Swiss reggae musician Junior Tshaka is un-phased by the language or cultural barriers to his music in China. “Reggae music is a universal music,” he says. He was in Beijing for the Sixth Mars en Folie Festival, a Francophone music and language event with artists from France, Belgium, Switzerland and Canada, which toured 13 cities across China. Tshaka’s militant reggae style won him first place in the 2009 European Reggae Contest at the Rototom Splash in Italy, ahead of almost 500 other acts from across the continent. The invitation to represent Switzerland at the Mars en Folie Festival was an opportunity for him to take his music to China, a country largely unfamiliar with reggae, for the first time.