Правительство Российской Федерации
Федеральное государственное автономное образовательное учреждение
высшего профессионального образования
Национальный исследовательский университет
"Высшая школа экономики"
Факультет философии, отделение востоковедения
Магистерская диссертация
«Американское и европейское влияние на китайский рок в середине 80х и
его социально-политические аспекты».
Студент группы МА-2
Корчуганова Анна
Витальевна
Научный руководитель
д. н., профессор Вайс Мэрион
Москва, 2014 г.
Government of the Russian Federation
National Research University Higher School of Economics
Faculty of Philosophy, School of Asian Studies
MASTER’S THESIS
The American and European Influence on Chinese Rock Music and its
Sociopolitical Aspects in the Middle 80s.
Written by:
Anna Korchuganova
Group MA-2
Supervisor:
ThD, Professor Marion Wyse
Moscow, 2014
2
Table of content
Table of content……………………………………………………………………3
Introduction………………………………………………………………………..5
Chapter 1. The history of Chinese rock music…………………………………....11
1.1 Music in Chinese society: short overview…………………………………….12
1.2 The Open Door Policy: new policy and new music…………………………..13
1.3 Yaogun – Chinese rock’n’roll………………………………………………...15
1.4 How much Chinese is in Chinese rock?............................................................18
Conclusion for the 1st Chapter…………………………………………………….20
Chapter 2. Official attitude towards changes in youth culture and spread of rockmusic in China…………………………………………………………………….22
2.1. Chinese youth culture in 1980s’ and the attitude of the government to it........23
2.2. Democracy Movement and Yaogun …………………………........................26
2.3. A turning point of 1989: Tiananmen Massacre and its influence on Chinese
rock………………………………………………………………………………..29
Conclusion for the 2nd Chapter…………..………………………………………..33
Chapter 3. The measure of American and European influence on Chinese rock: the
cases
studies
of
Cui
Jian,
Tang
Dynasty
and
Black
Panther………………………………………………………...…………………..35
3.1. Tang Dynasty and Black Panther – how much Chinese is in Chinese heavymetal?………………………………………………………………………..……35
3.1.1 Tang Dynasty and Black Panther, Chinese heavy metal bands……………..36
3
3.1.2 Comparative visual analysis of music videos “A Dream Return to Tang
Dynasty” by Tang Dynasty and “Shame” by Black Panther……………………..40
3.2. Comparative analysis of Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-changin’” and
Cui Jian’s “Nothing To My Name” ……………………………………………... 44
Conclusion for the 3rd Chapter…………………………………………………….52
Conclusion………………………………………………………………………...53
Bibliography………………………………………………………………………58
Appendix A. Interview with Wang Xiaofang, Cobra, drummer and vocals……...65
Appendix B. Interview with Yu Weimin, drummer………………………………68
Appendix C. “The Times They Are A-changin' lyrics”. Bob Dylan. (1964).....….72
Appendix D. “Nothing to My Name” lyrics. Cui Jian. (1986)………………...….75
Appendix E. Photo materials……………………………………………………...77
4
Introduction
The topic of the master’s thesis is “The American and European Influence on
Chinese Rock Music and its Sociopolitical Aspects in the Middle 80s’”. This topic
was chosen because the author found it’s interesting as well as important to trace
the measure of the American and European influence on Chinese rock and was it
important brunch of art in Chinese society in the middle 1980s’ or not. Further in
the text the term “Western” is used as it is used in literature but at the same time
we should remember that geographical division on “The West” and “The East” is
not relevant for China that has America on the East.
The rationale of the research comes from the statement that music has important
place in society and Chinese society is not exclusion. It’s necessary to understand
how it can influence on people’s minds and the example of rock in the second half
of the 1980s’ in China is a good example. It was written a lot about the nature of
Yaogun, its relationship with government but the extent of influence is under
research in the first time. The result of the study will show the extent of the
recipiency of Chinese culture towards Western influences in the result of changes
in the society in the 1980s’. Hence, the first aspect of the research is historicocultural. The question of openness of one culture to another always has actuality.
With the changes of economy society changed too and student activism of second
half of the 1980s’ in China proves this idea. The second aspect is socio-political
and the author describes the relations between Chinese government and new
phenomena in youth culture and tries to find any correlations between Democratic
Movement and emergence of Yaogun in the second half of the 1980s’. Rock music
was one of the symbols of protest in North America and Europe in the 1960s’ and
the question is did Yaogun have the same significance in Chinese society in the
1980s’ or not?
The object of the research is changed Chinese society in the 1980s’ and its cultural
and sociopolitical spheres. The subject of the study is Yaogun, its relationship with
5
government and ties with Democratic Movement.
The hypothesis of the study is that it was a certain extent of American and
European influence on Chinese rock, which developed at independent music genre.
As for sociopolitical aspect, the author assumes that the spread of Western ideas
influenced on Chinese society in the second half of the 1980s’ and Yaogun had the
same importance for Chinese society as rock had in North America and Europe of
the 1960s’.
To prove or disprove the assumptions of this hypothesis, the research has
following goal: to learn out, first how much Chinese rock, Yaogun, was inspired
by foreign music, and second, did it have the same weight in sociopolitical sphere
in second half 1980s’ as rock in America and Europe in the 1960s’?
To reach this goal, the research has following tasks:
1) To look at the historical and sociopolitical circumstances of emergence of
Yaougun;
2) To know what was the reaction of the government to the spread of Western
culture and Chinese rock-n-roll;
3) To learn out how much Chinese rock musician were inspired by American
and European precursors on the example of such heavy metal bands Tang
Dynasty and Black Panther and Cui Jian as well as sociopolitical fulfillment
of their songs.
The chronological boarders of the research are the 1980s’ years of the 20th century.
The most important place in the research has the middle of the 1980s’ and second
half of the decade, which is obvious from the topic, and events aftermath, till the
year of 1993. To describe the process of changes in Chinese society, the author
starts from the end the 1970s’ – beginning 1980s’ and in order to show the picture
deeper, the author makes reviews from the ancient times in the first chapter.
The geographical boarder of the research is Peoples’ Republic of China, and more
6
specifically, the city of Beijing where Chinese rock music emerged.
This research is an interdisciplinary one. It has its place between culturology,
musicology, history and international relations studies.
The theoretical framework of the research.
The author is going to explain the whole situation on the basis of the theory of
postmodernism. Music of postmodernism can be characterized as a mix of
different genres and also by wide-spread usage of new technologies. Postmodern
music is not only a tool for self-expression as it was before; it is a part of the
industry of entertainment and consumption of the products of the culture. At the
same time, it is ironical because irony is one of the main features of
postmodernism. Postmodernity doesn’t distinguish “high” and “law” cultures.
Jonathan Kramer, one of the main theorists of postmodern music, enumerates “16
characteristics of postmodern music, by which I mean music that is understood in a
postmodern manner, or that calls forth postmodern listening strategies, or that
provides postmodern listening experiences, or that exhibits postmodern
compositional practices” [40, p. 16]. The author assumes that Chinese rock is a
mix of Western and national indigenous traditions. In the 1980s’ young musicians
began to combine western instruments and way of stage behavior with the musical
and poetic traditions of China. This combination of different traditions, just as
usage of new technologies is one of the features of postmodern music too.
Also methods of post structuralism are used for the analysis of song lyrics.
One of the main methodic of post structuralism is narrative analysis and
deconstruction of contradictions of the meanings in the text by a critic. There is no
unique true interpretation of the text; it should always be a place for the skepticism
and query [59, p. 37]. Also, the circumstances the text was written in are very
important and this statement is used in further work. The content analysis is a type
of narrative analysis that is used to conduct comparison of the lyrics of songs by
Bob Dylan and Cui Jian.
7
The correlation between Yaogun, Chinese rock and Democracy Movement can be
explained with the help of theory on high and low context cultures by Edward Hall.
He dedicated two books, “The Hidden Dimension” and “Silent Language” to the
question, how people of different cultures communicate with each other. People of
low context culture have a good feeling of time and space, but they have to speak
out their ideas in order to be heard. For example, American and German are low
context culture. In high context culture, Russian and Chinese, words are often
omitted because people understand the meaning from the context (Hall, 1966).
This difference is crucial as the author wants to explain the place of rock music in
Democracy Movement in China of the 1980s’ and how did it get this place.
Moreover, this theory helps to describe the difference in performing the songs,
which were anthems for social movements, by Bob Dylan and Cui Jian.
Methodology of the research. In order to conduct this study, a set of methods is
used:
- Narrative Method to describe the history of Chinese rock;
- Genetic method to look at Chinese rock music in its evolution, from the first
protorockers in 1980 to creation of new music style. Also the author looks at
changing and very controversial relations of government and rockers;
-
Method of comparative analysis: in order to trace the extent of the Western
influence to compare two heavy metal bands Tang Dynasty and Black
Panther and lyrics of Cui Jian and Bob Dylan;
- Method of visual analysis to analyze music videos “A Dream To Return To
Tang Dynasty” by Tang Dynasty and “Shame” by Black Panther;
- Method of content analysis to analyze the content of lyrics of “Nothing To
My Name” by Cui Jian and “The Times Are A-changin’” by Bob Dylan;
- Method of semiotic analysis to analyze the images, which was used in the
lyrics and videos mentioned above.
The primary sources for the study are:
8
- Interviews with Wang Xiaofang, a drummer of first all-female punk band
Cobra and Yu Weimin, a drummer who played in different bands conducted
via Internet by the author;
- Official Internet sites of Chinese rock stars, as cuijian.com or
tangchao.ent.163.com;
- Lyrics of the songs;
- Music video;
- Internet resources dedicated to rock music and musicians in Chinese
language;
- Newspaper article in English-language periodic of the 1980s’.
The secondary sources for the research are the set of articles and books about
Chinese rock that is described in more detail in literature review further, as well as
literature about Chinese poetic and musical traditions and history, Democracy
Movement, the significance of music in the society and the relationships between
music and government.
This question always has been attractive for scholars. For example, Timothy Lane
Brace dedicated a chapter of his PhD dissertation about popular music in common
and Yaogun in particular. He wrote a chapter about popular music in China in the
1980s’ and was the first who create a periodization of it. Jeroen de Kloet wrote a
lot of articles about Chinese rock as a part of urban culture’s postmodernist
fulfillment. Hao Huang wrote about the relationship between Chinese rockers and
the government.
Andreas Steen wrote about the history of Yaogun and its
evolution. Jonathan Matusitz analyzed the phenomenon of Chinese rock through
semiotic perspective.
According to the tasks, the research consists of three parts, introduction, and
conclusion, table of context, bibliography and appendixes.
