Following on from the announcement last week of the winning names for two of our first three stills, we promised an interview with The Mayor to shine a bit of insight into who (or what) The Mayor is.
A lot of the people in China will probably know (or can at least guess) who The Mayor is, but for our audience outside of China, who don’t have the first clue, read on and find out.
I managed to grab some time earlier this week with The Mayor because we were working together at the China Hong Kong University in Shenzhen, but more about that later. Let’s just jump straight in with my interview. It’s a little bit unconventional, but so is the subject matter, so it seemed fitting to go out on a tangent
Phil: Who, or What, is The Mayor?
Jay: The Mayor is a short form version of a slightly longer name, The Mayor of Liquor Town. A persona I adopted almost a decade ago as a marketing tool for an online alcohol retail website that I started back in 2015.
The persona is a rude and offensive troll that would typically bait absolutely anyone who was unlucky enough to say anything that could be leveraged for the amusement of The Mayor and anyone else in the particular WeChat group that The Mayor was trolling in at the time.
He was (and still is, on the rare occasions that he comes out to play) a very polarising character, who would typically be hated by 50% of the audience, but conversely, would be tolerated and even sometimes liked by the other 50%. But one thing that was shared across both the haters and the tolerators is the need to talk about this character, thus creating a bit of a viral marketing campaign that cost absolutely nothing.
Phil: With cancel culture and how easy it is to ruin a company with the wrong word or phrase weren’t you ever worried about The Mayor destroying what you built with Liquor Town and other subsequent businesses?
Jay: The short answer is of course no. I’ve been detached from the western world for so long, the whole concept of cancel culture wasn’t even on my radar in 2015. I’d never be exposed to it.
I lived (literally) in a bubble, isolated from the entire genesis of cancel culture. Prior to coming back to China in 2015, I was living in East Africa where we were more concerned with malaria, typhoid and civil wars than whether or not someone might get upset if you dropped an f-bomb, or called someone a wet blanket.
I became aware of the cancel culture movement and the fact it had now leaked into the alcohols industry when Jim Murray essentially got lynched in 2020 by a group of people that decided he was somehow a nasty old evil man because of the metaphors he used in his reviews. I still don’t completely understand why his reviews justified an entire industry to throw him to the dogs (when he had been a cornerstone of building whisky culture, globally, for 25 years or so). But it made me realise it was probably time to tone down a few of my “characters” because I was now responsible for (at the time) 100 or so people that had invested in Nine Rivers Distillery.
The Mayor (and some other personas) were forcibly retired and were replaced by a slightly more serious and almost professional version of myself.
Phil: I’m glad you mentioned Nine Rivers Distillery. How and why do you fit into the Nine Rivers Distillery Project?
Jay: There are rumours that I was one of the main catalysts for starting the project. After a few of us decided to turn those late night, whisky fuelled chats into a reality, I drew the short straw and was tasked with exploring the feasibility of building our own distillery.
A few thousand man hours later, when we decided we were really going to make this happen, I ended up with the short straw again, and ended up leading the project.
Phil: I know you’re not a fan of titles and formality, but, as CEO of Nine Rivers Distillery, why do you dress like such a tramp? I’ve obviously met you many times and if I didn’t know you better, I’d assume you were homeless. I doubt your shirt has ever seen an iron right?
Jay: Ouch. That hurts! But it’s also true! I am who I am. I’ve never been a fancy pants type.
It’s just not practical for me to wear formal shirts or suits. Especially as my day includes a huge chunk of time on a building site, in all weathers. Suits don’t really go with safety boots and a hard hat. I’d look ridiculous.
In all fairness, even before dedicating my life to Nine Rivers Distillery, I was always a scruffy type. Clothes and appearance shouldn’t define you as a person, and if people are narrow minded enough to make judgements about someone because they don’t wear the latest and most expensive designer clothes, well then that’s their problem. I wouldn’t want those types of people in my social circle or my life anyway.
Phil: Is the answer going to be the same for your notorious Wu Ling van? (for the sake of the international audience, Wu Ling make some ridiculously cheap vans – 5 seats and space for a pallet in the back for under US$10,000)
Jay: There’s absolutely nothing wrong with a good bargain! Yes, the Wu Ling van stories are all 100% true without any shame. They are really practical vehicles and I’ve got use to the driving position of a van now, so I actually find normal cars a bit uncomfortable.
PHIL: I’m sure you find normal interview questions boring, so let’s get some real dirt out in the open. There were rumours a few years ago about your first love being “Josephine” that apparently came out late one whisky night. Tell us about Josephine.
Jay: You’ve been digging hard to find dirt like that Phil. Bravo to your research skills.
Josephine was the name of one of my old AKM’s from a former lifetime where I was in South Sudan, working on a self-funded project to rehabilitate former child soldiers. Essentially teaching them vocational skills (carpentry, plumbing, brick laying, welding, car and truck maintenance) so that they could eventually secure employment, or in some cases, start their own businesses.
Reintegration back into society after spending time fighting in wars, and having no form of real education is a difficult challenge for anyone. When you consider that challenge in an country with no real social support at government level, it’s almost impossible. So that was something I dedicated 5 years of my life to.
Josephine, and her sisters, were simply a necessary part of life out there.