major compliment to rave culture and to my skills at articulating how amazing this culture is. Your day is always brighter when you've converted someone :lol:

So I doubt there are any AA ravers/former ravers in the Bay Area on Fighting44s other than me. But just in case there are, I encourage you to participate in this study. Sure, it's a good cause for research and the AAs in the rave scene. But the real reason is that if you mention Le when you call them, I get $15 for referring participants. I'm broke y'all, so help me out :lol:


For more information, please call our office at 510.865.6225 or email: isainfo@sonic.net . The interviews typically last 3-4 hours and you receive $50 cash at the end of the interview.

[xian]

I'm not from the Bay Area :( otherwise, I would be glad to participate.

[SO_ANGRY]

It's past 1999 and there are still raves heh.

[xian]

Yeah, it's cause some folks actually enjoy going to the things, rather than just posing.

[silkie]

So I doubt there are any AA ravers/former ravers in the Bay Area on Fighting44s other than me. But just in case there are, I encourage you to participate in this study. Sure, it's a good cause for research and the AAs in the rave scene. But the real reason is that if you mention Le when you call them, I get $15 for referring participants. I'm broke y'all, so help me out :lol:


I sent them an email. This is the third time I am posting this post btw, it keeps getting deleted by some fanatic.

Anyways, me my homeboys and homegirls used to go raving in the bay area back in the end of 1997. we were the first asians on the scene back then, and it got pretty mainstream among asians around the middle of 1998. home depot in oakland, maritime hall in sf, buncha smaller locales, it was fun back then. btw, thanks for posting this. phuck the empire, the dream lives on.

Rave goes way back before '97. There were lots of Asians by then also.

[Le Sheng Liu]

When I went to my first rave in Oakland in 1999, the scene seemed to be predominantly made of white kids. But starting around that time, the Asian population grew and grew until 2000 or 2001 when you would see every rave consist of 80% or more Asians. It peaked during that period and then sort of waned. Nowadays, the demographics are more mixed.

I guess raving just kind of became the big thing to do for Bay Area Asians around 2000. A lot of my friends have stopped for several years already.