- Chapter 1 is about the history of history of Chinese rock and circumstances
of its emergence and tells if Yaogun indigenous form of art or not;
9
- Chapter 2 describes very controversial nature of relations between
government and rock music starting from 1980 when it tried to fight with
first evidence of emergence of rock music in China and spread of Western
music to Post Tiananmen events;
- Chapter 3 is dedicated to two case studies. The first is comparative visual
analysis of videos “A dream to return to Tang Dynasty” by Tang Dynasty
and “Shame” by Black Panther. This case study proves the conclusions of
the 1st Chapter. The second case study is comparative analysis of “Nothing
To My Name” by Cui Jian and “The times are a-changin’” by Bob Dylan. It
describes the sociopolitical meaning of these songs and compares not only
the meaning and literary devices the authors used but also historical context
of their creation.
From my modest point of view, this study contributes a deeper understanding of
the significance of Chinese rock in the 1980s’ in cultural and sociopolitical context
and the measure of American and European influence on it. The results of the
research can be applicable in further studies and in education process. The novelty
of the research is that at the first time the extent of the American and European
influence on Chinese rock is tracked, and it made on the example of songs and
music videos. Second, the attitude of the government towards Western culture and
its implementations on Chinese land is showed in the dynamics from the start of
the reforms.
10
Chapter 1. The history of Chinese rock music
This chapter is dedicated to the history of Chinese rock. It describes what is it,
when it emerged and who the main artists of this music genre were. Before I start
to talk about Chinese rock I need to tell why music is so important in society; what
I mean by “rock music” and what Chinese music is.
So, music is a form of art that is a part of human’s society as long as society exists.
People want to create something, to express their feelings and thoughts, to share
their ideas with the others and music is perfect for it. The combination of sound
and silence, rhythm and melody tells a story that enthralls imagination. Music is
very significant in socio-political sphere: it can be a tool of propaganda, a way to
speak out the ideas and attitudes of a certain social group. “Music reflects and
creates social conditions – including the factors that either facilitate or impede
social change. It is powerful at the level of the social group because it facilitates
communication which goes beyond words, enables meanings to be shared, and
promotes the development and maintenance of individual, group, cultural and
national identities” [24].
Rock music has a strong impact as on people’s emotions on the individual level as
on people’s thought on the level of society. It emerged in 1950s’ in the USA and
the UK and has its roots in Afro-American music and rock’n’roll of the 1950s’.
The “birthday” of rock is the year of 1954 when Elvis Presley had sessions at Sun
Studios and Bill Haley released his song “Rock Around the Clock” [19, p. 1]. Rock
music is deeply connected, first, with the youth culture and, second, with social
movements, protest and rebellion [57, p.39]. Musically rock music is based on the
sound of electric guitar, bass guitar, drums and sometimes keyboards [71]. It is and
it was a part of youth culture, and a symbol of generation conflict, for example, in
the 1960s’ in Europe and North America. Young people were against racial
discrimination, war in Vietnam, social inequity and “rock’n’roll lifestyle” was one
of the way to demonstrate their attitude to the values of the older generation [56].
11
1.1 Music in Chinese society: short overview
Music was important part of Chinese society since ancient times. It has a close
connection with ritual, which is one of the core Confucian concepts. According to
the Confucian thought, it had a didactic role in the society. The aim of music is not
only to entertain but also to teach, to show what is right and wrong. “Music in
Confucianism is regarded as a device for self-cultivation, a vehicle of selfexpression, a force of social stability, a political tool, and a medium of communion
between man, nature and supernatural powers” [33]. According to Confucianism,
music was one of six central arts that can educate people (Ji, 2008). “To the
Chinese, music is never simply music, but it is something serving a greater purpose.
Whether the purpose was for purification of the mind, or for motivating workers in
their labors, or for increasing the knowledge about something, or to serve the
society, the nation and greater political goals, Chinese music is never free from this
ideological baggage” [28].
Music in China had a lot of forms: Chinese opera, minorities’ music, folk music,
imperial court music. Chinese met European music since missionaries and
merchants came there (Law, Ho, 2012).
In the 20th century, China faced a lot of changes and challenges. Music, which
always reflects what is happening within the society, changed too. Shidaiqu,
Chinese popular music appeared in Shanghai in 1920 – 1930s’ was a mix of jazz,
Hollywood film songs, and popular Chinese urban ballads performed in the
entertainment quarters, dance halls and nightclubs (Law, Ho, 2012).
Another music genre that reflected the situation in Chinese society, were patriotic
and anti-war songs. “War against Japan (1937–1945) and the 4-year Civil War
(1945–1949) gave an impulse to appearance of anti-war and patriotic songs with
Western diatonic melodies” [41, p. 504] With establishment of People’s Republic
of China music got new tasks that were proclaimed even earlier during Yan’an
Conference on Literature and Art, when Mao Ze Dong said that “Literature and art
12
are subordinate to politics but in their turn exert a great influence on politics” [20,
p. 44]. Tongsu yinyue, music for the masses, which emerged in the early 1970s,
should “serve the people“. It was a socialist art that combined plain folk melodies
with Western orchestral accompaniment and traditional Chinese instruments
(Huang, 2001). “The CCP adopted songs as a propaganda vehicle to fight against
their two enemies, the Japanese and the Guomingdang—and, more important, to
reshape people’s mind. The CCP attacked American “cultural imperialism” and
“the alleged toxicity of Western music via propaganda cartoons that juxtaposed
ugly, drunken, and lecherous Americans with jazz and dance halls” [42, p. 404].
Chinese government tried to fight with everything that was out of the main line of
the Party at that time, and music was one of the spheres of this ideological fight.
Ironically, musicians used Western instruments while performing music that was
used in anti-Western propaganda.
1.2 The Open Door Policy: new policy and new music
The end of 1970s’ brought to China new changes. The Open Door Policy launched
by Deng Xiaoping marked a shift from control to market economy and more
openness to other countries in economic sense. Establishment of private business,
foreign investment and trade and more openness to foreign culture were promoted
by reforms (Law, Ho, 2012). Of course, changes in economy influenced on culture
and values (Law, Ho, 2009). Chinese music, with comparison with the previous
period, got new tasks and ideas to serve. “By the 1980s, market forces converted
state-owned music enterprises to ‘serve the people’s money’ (Wei Renminbi fuwu)
with alternative pop music styles” [32, p. 2].
Opening of markets and thus, opening to technological innovations had a good
impact to development of music. “New modern electronic appliances such as
radios, cassette players, and television sets provided the necessary infrastructure
that enabled the growing importance of popular music in China” [21, p. 231].
13
Another source for growing Chinese musical market was foreign investments from
Polygram, JVC, and Rock Records from Taiwan. They were interested in it
because it was the very beginning of industry of show-business in China and at that
time it was perspective (Huang, 2001).
These reforms were like the open doors for new music genres. In the first middle
of 1980s’ the dominating music genre came abroad to mainland China was
Cantopop originated in Hong Kong and Taiwan. “This music, known as
Gangtaiyue typically had the following characteristics: smooth flowing melodies,
usually without direct or obvious relationship with traditional Chinese melodic
construction; a type of vocal production that was the "middle way" between
Western full, ringing vocal style and the more nasal, pinched and higher pitched
Chinese folksong style” [18, p. 137].
Chinese people got a chance to listen not only music not only from Taiwan and
Hong Kong, but also European and American music. “Popular music—ranging
from The Beatles to John Denver and from The Carpenters to Michael Jackson and
Madonna—was among the forms of popular culture that have entered China since
1978, along with, for example, Telenovelas from Brazil, pop music from Taiwan,
and cartoons from Japan” [21, p. 231]. Such bands as “Queensrÿche, King
Crimson, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Rush, Guns ‘n’ Roses, and Led Zeppelin were
admired for their combination of instrumental brilliance and “hard” energy, which
starkly contrasted with insipid contemporaneous mainland Chinese pop music” [18,
p. 147] and had further influence on Chinese rock-music.
In the first half of 1980s’ mainland Chinese musicians tried to copy Cantopop by
performing lyric songs - shuqinggequ. They were characterized as yin rou – soft,
feminine (Huang, 2003). From the second half of 1980s’ the trend of imitation had
evolved to distancing from light music. “During 1986–1990, a period of economic
boom, mainland stars established more distinctive styles of jinge (energetic songs),
which were characteristically Xibeifeng (Northwest Wind) emerged as an
14
alternative to “soft” Gangtai music. By combining Western rock and roll
instrumental accompaniment with Chinese northern folk-song melodies, a modern
Chinese musical sensibility was explored in popular songwriting. A distinguishing
feature was a hoarse vocal timbre suggesting rustic virility and sincerity; lyrics
spoke of disappointment with limited life choices. This represented rock music’s
initial Chinese beachhead” [31, p. 185] Also Xibeifeng wasn’t just an opposition to
Gangtaiyue but also an attempt to come back to the cultural roots. “In some of the
early Xibeifeng pieces the "roots seeking" led not so much to a sense of love and
longing for one's hometown village (which could be interpreted as a kind of
patriotism) but to a sense of alienation, loss and dissatisfaction (which could be
interpreted as a kind of social criticism)” [18, p. 152] .
1.3 Yaogun – Chinese rock’n’roll
The next musical genre that appeared after Xibeifeng was Yaogunyue, Chinese
rock’n’roll. It happened due to several reasons. “One such supposition is that
China’s emerging role in the global market carries with it an inevitable relaxation
of social and political constraints. A second belief is that rock and roll rebellion,
the subject of reification in the West, similarly applies to China. The third
assumption, closely related to the second, is valorization of Chinese rockers as
heroic nonconformists leading modern China towards “Western” globalization”
[31, p. 183] As I’ve said earlier, one of the sources for inspiration for Chinese
musicians was European and American music. It became possible because of
spreading contacts between Chinese and foreigners, as a rule, exchange students
who took tapes with Western music and share it with their Chinese friends (De
Kloet, 2003). For example, a foreign student from Hungury Kassai Balazs and
Madagascan guitarist Eddie Randriamampionona played with Cui Jian for a while
[64]. Also Chinese who traveled abroad brought tapes with themselves [20, p. 30].
“A product of interactions between the foreign diplomatic community, foreign
exchange students, and inquisitive Chinese university students, Yaogun yinyue
began in Beijing in the mid-1980s. Mainland Chinese protorockers have admitted
15
to early infatuations with mainstream heavy-metal bands favored by predominantly
white and middle-class American overseas students, who interacted with Chinese
youth” [31, p. 187].
Yaogun didn’t emerge from nothing. The first rock band “Peking All-Stars”
consisted only from foreigners lived in Beijing and gathered in 1979 and that
played music in hotels, Beijing Foreign Languages Institute, embassies [69]. In
the first middle of 1980s’, there were founded several bands played covers of
Western and Japanese songs. Group “Wan Li Ma Wang” that played covers of
Western rock-songs was established in Beijing Second Foreign Language Institute
in 1980. Wang Yong founded a band "Aris" in 1981 and they sang Japanese songs.
