‘Jack Ma’s bar’ draws crowds to live music, Alibaba-themed cocktails
- Nightclub is named after the badger species famed for taking on larger predators, such as hyenas and lions
- Has a range of Alibaba-themed cocktails such as Dream and 375
On a recent business trip to the technology hub of Hangzhou and wanting to escape the confines of my hotel room one night, I joined a line of more than 100 people patiently waiting to get into the city’s hot new nightclub – HHB Music House.
Although not a party person, the club was interesting to me because it has become known as “Jack Ma Yun’s bar” after the founder of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Holding Group, which is headquartered in the city and which owns the South China Morning Post, sang there one night.
Ma’s performance of Hiroshima Mon Amour (广岛之恋) at the club’s opening event this month became a viral hit – reflecting the rock-star status accorded to many of China’s high-flying tech entrepreneurs, such as Baidu’s Robin Li Yanhong, Tencent’s Pony Ma Huateng and the father of WeChat, Allen Zhang Xiaolong.
Investors in the club include Alibaba chief risk officer Shao Xiaofeng and Alibaba chief technology officer Zhang Jianfeng, who named the place HHB – which stands for Happy Honey Badger after the badger species found across Africa, southwest Asia, and the Indian subcontinent and known for its ferocious fighting abilities. Jack Ma is not an investor himself.
The club is located far from the city’s downtown area but close to Alibaba’s headquarters. When I arrived at 8.45pm I expected it to be busy but was not ready to be told that there were 75 tables ahead of me. In the waiting area, guest services told those in groups to leave as they had no chance of getting in – but as a single person I had hope.