A new comic book by Krish Raghav, a comic book artist, illustrator and contributor to RADII magazine, who is based in Beijing, examines the surprising connections between Chinese immigrants to Jamaica and the development of rocksteady, reggae, and dub music on the island during the 1960s and 1970s. Raghav believes the story has not been given enough attention until now with the publication of a long-form comic about the “the long, strange story of how China and reggae came together.” The comic is being published as part of the magazine’s June 2019 issue, which has a music theme.

The comic traces the timeline from the first Chinese migrants to Jamaica during the 1850s and follows the critical part the Chinese-Jamaican producers and distributors of reggae, such as Vincent and Patricia Chin, who supported the new music genre in the 1970s. The story then makes a full circle back to the early adoption of reggae music by Cui Jian, a rock star in Beijing. It culminates with the development of the thriving present-day reggae scene in Yunnan province in southwestern China.

The story told in the comic book is well researched and illustrated with a love of the topic that will delight both music fans and comic aficionados. The entire comic with embedded SoundCloud tunes can be read at online and can also be heard on YouTube.

Krish Raghav draws comics and also works with contemporary music, He studied journalism and public policy and written everything from newspaper sidebars to dense academic manuscripts. He is very interested in contemporary pan-Asian culture and the creative life in large cities like Jakarta, Beijing, and New Delhi. He hopes to develop a synthesis

Photo Source: Topic