In1982 Ding Wu sang in band called "Fu Chong Ji”. The band “Seven Plywood”
was established. The seven members of this band with Cui Jian among them
recorded an album of covers on rock-song and Chinese national songs. It is
interesting, that at that time not only Chinese performed rock-music in China:
foreigners were members of a band “Continent” [65]. I call the period from 1980 to
1985 a period of imitation when musicians just had met American and European
rock and pop music and tried to copy it. The number of bands played covers of
famous songs proves it. It was very difficult to get information about rock as well
as instruments. Also, not so many people had a chance to listen to foreign music
and meet with foreigners. As a rule, first protorockers were from Beijing, were
students of big universities where exchange students came to study or students of
music or art colleges.
A new stage began at 1986 when Cui Jian first came at the stage of Beijing
Workers’ Stadium and sang his most famous song “Nothing to My Name”. Cui
Jian often may be called a “father” or even “grandfather” of Chinese rock. Cui was
born in 1961 in musical family: his father was a professional trumpet player and
mother was a dancer in Korean minority troop. In the age of 14 Cui Jian started to
learn how to play trumpet and worked in Beijing Orchestra. Then he began to play
rock music and left Orchestra [64].
Sometimes Cui Jian is considered as a
16
representative of Xibeifeng, especially for his early songs. American researcher
Hao Huang assumed that Cui Jian started as a writer of love songs that combined
Xibeifeng with pop music in the middle 1980s’ (Huang, 2001). He changed his
sound and semantic content of his songs in the first album “Rock and Roll on the
New Long March”, which was released in 1989. Timothy Brace described it as a
sign of moods floating in the air at the time: “With the sound came a new ideology,
as embedded in the rock mythology, which promises (bodily) freedom, masculinity,
rebellion, and protest. The ideology of rock resonates closely with the perceived
Zeitgeist of the 1980s, during which a ‘‘cultural fever’’ raged over urban China,
questioning the confinements of Chinese culture” [18, p. 176].
He combined Western way of performing music and Chinese musical tradition. He
mixed up not only Chinese and Western approach to playing music but also used
revolutionary images. It can be traced through the design of the cover of his album
“Rock on Long March”. It is a reference to Mao’s Great March of 1934 – 1935.
He blinded himself with a red patch while performing his song “A Piece of Red
Clothes” in the beginning of the 1990s’ and this image was a critic on the
government without words.
There two different opinions, when Cui Jian became popular. To Jeroen de Kloet’s
point of view, it happened just after performance of his most famous song in 1986.
“Cui Jian came to fame in 1986 with his song ‘‘I Have Nothing’’ (yi wu suo
you)—a song about a failed love affair, but widely read as a metaphor for the
growing estrangement of Chinese youth from the political climate of China—he
gave a popular sonic voice to this great cultural debate. His song became, quite
unintended, one of the anthems of the student demonstrations in 1989” [21, p. 231].
Timothy Lane Brace assumes that it happened 3 years later: “Cui Jian shot to fame
during the Tiananmen Square tragedy when his song, “Nothing to My Name,”1
became an anthem for students during the demonstrations” [18, p. 176]. To my
Actually, “I have nothing” and “Nothing to my name” are different translations of the title of one song, 一无所有
(Yi Wu Suo You).
1
17
mind, opinion of de Kloet is closer to reality because to the Tiananmen events Cui
Jian was already well-known artist. Here is what on-line encyclopedia of Chinese
rock tells: “In May 1986, at a Beijing concert commemorating the Year of World
Peace, Cui Jian climbs onto the stage in peasant clothing and belts out his latest
composition, "Nothing to My Name". As the song ends, a stunned audience erupts
in standing ovation. Before long, young people all over China are banging out Cui
Jian tunes on beat-up guitars in campus dormitories and coffeehouses” [74].
It wasn’t that easy to be a rocker in China because of its social structure. “The
musicians live outside the system of the danwei, or work unit, which allows them
greater freedom, but offers none of the system's benefits, like housing and a
guaranteed salary. In the beginning, most rock musicians lived at home practiced
anywhere they could find, and spent whatever money they had on instruments and
any rock tapes that were available” [52]. They could stay in danwei only if they
had an official job at orchestras and troops [20, p. 78]. Also, it was very difficult to
find information what is rock and how to play it. Musicians learnt everything by
themselves and got knowledge from every source they met [1, 2]. In eighties, the
practice of badai – transcribing music through repeating listening was widely
spread and it was another way for people to learn the music [20, p. 73].
1.4 How much Chinese is in Chinese rock?
There is a question, how much Chinese was in Chinese rock’n’roll? Is it
indigenous cultural form or a simply copy from the West? It quite obvious that
Yaogun was inspired by American and European rock musicians, such as Led
Zeppelin, U2, Sting and The Police, Pink Floyd, etc. [1, 2]. I think that during the
first period, from 1980 to 1985 it was rather an imitation that creation of something
new. But after 1986 when Yaogun came out to the big scene, a new period of
creation of new music style started. It was a sort of confrontation between light and
smooth music Gangtai from Hong Kong and Taiwan and rough music of North
part of mainland China, as Xibeifeng as Yaogun (De Kloet, 2006). “Interestingly,
18
too, Beijing rockers ‘‘imitate’’ Western rock aesthetics (rebellion and specific
music scenes) in order to differentiate themselves from their Southern colleagues”
[21, p. 250].
In my opinion, rockers of the second half of 1980s’ took a form of rock music:
guitar, bass and drum playing together, long hair and black colour dominating in
clothes. If we look at the photos of 1980s’ we will see typical rocker with Chinese
face. At the same time, they filled this from with Chinese indigenous filling. They
used Chinese traditional instruments and melodies, wrote songs in Chinese
language. I am going to show it on the example of two most famous heavy-metal
bands of China Tang Dynasty and Black Panther in the 3 rd Chapter. “Other
Chinese rock bands have established their own style, combining Western rock and
Chinese national styles. For example, He Yong’s “Requiem March” ends with a
Buddhist chant recited by a monk. The heavy metal band, Xin Qiji, sets a Sung
dynasty song lyric (ci) “to wailing electric guitars.” Lao Wu, lead guitarist for the
rock band Tang Dynasty, describes the use of traditional Chinese instruments and
images in relation to cultural essentialism” [42, p. 405].
Culturally, Chinese rock is influenced by the Western music but has its own native
features. Lao Wu, a bassist of metal band Tang Dynasty said: "We're going down
two different roads at the same time, we are absorbing Western music, listening to
Queensryche and King Crimson, reading new techniques in Guitar Player
magazine. But we're also getting deeper and deeper into our own tradition. Rock is
based on blues, and the blues isn't in our blood. We can imitate it, we can play it,
but eventually we'll have to go back to the music that we grew up with, traditional
Chinese music - folk music from all over China - and then come up with
something that goes beyond all the boundaries" [35].
As a rule, rockers got a musical education; they learnt how to play traditional
Chinese instruments. They used ancient Chinese music heritage in a varying
degree. Cui Jian learnt how to play trumpet and was a member of Beijing
19
Orchestra. Drummer of female punk band Cobra Wang Xiaofang played Yangqin,
Chinese dulcimer [1]. “Many musicians studied in the beginning classical Western
order Chinese instruments, such as e.g. Qin Qi, who started in the age of 13 with
violin lessons, or Wang Yang, who already in the age of 9 played the Guzheng
(finger board zither)” [54]. Some of them learnt by themselves, as drummer Yu
Weimin [2] or members of Tang Dynasty Ding Wu and Lao Wu. A great passion
for music and desire to invent a new sound pushed them forward. I assume that
play rock instead of Chinese music wasn’t as difficult for musicians as one may
think. Rock and Chinese traditional music both are based on pentatonic, five notes
scale [77].
The theory of postmodernism explains why it happened very well: in postmodern
world everything is mixed up. This combination of different traditions, just as
usage of new technologies is one of the features of postmodern music (Kramer,
2002). China occurred to be on a crossroad of its ancient music tradition and new
genres that came to China with its opening in 1980.
One event divided the development of Chinese rock. It was Tiananmen Massacre
in 1989. It is difficult to divide political and cultural consequences of suppression
Tiananmen movement on yaogun and that’s why it will be discussed in next
chapter in more detail.
Conclusion for the 1st Chapter
Music always was an important part of any society from the ancient time and
Chinese society is not exclusion. For Confucianism, music is important due its
didactic role in the society. Music reflects changes in the society and situation in
1980 in mainland China demonstrates it very bright – the Open Door Policy
changed economy, society and culture as well. In comparison with previous period,
when music should serve mass of people, peasant and workers, it got new
fulfillment in 1980s’. Starting from this period, music can serve money and
become a part of business. People got an access to foreign music from Gong Kong
20
and Taiwan and from the West then. Such bands as U2, the Police, Pink Floyd,
Led Zeppelin, Talking Heads had a strong impact on Chinese youth. The growing
popularity of Cantopop gave an impulse for the development of mainland popular
music in the 1980s’ (Law, Ho, 2012). Hence, there were two steams of the
influence to a new cultural landscape in China. The first steam, very tiny one, was
music from Europe and America. I assume that not so many people could listen to
it that time. Students of universities which had exchange programs, workers of
embassies and businessmen took the music they listen to China and some of them
shared it to Chinese friends. Also it was contraband of records from Hong Kong to
mainland China [16]. The second steam was wider because more people have an
access to it – Gangtaiyue, Cantopop, which was very popular in the first middle of
the 1980s’ in China.
Musicians started to play rock from the very beginning of 1980. First protorockers
played cover version and number of people who played it was limited by students
of universities with foreign exchange and music colleges. With the performance of
Cui Jian in 1986 a new period started when Yaogun officially started. I define
Chinese rock as music played Chinese musicians from the second part of 80s’ in
mainland China in mostly Chinese language. They combined Western form of rock
– rock vocal, guitars and strong rhythm section with indigenous Chinese
fulfillment.
As it demonstrated in the first chapter, it’s rather difficult to divide culture from
society. It is more difficult to divide society from the sphere of politics.
Nevertheless, rather contradictive relationship between Yaogun and central
government and its development will be discussed in the next chapter.
21
Chapter 2. Official attitude towards changes in youth culture and spread of rockmusic in China
This chapter is about the relations between central government and rock music. In
order to explain rather contradictive nature of these relations I will start from the
changes in youth culture in early 1980s’ and non-admission of them by the
government. From the middle 1980s’ a new stage began: rock music as well as
new phenomena in youth culture was allowed and concert of foreign artist and
mainland China rockers, TV and radio programs prove this statement. Also I look
not only at changes at cultural sphere but also at socio-political one. The spread of
liberal ideas led to the beginning of Democratic Movement in 1986-1987 and
student activism. The question is any correlation between rock-music, which is a
symbol of protest from 1960s’ and people’s demands for political changes in China
in middle and the second half of the 1980s’? The aim of this part is to answer this
question.
Music always was a sphere of art, which influences people’s minds heavily.
Control over masses is a thing that every government is very concerned about. For
example, in Singapore government controls what sort of music should be in
rotation on the radio. American censorship prohibits songs about drugs and
violence towards women. Music was controlled by government in Soviet Union
and it was only one company, named Melodiya that could produce and distribute
music (Bernstein, Sekine, Weissman, 2013).
As it was described in the previous chapter government tried to control music that
was a tool of propaganda during Mao’s time. “Songs were controlled by the CCP
and served to uphold state ideology. Communist China promoted a strong
revolutionary orientation in the development of music as political propaganda” [41,
p. 504]. Other genres of music, differ from Tongsu yinyue, common music, were
not in favor. “Traditional Chinese music and Western music were both banned for
carrying feudal and bourgeois messages, respectively, and Chinese composers and
22
musicians were prohibited from researching either. Popular music was depicted as
an inferior cultural form tainted by Western capitalist values and those Chinese
who listened to American music or loved American commodities were deemed
immoral. The musical repertoire during the Cultural Revolution was restricted to a
very few songs, all of which were intended to increase popular enthusiasm for
revolutionary ideology” [42, p. 404].
2.1. Chinese youth culture in 1980s’ and the attitude of the government to it
The Open Door Policy led not only to the changes in economic sphere but also to
new phenomena in social and cultural spheres. Business and education contacts
with foreigners gave an impulse to the spread of American and European music in
China.
I assume that not big amount of people had a chance to communicate with
foreigners and listen to a foreign music. But at least it was possible. New type of
time-spending emerged in the beginning of 1980s’: it was discos, where young
people could come and listen to music and dance. Obviously that such type of
entertainment was new for youth and one can hardly imagine it during Mao’s times.
At the same time, officials didn’t approve it. “The PRC authority is concerned
about what it understands to be the moral pollution caused by popular music” [41,
p. 510]. They didn’t approve discos and there were precedents when young men
were put in jail for several days for dancing. In some big cities dances and
communication with foreigners were forbidden in order to stop “moral pollution”
in 1980 (McNulty, 1980)
From the other hand, 1980 was a year when the very first rock concert of band
from abroad happened in China. It was Japanese group Godiego with four Japanese
and one American member. It was sponsored by Japanese companies and held
place in Tianjin (St. Petersburg Times, 1980)
Professors of Peking University published a booklet “How to Distinguish Decadent
Songs” in 1981 where was described why such genres as jazz, rock and disco are
23
dangerous for listeners. Administration of several Beijing universities tried to
manage what students listen to by obligate registration of their types (Wren, 1982).
But at the same year Jean Michel Jarre, a French pioneer of electronic music had a
concert in Beijing with 20 000 audience! (Ocala Star-Banner, 1891)
Long hair, tight trousers and interest in Western music – all this was an evidence
of decline of morality of the young generation. “Rock was labeled and criticized by
the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as representing spiritual pollution from the
West”[23, p. 235] In order to fight with it government started an “anti-spiritual
pollution campaign” in October 1983. Deng Xiaoping made a speech on Second
Plenary Session of the 12th CPC National Congress where he used the term
“spiritual pollution” at the first time and said that art is in danger. Mass culture,
which began to emerge in China in the beginning of the 1980s’ were claimed as
pornographic and controversial to socialist values. In particular rock music was
treated as dangerous because it can pollute people minds by the ideas of rebellion
and riot (Liu, 2014). But it was stopped in a few months because of a “fear a return
to the xenophobia of the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution” [15].
The process of changes was very controversial. Ideology met economic benefits
and this controversy showed that changes in economic sphere dropped behind
changes in political one. State controlled music during the 1970s’ but the 1980s’
brought new rules. “Slowly but irreversibly, the state has changed from a
monopolistic producer into a commissioner and regulator of a cultural market [26,
p 10].
As I told in previous chapter, with the appearance of new music on Chinese
cultural landscape, people tried to play this kind of music too. Several bands,
which played covers on foreign songs gathered. In 1984 appeared the rock band Bu
Dao Weng and it is remarkable that a work unit danwei helped musicians with the
instruments (Steen, 1996). I assume that it shows a real shift in attitude towards
rock music because danwei wouldn’t help musicians without at least unofficial
24
permission. But as it described above, in most cases rockers were out of the system
of danwei and the case of Bu Dao Weng is rather exclusion than a rule.
Government understood that it cannot control outspread of Western culture among
young people because the times had changed. From the beginning of the 1980s’
rare foreign musicians came to China with concerts and this trend continued to
grow in the second middle of the 1980s’. So, in 1985 the first concert of foreign
superstars took place. It was British Wham! (Baum, 1985) This show was
something people haven’t seen before in China. The police tried to control the
crowd and make them sit but people danced anyway (Lakeland Ledger, 1985). This
concert had a strong impact on the Chinese youth because people saw what they
only listen before.
A rock band from Europe performed in China for the first time in 1986. It was a
band called Strax from Iceland. Official tried to control the behavior of the crowd:
it was announced before the concert that all the forms of impolite behavior are
prohibited as whistling and shouting, but it was ignored (Gainesville Sun, 1986).
Also rock-music appeared in the rotation of radio stations. For example, rock was
in a heavy rotation on commercial radio station of Guangzhou “Pearl River
Economic Radio Station” (Gargan, 1987). The year of 1986 also marked a real
breakthrough for the Chinese rock-music. It was the first time when Cui Jian
appeared on the scene and sang his song “Nothing To My Name” on the concert at
Beijing Workers’ Stadium. Rock finally went out of underground and small clubs.
Words of General secretary Hu Yaoban illustrate how much official attitude
towards rock had changed, who said: “What is wrong in rock’n’roll?” (Wilmington
Morning Star, 1985) One of the reasons, why government tolerated Chinese rockn-roll was an attempt to have domestic musicians versus foreign music, especially
Cantopop [20, p. 53].
In the beginning, government didn’t accept these changes and tried to fight with
them but as it turned out, it couldn’t do anything with the changes in youth culture.
25
Chinese people got an access to new types of music: disco, rock, jazz from the
West and Gantaiyue from the South. Young people had fun dancing at disco halls
wearing strange clothes in eyes of older generations. In the very beginning of the
1980s’ it was rather dangerous for them because such behavior as well as
friendship with foreigner was condemned by officials. Anyway, even AntiSpiritual campaign of 1983 couldn’t stop it and governmental attitude towards
Western culture became more tolerable. During the decade, musicians came to
China with concerts – it brought money. Also, rock music appeared in the rotation
of radio stations.
2.2. Democracy Movement and Yaogun
All the events described in the previous paragraph are evidences that official
position towards rock-music changed. Live performances, TV and radio programs
show that climate had changed in China. It was really so, and not only in sociocultural sphere but also in the sphere of politics. Democratic Movement bloomed
in the second half of the 1980s’. 1986 was a remarkable year not only for Yaogun,
but also for Chinese society - it was a year of the beginning student activism in
Anhui province that spread over the country. Astrophysicist Fang Lizhi introduced
to students ideas of democracy and inspired the movement (Shell, 1988). Actually,
pro-democratic moods appeared in 1978, when people put their ideas on
Democracy Wall in Beijing. This movement existed till 1981 (Paltemaa, 2007).
People who participated in the movement wanted officials to see that Chinese
society needs further reforms “which substitute the deliberate rule of law for the
arbitrary rule of men, not as alternative to socialism necessarily, so as to achieve a
far more meaningful level of government-to-citizen accountability” [58, p. 332].
Students “demanded more rights, liberties and welfare” [30, p. 75] From the first
glance, ties between Democratic Movement and Yaogun are not obvious, but
Wu’er Kaixi, the student leader said in 1989 that “Yaogun influenced students’
ideas more than any of the theories of aging intellectuals on democracy” [20,
p.109]. It wasn’t officially proclaimed as a symbol and “Nothing To My Name” of
26
Cui Jian isn’t a protest song from its content2, but according to the theory of Hall,
China is high-context culture, which means that many things are not said – people
understand it from the context.
It was two groups of interest that understood the nature of the reforms in different
extent. People from the second group were waiting for wilder and deeper changes
and it’s not surprising that the contradiction between expectances of people and
official position finally transformed in an open conflict. “In the late 1980s, Chinese
rockers advocated participation in a cosmopolitan internationalism, Kaifang
(liberalized, open), as opposed to traditional culture, Fengbi (landlocked, closed).
The older generation used it to refer to the “Open Door” official policy of
intercultural contact limited to a tightly controlled selection of technology and
trade, which is in actuality an exclusionary tactic. This second, dynamic concept of
Kaifang contains the potential for redefining the homeland’s cultural core, by
suggesting that culture does not remain static” [31, p. 189]
People who listened to rock were opposite official position even they were allowed
to do so. “Fans of Yaogunyue find in its brashness and boldness expressions of
their own frustrations of feeling hemmed in by the political and cultural traditions
in China and connect themselves with a rebellious and independent political
ideology that they see as part of the "Rock and Roll lifestyle. Having fun and
partying to popular music is in this sense an act of opposition. It is a refusal to
participate in the perpetuation of a lie. Partying to specifically Yaogunyue focuses
the oppositional component; and support of Cui Jian and his music is undeniably
and obviously political. In particular, Yaogunyue and the social gestures
surrounding it (yelling, dancing, etc.) serve to simultaneously bond an oppositional
community and alienate it not only from the regime, but from mainstream society
as well” [18, p. 200]. Also rock was a reason for fans to communicate and gather
together. People indicated each other by appearance first and then – by taste in
music. They spent their time at parties where people danced, listened to music and
2
The analysis of this song is made in the 3rd Chapter.
27
communicated. Rock gave them a feeling of community, which was very strong
[20, p. 70]. “Yaogunyue has emerged as a marginal style, marked as different by
virtue of its oppositional possibilities (both stylistically and lyrically). And it is in
this margin - where it practices its expressive difference - that Yaogunyue finds its
political power” [18, p. 166].
But it won’t be right to say that every person who involved in the Democratic
Movement listened to rock music and vice versa. I tried to ask musicians about it,
but nobody answered. They rather prefer to “not understand the question” than to
answer it [1]. I think it’s understandable because these questions might be painful
for them. In my opinion, rock music and spread of liberal ideas over China are
parts of one process that started with the opening of Chinese economy in 1978.
Cui Jian became more and more popular for telling things that were important for
Chinese youth and he influenced them a lot. The relationships between Cui Jian
and officials became more difficult as he criticized a current situation in China by
his songs (Matusitz, 2009). There was a dichotomy of political and economic
aspect of these relations. From the one hand, Cui gained money through the
distribution of his records and life performances. From the other hand, his music
became a symbol of political opposition to an educated class and a rebellious youth
(Brace, 1992). Central government put certain restrictions on Cui’s activities. “Cui
Jian was banned from performing in 1987 for a year after a Beijing performance on
14 January enraged one Party official, just as the frenzied audience in his 1991 tour
prompted the authorities to cut his tour short in Chengdu” [21, p. 231]. These facts
reveal the contradictory nature of relationships between government and Cui Jian.
For example, he was under attack when government launched new anti-spiritual
pollution campaign against “bourgeois liberalization” in 1987 [20, p. 83].
In 1989 Cui Jian released his first album “Rock and Roll on the New Long March”
by state-own record company (Huang, 2003). Despite the fact that the album was
actually released with the help of government, Cui Jian allowed himself to criticize
28
the existing situation. In Huang’s opinion, this album had a certain influence on the
political situation of that time. “It electrified Chinese youth with daring rethinking
mainland Chinese rock ‘n’ roll challenges to conventional social values. ‘Rock and
Roll on the New Long March’ not only alluded to the heroic history of Mao Ze
Dong and his dedicated comrades, it converted popular music from an insipid
Western import to a contemporary revolutionary weapon against institutional
inertia and corruption. The founding deeds of Communist Chinese leaders were
joined to a driving rock beat, and instead of veneration, an irreverent challenge was
unleashed in the form of rock energy” [31, p. 187]
The relationships between Yaogun, which had a rebellious potential in the second
half of 1980s’ and became a symbol of protest and the government were difficult.
2.3. A turning point of 1989: Tiananmen Massacre and its influence on Chinese
rock
The contradictions between Democratic Movement and officials resulted in an
open conflict in 1989. “By 1989, everyone was unhappy. Ordinary citizens were
seeing their standards of living cut into a half by double-digit inflation, while the
corrupt and hypocritical party leaders who bullied them every day at work got fat
off the reforms. Intellectuals were clamoring for freedom of the press and the
release of those political prisoners. College students, packed eight to a room in a
filthy dorm and force-fed Marxist-Leninist dogma in class, spent their time
listening to rock music, talking about how to change China at surreptitious
"democracy salons" on campus” [35].
The death of Hu Yaoban on April, 19 was a reason for students to come out the
streets for his memory. “That night students marched on Tiananmen Square
demanding freedom and democracy. The protest then escalated into a full-scale
popular uprising rapidly, when martial law declared on May 20, millions of
citizens, determined to protect the students on Tiananmen square at any cost,
jubilantly threw together makeshift blockades to stop the troop trucks massed on
29
the perimeters of the city from coming in” [35]. The anthem for them was famous
song of Cui Jian “Nothing To My Name”. He sang for students in the square in the
end of May 1989 (Huang, 2001).
The protest was suppressed by Army on the 4th of June. It’s still unknown how
much people died that day. As for Chinese rock, Tiananmen Massacre influenced
it
with
no
doubt.
Tiananmen Massacre is often considered as a turning point in the history of
Chinese rock. It connected with a political role that played rock-musicians during
the second part of the 1980s’. “At this time, Chinese rock and roll held a central
role in the struggle for control of meaning in a Chinese mass culture, as a point of
resistance to social and political repression” [32, p. 5]. Officials couldn’t ignore the
fact that “Nothing to My Name” became an anthem for demonstrators.
“Immediately following the Tiananmen massacre, Beijing security forces were
ordered to locate and imprison prominent rock musicians, who were characterized
as social delinquents on a par with student prodemocracy leaders” [31, p. 189].
Were the restrictions of the government the beginning of the end of rock music in
China? I assume that rock musicians had to leave the sphere of politics because
circumstances had changed. But anyway, they continued to play music and
perform. Sanctions turned out to be temporary and in several months rockers came
back to Beijing but rock went underground [35]. “On occasion, Chinese rock bands
have been permitted to undertake overseas tours of Hong Kong, Malaysia and even
the United States, to bring back precious foreign currency” [31, p. 183]. One again
money overweighed ideology. But officially rock music wasn’t recognized by
government. “The word "yaogun," Chinese for rock 'n' roll was not sanctioned in
the print media” [39, p. 69]. Also a ghost of Tiananmen influenced on restrictions
that was in the logic of policy of obliteration. “From 1990 until 1999, rock
performances were banned in Beijing for the entire month of June of every year,
because government officials were afraid that rock student audiences would
publicly commemorate the anniversary of the June 4 massacre” [31, p. 191]. Rock
30
musicians could play in small clubs (De Kloet, 2005) and release their albums but
no longer with a help of state-own labels, rock-musicians had to release their
albums in Honk Kong and Taiwan and then import it back to mainland China
through tapes and Hong Kong cable network (Huang, 2001).
In spite of the fact that rock had no rights to exist through the official point of view
and it was prohibited to use the term Yaogunyue in mass media for about 10 years,
people continued to play rock music. The first half of 1990s’ was a time of
flowering of bands that gathered in the end of 1980s’. Jeroen de Kloet says, that in
spite of government restrictions on rock music after Tiananmen Massacre, Chinese
rock continued to develop. “With the crackdown on the student protests on 4 June,
1989, the cultural fever that raged over China in the 1980s is believed to have
quickly faded out, after which Chinese popular culture had to reground itself.
Nonetheless, Beijing rock culture continued to grow, and the works of bands
following on Cui Jian, such as Tang Dynasty, Black Panther and singers like He
Yong and Zhang Chu, continued to be deeply embedded in the rock mythology”
[21, p. 232].
Jonathan Matusitz thinks that the Tiananmen Massacre was a cause of further
popularization of rock music in China, as foreign as domestic. “Until the
Tiananmen Square tragedy, only small sections of Chinese audiences had been
attracted to international rock and pop thanks to the icons’ long hair, tight pants,
and strange lyrics from legendary characters on foreign labels. The popularity and
marketability of global rock and pop was mostly limited to Beijing’s college
students and artistic circles. The state-run recording studios would allow only few
albums to be produced because some rock and pop songs, with their lyrics on
individuality and depression, was disturbing the Chinese government. Since 1989–
1990, however, things changed. Many state-run publishing houses lost their
subsidies and were driven to produce profits. As a result, the popularity of
international rock and pop increased both within and outside of Beijing. This
31
means that Chinese rock and pop has become not only imitation but also
innovation” [45, p. 485]
Andreas Steen assumes that the genre changed after events of June 4 th. “After the
Tiananmen Massacre in June 1989, the number of rock bands in Beijing increased
dramatically. Over the years, however, the genre has changed, and not only
because of the PRC's ideological, social, and economic development. Another
reason was that, consciously or not, several musicians agreed to "koutou" to a
politically responsible and economically motivated music industry in order to
reach their goals and release records. Chinese rock has obviously lost its formerly
criticized "rebellious spirit" (fanpan jingshen) and transformed into a politically
lighter version. This process allowed the genre to enter into the mainstream of
Chinese popular music” [54, p. 3]
As it said earlier, a great number of bands that appeared in the end of the
1980s’continued to play music in different genres, as well as new bands emerged.
In spite of the fact that musicians played rock music after Tiananmen Massacre and
released albums, there is an opinion that “real rock” was in 80s’, and after that
rockers became a part of show business and earned money but didn’t express their
attitude towards current order of things through their music. Rockers were blamed
in consumerism and commercialization as by scholars as by contemporaries. Here
is the quotation that Jeroen de Kloet provides in one of his articles: “The perceived
crisis of Chinese rock in the mid-1990s is shown by the words of DJ Zhang Youdai,
who told me: “The new generation does not have their own culture, or their own
life; it’s consumerism. I think the 1980s were the golden years. People ask me why
Chinese rock started in the 1980s. I think you should ask why in the 1990s rock
died in China. In the 1980s young people concentrated more on culture; right now
people concentrate on the economy, on making money” [22, p. 612]. Hao Huang
has the same opinion. “Instead of heading a movement advocating openness versus
repression, rock musicians are scrambling to find a tenable niche in Chinese
popular culture. Consumerism has changed the rules. Trading fever has displaced
32
cultural fever. Rock musicians are no exception. In the 1980s, they proudly
flaunted their individualism, outside social norms. In the 1990s, they clawed their
way into the commercial arena by pledging allegiance to the Chinese cultural core.
Living outside mainstream economic discourse has become too heavy a price for
those who once symbolized resistance to a corrupt, superannuated regime. Now, it
is rock musicians themselves who are fighting to demonstrate that they remain
relevant to China’s mass culture, present and future” [32, p. 11]
One more evidence that rock culture didn’t die after Tiananmen is foundation of
MIDI Beijing School of rock and jazz in 1993 that was the first institution where
students could learn modern music and advanced musical techniques [62].
Relationships between government and Cui Jian were difficult as they were before.
From one hand, he brought money. From the other hand, he criticized government.
Cui Jian was allowed to go on tour for the Asian Games 1990, but it was cut by
officials because Cui blindfolded himself by a red patch while performing “A
Piece of Red Cloth” [52]. This image showed his disappointment with the situation
and will to not see what was happening and it was obvious for government too.
In spite of the attempts of Cui Jian to continue speaking out his attitude towards
current situation, Yaogun seems to lose its political meaning in the beginning of
the 1990s’ because the moods in youth changed: young people decided to think
about themselves rather than about their country. Pragmatism and individualism
replaced idealism of the 1980s’ [52]. This trend will be explained in the 3rd Chapter.
Conclusion for the 2nd Chapter
At the first stage government tried to stop the spread of the Western music and
lifestyle. In the beginning of the 1980s’ there were precedents when young Chinese
were prohibited to go to the discos, communicate with foreigners and so on.
Officials even launched “Anti-spiritual pollution campaign” in 1983 but it wasn’t
successful.
33
The attitude towards new phenomena in youth culture began to change. Foreign
musicians came to China with concerts; the most remarkable was the concert of
British band Wham! in 1985. In 1986 Cui Jian appeared in public at the first time
and this event shows that officials allowed playing rock. He released his first
album through state-run label. At the same moment the second half of the 1980s’ is
a time of emergence of Democratic Movement. Yaogun became a symbol of the
protest at Tiananmen Square in 1989 because the song “Nothing To My Name”
was its anthem.
After events on June 4th restrictions for Chinese rockers followed, but they weren’t
long and serious. Rockers continued to perform and release their albums, but they
had to do it through labels in Hong Kong and Taiwan and only then distribute their
music in China. Nevertheless it was banned in mass media; Yaogun got more
popularity in the beginning of the 1990s’. That’s why it was allowed to musicians
to perform and go to tour outside the country: they earn money for their music.
One more reason is that Yaogun lost its political meaning and musicians preferred
to sing about their individualities rather politics.
34
Chapter 3. The measure of American and European influence on Chinese rock: the
cases studies of Cui Jian, Tang Dynasty and Black Panther
The third chapter is dedicated to two case studies: the father of Chinese rock Cui
Jian and two heavy metal bands Tang Dynasty and Black Panther. I want to show
the different extent of American and European influence on the artists (I call it
“Western” further in the text). In the first part of the chapter I compare heavy metal
bands Tang Dynasty and Black Panther. They appeared in Beijing approximately
in one time and played music in one genre. In spite of this, they put a different
meaning in their songs and used different images and I want to show it on the
example of music videos “A Dream Return To Tang Dynasty” by Tang Dynasty
and “Shame” by Black Panther.
The second case study is the most famous song of Chinese rock “Nothing To My
Name” by Cui Jian. I made a comparative analysis of his song with “The Times
Are A-changin’” by Bob Dylan. I chose these artists due to the several reasons.
First of all, Cui Jian is often called “Bob Dylan of China”. Second, both of them
were anthems for the civil movements in America 1960s’ and China 1980s’. I want
to look at the historical contest of the creation of these songs and how authors
expressed the meaning they wanted to say. Also I am trying to understand the
cultural roots of songs “Nothing To My Name” and “The Times Are A-changin’”.
The aim of this work is to find out how much Chinese was in Chinese rock in the
second half of 1980s’ and how much it was inspired by foreign influence on the
example of famous Chinese musicians, their songs and images they used.
3.1. Tang Dynasty and Black Panther – how much Chinese is in Chinese heavymetal?
As I talk about the measure of Western influence on Chinese rock, I need to prove
that it was different extant of this influence. I want to show it on the example of
two most famous rock bands of the second middle 1980s’ – Black Panthers and
35
Tang Dynasty.
I compare them because they have some similarities and
differences between each other. They appeared almost at the same time in Beijing
– in 1987 and 1988 respectively. They still are the most famous rock bands of the
first generation of Chinese rock. In spite of the fact that they started to play almost
at one time, these bands use different images and symbols in their oeuvre. We can
trace it even in their names. Tang Dynasty got its name from ancient dynasty,
which is known for the bloom of poetry and art (Jones, 1992). Zhao Nian, a
drummer of the band, explained the reasons why did they choose this name for it:
"We chose the name 'Tang Dynasty (Tang Chao)' because that was China's greatest
period. It was also the greatest era for the arts" [52]
The name “Black Panther” refers to the rock mythology: images of wild animals
are wildly spread among rockers. Li Tong, leader guitarist, said that they decided
to play rock because they all listen to foreign music that time. Originally, they
called the band “Dark horse”, but Li Tong decided to name band Black Panthers
because he thought that they “had a power of Hard Metal. Also panthers are rare
animals and they close to our image” [60]
So, it looks like Black Panther uses traditional rock images and doesn’t refer to
Chinese cultural heritage and Tang Dynasty does it. So, to prove this idea I want to
tell more about the history of these bands and compare two videos on songs
“Shame” [5] of Black Panther (1992) and “A Dream Return to Tang Dynasty” [6]
of Tang Dynasty (1992).
3.1.1 Tang Dynasty and Black Panther, Chinese heavy metal bands
Tang Dynasty is metal band in China gathered in 1988. They combined British
heavy metal with traditional Chinese music. They wrote melancholic songs that
were dedicated to the imaginary world and were an attempt to escape from the
present [74].
36
The leader vocalist, Ding Wu was born in 1962. He spent his childhood in
Northeast China, where he started to study traditional opera vocal in the age of 8.
Ding Wu and his family came back to Beijing in 1972. He learnt to play the guitar
in 1976 when popularity of this instrument just had begun to grow and people
called guitar “an instrument of hooligans”. In 1978 Ding Wu entered Fine Arts
Department of Beijing Academy of Fine Arts. Shortly before the graduation in
1982 he began to listen to rock music with his friends. At that time it was difficult
to get any relevant information about it and good instruments to play music. Ding
Wu participated in some performances with his friends. Also he tried to get tapes
and magazines from friends who played music to learn more about rock. “In 1984
he with Li Ji established rock band Bu Dao Weng (“Roly-Poly”), which was
supported by a work unit (danwei) with instruments” [54]. They played covers of
Japanese and Western songs for a year and then disbanded. After that, Ding Wu
began to sing in Black Panther but not for a long time. In 1988 he met Kaiser Guo,
a half-Chinese American who came to China for study. Kaiser gave more
information to him about rock music, for example Pink Floyd that became a
favourite band of Ding Wu. They began to play music together and established
band Tang Dynasty [77]. Kaiser was a guide of American and European influence
on the sound of the band. He showed different bands for other members of Tang
Dynasty, for example, Queensryche [67]. Liu Yijin, also known as Lao Wu joined
them as a guitarist. Liu was born in Tianjin, China. The guitar was his second
instrument; his first was the Guqin. Eventually he felt interest in playing the guitar
and got his first instrument in 1978. Despite the fact that his father opposed him in
playing music, Lao Wu continued to practice the guitar 15 hours a day by himself
without teacher. His family moved to Beijing in 1984 where he continuously failed
to find a stable job and he began to make money by playing music. Lao Wu
eventually picked up the seven string guitar and the erhu, as heard in the song "The
Sun" [77]. “He gained a reputation for his lightning-quick guitar chops, the guitar
virtuoso of China's glory days of rock” [50]. He always acted as conductor of
Chinese national identity: “Rockers are jockeying for legitimacy as popular-culture
37
brokers by taking Beijing rock as part of a northern Chinese cultural core” [31, p.
193].
In 1989, after Tiananmen Massacre, when Kaiser Guo had to come back to
America and Ding Wu moved to Xinjiang for a few months, the band was
temporarily disbanded. But in the end of this year Tang Dynasty participated in
concert “Modern Music 90”in Beijing at Capital Indoor Stadium. It was their first
appearance in public and people liked them a lot [76]. The significance of this
event can be comparable with Woodstock 1969 because it signed the emergence
of Chinese rock after temporary sanctions of Post-Tiananmen period.
On May 1990, Tang Dynasty signed a contract with Taiwan record company and
started to record their first album “A Dream to Return to Tang Dynasty”. It was
released in China in 1992 [63]. Also it was released in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan,
Korea, and Southeast Asia [65]. In April 1993, the nation's MTV Video Music
Award nominations were announced; Tang Dynasty won the Best Asian MTV
nominations for their album “A Dream to Return to Tang Dynasty” [65].
This
release got its accolades for the mix of Western and Chinese traditions. “It's art
rock at its pompous best: complex harmonies, breathtaking guitar work, and Led
Zepplinesque mysticism wedded to ornate, flowery lyrics. In spirit, Tang Dynasty
isn't that far removed from the progressive metal bands of the 1970s. Instead of the
knights-errant of Arthurian legend, the band is enchanted by the youxia - valiant
Kung Fu-fighting swordsmen wander the pages of Chinese history. The album is a
fusion of great metal, intricate art rock, Arabic folk music from the far western
deserts of Xinjiang, and well-crafted pop melodies” [35].
The very name of the album tells that musicians wanted to stress their
national identity and don’t look like a copy of the Western precursors. They used a
form of heavy metal, which characterized by loud distorted guitars, emphatic
rhythms, dense bass-and-drum sound, and vigorous vocals [77]. They were heavy
metal rockers and they the style musicians used with long hair, tight jeans and
38
black leather is a feature of heavy metal (Kostiuk, Savina, 2013). At the same time
they stressed that they play Chinese music. Lao Wu said in 1992: "This isn't the
'60s and China's not the U.S.A. Our music doesn't have to follow the same road as
rock music in the West, and it doesn't necessarily mean the same things here" [35].
Tang Dynasty used Chinese cultural heritage in their performing music. “A strong
longing for the past is expressed in the band’s name, album titles, imagery, music,
and lyrics. This celebration of the past and its related discontents of the present,
form the leading characteristic of Tang Dynasty. In their songs, they express their
solitude in modern times, their despair, and their search for a better world” [21,
p.237] Ding Wu combined Chinese operatic traditions with rock vocal. Lao Wu
played not only guitar but also traditional Chinese instruments as erhu and guqin.
The sound of the band was in trend of the attempt to come back to historical and
cultural roots. “Their sound is part progressive rock and artistic metal and part
traditional Chinese vocal techniques with lyrical poetry and musical arrangements
meant to hearken back to the glorious days of ancient Chinese civilization; in
particular, the cultural epitome of Chinese history as popularly represented by the
era of the Tang Dynasty” [60]. I think that they felt the time and play music
appropriate for the circumstances. The trend of nationalism was very strong in
Chinese society, especially at Post-Tiananmen era (Kendall, 2009). Hao Huang
explains it through governmental policy. “Desire to produce a purely Chinese rock
music appeals to the CCP’s post-Tiananmen, market-oriented authoritarians.
Recently, the chief of the Beijing Bureau of Security praised Tang Dynasty “‘off
the record” citing them as examples of assertive Chinese nationalism, while
deploring the addiction of certain band members to narcotics. Tang Subei, chair of
the Chinese delegation to the Cross-Straits Talks between Beijing and Taipei, has
acknowledged that he was pleased to hear from a Taiwanese delegate that while
rock has existed in Taiwan for decades, it has never been properly Sinicized,
whereas the Mainland can already boast of Tang Dynasty. In 1991, the China
Youth News printed an article that asked the government to tolerate rock music,
39
because it was the only effective defense against the flood of Western-deprived
pop music in the mainland market” [32, p. 9]
The second band appeared at that time was Black Panther. It was formed by Guo
Si and Li Tong. Their official debut happened in Hong Kong. Black Panther
released debut album in 1991 in Honk Kong and Taiwan. A year later album
“Black Panther” was released in mainland China [74]. The leading guitarist Li
Tong started to play the guitar in high school. He often called a “heart” of the band.
His favourite singer was Ozzy Osbourne [63]. Guo Si told that he met rock music
through foreigners first. "In 1982 a Filipino surf band did a show at a park. It was
all covers, Beach Boys and stuff. We stood there stunned. We had no idea a guitar
could make those sounds! That was a turning point" [52] .Then he bought an
electric guitar and started to play music.
As I have said before, Ding Wu sang in Black Panther in the beginning. Then his
place took Dou Wei. Dou Wei was born in Beijing in 1969. In 1983 he begun to
listen to Western Music and learn to play the guitar by himself. He joined Black
Panthers in 1988 as keyboard player and vocalist [63]. He left Black Panther in
1990 and Luan Shu came to his place. Luan Shu studied at Central Conservatory of
Music, his major was trumpet. He joined Black Panthers in 1990 as keyboard
player and singer [78]. Wang Wenjie, bassist, also was a founder of the band and
also started to play music at school [77]. The album “Black Panther” was sold with
1.5 million copies and had brilliant status. In 1991 they performed at Shenzhen
Modern Music Spring Festival. The songs for this album were written mostly in
Chinese except two songs “Take care” and “Don’t break my heart”, which have
repeating lines in English. So, in comparison with Tang Dynasty, Black Panther
didn’t try to create a conceptual music by stressing their national and cultural roots
and the sound of the band is more international then the sound of Tang Dynasty.
3.1.2 Comparative visual analysis of music videos “A Dream Return to Tang
Dynasty” by Tang Dynasty and “Shame” by Black Panther
40
The song “A Dream Return to Tang Dynasty” is the first in the debut album of the
band. It tells a story about dreamer who wants to return back to time of Tang
Dynasty:
“A prediction about my future is burned along the lines on my hand.
Night is sober and dreamless today
Through the predictions I am rushing into the myth, my dream - Tang Dynasty”3.
The video “A Dream Return to Tang Dynasty” starts with the face of Vairocana
Buddha’s statue4and face of Ding Wu with closed eyes. During the powerful intro
landscapes of China are changing each other: mountains, fields, the caves at
Longmen Grottoes and a battle-field with a waving red flag. A white horse is
walking through ancient gates and the drummer is beating an old gong. Ding Wu
starts to sing and we see musicians playing in different places: onstage, in front of
those ancient gates, in the middle of abandoned road, somewhere in Loess Plateau.
They are in tie trousers and shirts, jumping and waving their long hair. When the
band is on the stage, we can see several red flags in the right corner. There are
some moments when they are sitting on the ground in the hills of Loess Plateau
and looking at the camera. Their way of performing is very energetic, a bit
aggressive, but when they don’t play music they are quite relaxed. Ding Wu sings
in a high voice and sometimes raises his voice to a shout. The song has a powerful
solo by Lao Wu. The video ends with four drop red flags. This clip is full of
images and references that lead viewer to the times of Tang Dynasty. “The
symbolism in the music, the lyrics, and the video clips that present a sort of
Orientalist dream sequence full of references to the traditional past, express a
pervasive sense of cultural loss” [21, p. 238]. First of all, these are the landscapes
of Loess Plateau, where Luoyang, the ancient capital of Tang Dynasty is situated.
Views of Longmen Gates are also bring us back to one of the sights of Luoyang.
3
Translation from Chinese lyrics is made by the author.
It is situated in the Fengxian Cave in the Longmen Grottoes near to capital of Tang Dynasty Luoyang, Henan
province [61]
4
41
The statues of Buddha that we watch in video were mostly made during Tang
Dynasty. Third, a white horse in the first minute of it is a symbol of White Horse
Temple, the first Buddhist temple in China situated in Luoyang.
Song “Shame” was written by Li Tong about his feelings. “I wanted to tell about
my emotions, it’s not a concrete story” [60] It’s rather interesting that the name of
the song in Chinese is 无地自容, which is chengyu, Chinese idiom consists of four
characters. It translates in English as “can find no place to hide oneself for shame”
[70]. This song tells a story in the first person who walks in crowd and talks to
another person, probably a lady that “someday will meet him and understand him”.
Luan Shu sings:
“I’m not a person that I used to be.
I was so lonely in my past,
People were so cold to me.
And finally I got a feeling
I’m ashamed”5 .
Video to this song was made near Great Wall in 1992 [60]. The video starts with
the waving red flag and a piece of the Great Wall. We can see members of band
walking down the Great Wall with a red flag. Then different scenes changes each
other: musicians performing on the stage wearing black leather and sun glasses,
performing at most famous paces of Beijing as Tiananmen Square, Summer
Palace, hutongs and, of course, the Great Wall. Also there are scenes when they
don’t play music and hang around Beijing and do nothing. They have an image of
city idlers that have fun and live a modern live of capital’s inhabitant.
These two songs tell us stories of people unsatisfied by events happening or
happened in their life. If “A Dream Return to Tang Dynasty” is full of escapism
5
Translation from Chinese lyrics is made by the author.
42
and antagonism to modern life, the hero of “Shame” lives now and here. I suppose
these videos were shot in two capitals of China – ancient and present. Music video
of Tang Dynasty is full of images that refer to the past epoch: Buddha’s faces, old
building in traditional Chinese style and a white horse as a reference to the oldest
Buddhist temple in China. Black Panther’s members are children of 1980s’ and
they speak about current problems of an individual, which is more typical for the
person of Western culture, not Eastern. They are enjoying they walk around
Northern capital and a bit reflexing about their “shame”. In spite of obvious
differences of music videos there are some their similarities. First of all, through
the standpoint of direction of the scenes they are quite similar. We can see
musicians performing their music on the stage, and their stage behavior is the same
– they are wearing tight leather trousers or jeans, waving long hair and moving
around the scene. Second place of the shoot is see sights that are remarkable for
Chinese people, for example, Longmen Grottes and the Great Wall. The third
scene is when musicians don’t perform and Tang Dynasty members are sitting in
peace somewhere in the hills of Loess Plateau and band of Black Panther is
walking around Beijing. Finally, both bands use red flags. Red is a color of joy
and happiness in Chinese culture [66]. Also flags remain audience about
communistic present. Red flag is used to times in Tang Dynasty’s video: first it’s
waving at the battle-field; also there are 4 red flags on the stage. They are dropped
when musicians leave the scene in the end of video. I propose that these 4 flags are
symbols of 4 members of band that don’t feel any joy out of the dream about the
times of Tang Dynasty. Also dropped flags in the end can be a sign, a very sad one,
of a total disappointment of present order of things. I assume that Black Panther
bring a red flag through the Great Wall as a connection between past and present.
Also, they could mean their loyalty to the government by using a red flag. The
video was shot at Tiananmen Square only in 3 years after events of June 4 th and it
was possible due to the allowance of the officials, I believe.
43
So, as we can see, these two bands had a different extent of Western influence,
which is obvious not only from their names, but also from the meaning of the
songs, images in music videos and design of albums. Tang Dynasty tried to stress
their national identity and traditions and seeks for the cultural roots of great past of
China through the form of heavy-metal. They make music about past, how perfect
and beautiful it was and how disappointed in present they are. They are less
Western inspired then Black Panther. Black Panther use heavy metal aesthetic as
well but they didn’t try to show their “Chineseness” in every creative act. The
usage of English in such songs as “Take Care” and “Don’t Break My Heart”
proves that they were more open to the Western influence. Their songs describe
feelings and emotions of a person that lives here and now and more concerned
about his place in the society and relations with other people. Anyway, their music
is a Chinese rock; played by Chinese people in mainland China from the second
middle of 80s mostly in Chinese language and the chengyu in the title of the song
“Shame” proves that they used traditional Chinese forms as well.
Nevertheless, Tang Dynasty and Black Panther have some common features. They
play music in one genre of heavy metal. The analyzed videos have similar art
direction: the order of scenes, stage behavior of musicians, the usage of the red flag,
but in different symbolism, by the way. Musicians even looked quite similar with
their long hair and tight dark leather trousers or jeans.
3.2. Comparative analysis of Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-changin’” and
Cui Jian’s “Nothing to My Name”
I chose the song of Bob Dylan and Cui Jian as subjects of analysis because of
several reasons. First of all, both of these songs were an anthem for protest
movements. Second, they were written in similar historical context. Third, Cui Jian
was inspired by American and European musicians and Bob Dylan was one of
them. The first aim of this analysis is to compare the circumstances the songs were
written in. The second aim is to compare the meaning of the songs and symbols the
44
authors used. Also I want to look at the way they expressed their points of view to
the current situation in America of 60s’ and China 80s’. The third aim is to find out
how much Cui Jian was inspired by Bob Dylan, did he copy the way Dylan wrote
his song or also used Chinese traditions?
I am going to use method of semiotic analysis to compare these songs. “Semiotics
studies the world, culture and society as sign systems that produce, keep and
promote information” [47] According to Jonathan Matusitz, music helps people to
talk to each other in one language. “Music is one of the oldest forms of human
communication, in all cultures at all times. Popular music, or rock and pop,
denotes a cultural object. It is a sign in itself, and the various ways of organizing it
can be viewed as forms of semiotics. Popular music is a sign because it has many
facets and many uses, but it is generally acknowledged that its primary appeal is to
the emotions of a generation, particularly a young generation. The content of the
musical sign in this case is in the emotion evoked within the hearer” [46, p. 157]
The reason I choose Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-changin’” to compare
with Cui Jian’s “Nothing to My Name” is that both of the songs was an anthem of
civil movements. The second reason is that Bob Dylan was one of the Western
musicians who influence Cui Jian (FlorCruz, 2012) and it is important to see the
extant of this influence. It’s no doubt that Cui Jian combined Western and Chinese
approach towards music. “Stylistically, Cui Jian's music presents the following
characteristics: pinched, rough vocal style; a foregrounding of rhythmic elements,
both in the accompaniment (which borrows heavily from Western rock music) and
in the melody; a melodic construction which is taken to be closely related to
northern folk song melodic construction; lyrics often interpreted as politically
oppositional in content; and occasional use of traditional Chinese instruments such
as the suona, the dizi (a transverse flute made of bamboo), and the guzheng (a
zither)” [18, p. 164]. He tried to find a new sound for his music, that was different
from what was performed before and also to use new images that came with a new
sound. “Cui Jian, studying trumpet at the Beijing conservatory, eagerly
45
incorporated the new, rebellious ‘‘Western’’ sounds of rock. With the sound came
a new ideology, being part of the ideoscape, as embedded in the rock mythology,
which promises (bodily) freedom, masculinity, rebellion, and protest” [21, p. 231].
So he mixed traditional instruments of China with bass-guitars and drums and was
searching for the new form of music, but what about poetry? To answer this
question, I need to look not only to the song of Bob Dylan but also to Chinese
traditions of poetry that correlate with Confucians ideas.
In this case, I agree with poststructuralists approach that the text depends not only
on its creator’s will but also on the circumstances it was written in (Osipova, 2010).
Every song is born in certain circumstances and before I start the comparison of
two songs I need to concretize the historical context. “Lyrics are shaped by context
as much as context is shaped by lyrics. For this reason, the semiotics of lyrics is
best when it focuses on contextualization, that is, the interpretation according to
the context. Contextualization helps semioticians understand how rock and pop
lyrics are interpreted as a parodic form of individual and cultural detail” [46, p.
168].
The song “The Times They Are A-Changin’” was written in 1963 and realized in
1964. It was a time in the American society when protest moods were very strong.
“Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'" is one of his great early-'60s
anthems. The simple tune, played in waltz time, supports five verses that contain a
clarion call to recognize and accept change in a general sense. The opening line,
"Come gather 'round people," evokes old folk ballads, but the singer has a
cautionary tale in mind, not a soothing story. He tells various groups - writers and
critics, senators and congressmen, mothers and fathers - that change of an
uncertain, threatening nature is coming. He offers little advice to cope with this
change, suggesting only that mothers and fathers, whose "old road is rapidly agin',"
either lend a hand or get out of the way and that, as the flood waters rise, "you
better start swimmin'." Like "Blowin' in the Wind," which Dylan had written more
46
than a year earlier, "The Times They Are A-Changin'" spoke philosophically and
in general terms, but was easily interpretable in the context of its period of
composition as a referring primarily to the civil rights struggle” [49]. People
weren’t happy with the things in the USA and wanted to change current state of
things. It was a time when they tried to express their ideas participating in Civil
rights movement, Anti-war in Vietnam movement and so on. Also one of the
features of that time was student activism. Students, as young, progressive and
energetic people tried to speak out their ideas and disagreement with official
position. So, the song “The Times They Are A-Changin’” became an anthem for
them because it proclaimed the changes that are coming. Bob Dylan said ones that
he wrote this song because it was exactly what people want to hear. In the liner
notes of this album Biograph, Dylan wrote: "I wanted to write a big song, some
kind of theme song, with short, concise verses that piled up on each other in a
hypnotic way. This is definitely a song with a purpose. I knew exactly what I
wanted to say and who I wanted to say it to" [75] So Bob Dylan can be called a
voice of the generation of middle 1960s’ in America.
The second middle of 1980s’ was a time of growing protest moods in China. A
mass of people wasn’t satisfied with the situation in China, such as growing
corruption. The aim of Democratic Movement was to make officials listen to the
needs of people. But governors didn’t agree with the standpoint of the participants
of the protest movements. This contradiction led to the Tiananmen Crackdown in
1989. Students of Universities in Beijing went out the streets and the anthem for
them was a song “Nothing to My Name”. This song of Cui Jian became wellknown at 1986 when he sang it in the first time in the concert. He sang “Nothing to
My Name” in front of the students on Tiananmen and all they want was to be heard
by the older generation. From the first glance, it is a love-story of a young man
who sings to a girl that left him. But it can be interpreted as a song from youth of
China that has nothing to power-holders that are older generation and they can
change the order of things in the country. He definitely wanted to express his
47
views on situation in country. “For Cui, rock music has a meaning and a certain
message, which functions as a cultural force that should aim at social change, or at
least make people think” [55, p. 18].
Hence, the comparison of the historical context of the creation of these songs
proves that they were written in similar circumstances. The USA of 1960s’ and
China 1980s’ can be characterized by strong protest moods and student activism.
People saw that something was wrong in their societies and tried to change it.
Every movement needs a symbol and this symbol was a song that represents the
feelings of its participants.
And “The Times They Are A-Changin’” and “Nothing to My Name” talk about
changes that are about to come. But Bob Dylan and Cui Jian do it in a different
way. Bob Dylan told in “The Times They Are A-Changin’”:
The line it is drawn…
… The order is rapidly fading [3].
So, he speaks about changes in explicit way. Changes are happening and it’s a fact.
Hearer can agree with this or not but it how the things go.
Cui Jian does it in a bit another way. First of all, there are two meanings of this
song. First, a literal sense is a story of young man who is left alone by a girl.
Second, figurative sense is a call from young people to older generation. In the first
chorus Cui sings:
“I asked endlessly, would you go with me?”
In the 3rd chorus the intonation changes:
“I now you will go with me!” [4]
48
The changes have come and the hearer is a bystander of them. Hence, people that
sang this song in 1989 wanted to see the changes as their predecessors in America
in 1964.
The difference in ways singers said about coming changes is in that Bob Dylan
belongs to low context culture and it is natural for him to say what he wants to say
and Cui Jian is a person of high context culture uses images and metaphors.
We can say the song “Nothing to My Name” was written in traditions of the
Western individualism, because it is a story in the first person. It looks like one
person speaks for the whole country, and it is in norms of Western tradition. Bob
Dylan was a voice of the generation in America in the middle 1960s’, and it
doesn’t surprising. But what is about China? Stereotypes about Chinese
collectivism tell us other. But, actually, according to the Confucius tradition,
poetry is not only a tool to describe nature or one’s feelings. It has a didactic
meaning (Smirnov, 2011). “The view that poetry is mainly an expression of
personal emotions is at least as old as the didactic one, if not older. Both views—
the didactic and the, for want of a better term, individualist—ran parallel in early
Confucian writings on poetry” [43, p. 78].
Poet should tell the critic on the government and his views on socio-political
organization of the society. “According to the History of the Han Dynasty in
ancient times there were officials sent out by the king to collect songs from the
people so as to test public opinion. He should bring the people's sufferings to the
notice of the ruler in the hope that the latter may be moved to mend his ways, but
not incite rebellion. To achieve this aim, the poet should make use of allegory and
satire, rather than openly attack the government. This is known as feng chien, or
‘satirize and admonish'” [43, p. 67].
Hence, Bob Dylan and Cui Jian act for the purpose of their own poetical-protest
positions. We can say Cui Jian was inspired in a certain extent by Bob Dylan as an
example of a singer who represented mood of people and time. Nevertheless, if
49
“The Times Are A-Changin” is a reference to mass of the people and the first line
proves it:
“Come gather round people
Wherever you roam” [3],
“Nothing To My Name” references to one person from another with the first line:
“I have asked endlessly,
When will you go with me?” [4]
So, the first song is an explicit reference, and the second is an implicit one. Two
blasts of meaning are very traditional for the Chinese poetry. Ancient poets used a
set of images and metaphors to estimate their political point of view that were
known among all the well-educated people (Smirnov, 2011). The form of love
song that Cui used is not traditional, because classical Confucius poetry condemns
romantic love between man and woman as a treat for the society and country
(Smirnov, 2011). In 1980s’, Gangtaiyue a light pop-music from Hong Kong and
Taiwan, used a topic if love. Maybe Cui wrote his song using this form in order to
make his views not that obvious. Later he said that he never meant to talk about
politics and people can understand his songs as they want [18, p. 166].
It is interesting that both of singers use an image of water in their songs. In Dylan’s
song he sang:
“And admit the waters
Around you have grown,
… Then you better start swimmin’” [3]
Cui uses this image this way:
“The ground beneath my feet is moving
50
The water by my side is flowing” [4]
Water is a symbol of woman’s nature and romantic feelings in most cultures. Also,
in traditional understanding, water is a symbol of human’s nature that smooth and
liquid as water and changes all the time (Kobzev, 1988). It is a symbol of coming
changes and both songs tell it to hearer.
So, these songs as anthems for protest movements have some similarities and
differences.
As for music, these songs have their roots in folk traditions. Bob Dylan was
inspired by Scottish ballads and Cui Jian used traditional Chinese instruments and
melodies that were combined with Western instruments.
These songs were written in close historical and socio-political situation. The
youth that was unsatisfied with the order of things in their countries, participated in
protest movements for Civil rights and tried to speak out their ideas. “The Times
They Are A-Changin’” and “Nothing to My Name” became anthems for the
protest movements in America of middle 1960s’ and China of the second half
1980s’ respectively. They have a reference to the hearer and talk about changes
that are coming. But the difference is that Bob Dylan references to the mass people,
as young as old generations. He says that changes are happening and it’s a fact. Cui
Jian talks as a young man to woman that left him. So, there are two semiotic blasts
of the song. The first blast is quite obvious: it’s an unhappy love-story. The second
blast can be regarded as a reference from young generation to old one. Moreover,
grammatical peculiarities of Chinese language can determinate the subject of song
as “I” as “We”. “Chinese, being a completely uninflected language, is not
burdened with Cases, Genders, Moods, Tenses, and the Chinese poet especially is
often concerned with presenting the essence of a mood or a scene rather than with
accidental details” [43, pp. 39 - 40]. Hence, the main phrase of the chorus “一无所
有” can be translated as “I have nothing” and “We have nothing”. Moreover,
51
according to the Confucius tradition, poet has a right to express his socio-political
view and to criticize the ruler.
Conclusion for the 3rd Chapter
Chinese musicians had a different extent of the American and European influence.
On the example of Tang Dynasty we can see that they use totally Western form of
heavy metal and felt it with Chinese meaning. Their songs are dedicated to the
escape to perfect days of Tang Dynasty from the present; they use traditional
Chinese instruments and sing only in Chinese.
Cui Jian combined Chinese and Western too. He played rock with loud guitars and
political context and at the same moment he used Chinese instruments and
revolutionary aesthetics during his performances. In comparison with Bob Dylan,
he says things in implicit way, using metaphors and gives hearer an opportunity to
ascribe the meaning of the song by himself.
Black Panther didn’t care about the past and didn’t try to call for the minds of
generation. They sang were about current problems and maybe this easiness of
their music helped to sell 1,5 billions of their first album? Their music was in trend
of Post-Tiananmen era, when Yaogun lost its political meaning and people became
more concentrated on their selves rather on socio-political situation in the country.
Anyway, all these artists played music in the genre of Yaogun, Chinese rock’n’roll.
It’s rock music, with a strong rhythm-section and the sound of electric guitar, but it
has some features as lyrics in Chinese and usage of Chinese musical instruments –
in most cases; references to Chinese cultural heritage in one or another form. As
rock in America and Europe in the 1960d’, Yaogun had a political weight, but it
lost it after Tiananmen Massacre.
52
Conclusion
Music is important part of humans’ life and society. It influences people heavily by
reflecting their emotions and thoughts and helps to share them with others. For
China, music served not only in aims of entertainment but also education – in
Confucius model, and propaganda as well during Mao’s times. It always correlated
with changes in the society and 1980s’ as a time of dramatic changes prove it.
Reforms in economy allow music to be a part of business. People got an access to
light pop music from Taiwan and Hong Kong first, called Gangtai and then started
to play their own music that had other aim than propaganda. Then appeared
Xibeifeng, music that was based on Northern musical tradition and from Xibeifeng
came Yaogun, Chinese rock’n’roll. Musicians tried to play rock in the beginning of
the 1980s’ in spite that information and abilities to learn weren’t enough. It was a
period of imitation when a little number of cover bands was founded. They played
covers of Western and Japanese songs and I think it was a process of learning what
music of rock is. The real breakthrough happened in 1986 when Cui Jian first
appeared in public. After that more musicians began to play rock: heavy-metal
bands Black Panther and Tang Dynasty, singer He Yong and others. It was not a
simple imitation of American and European examples anymore. In terms of culture,
a new subgenre of rock music emerged – Yaogun. By the term Chinese rock or
Yaogun I understand music that musicians began to play in the second half of
1980s’ in mainland China. Their songs were mainly written in Chinese and had
such features as usage of traditional for rock music instruments as bass guitars and
drums that sometimes were combined with traditional Chinese instruments.
So, emerging of rock music in China was inspired as well as economic as political
reasons. Opening of the country to world’s economy gave an opportunity to
Chinese people listen to European and American music. It was an impulse for
appearance of Yaogunyue, and not only that. In my point of view, Yaogunyue
came from Xibeifeng that was a kind of counterbalance light music of Gantai. The
whole sense of freedom, opening for new flows and influence, possibility to speak
53
out the critics to government was connected with Deng Xiaoping’s reforms. Rock
music, as music of rebellion and social protest, became a political player in the
second half of 1980s’. We can see it on the example of Cui Jian who was a voice
of generation and expressed what worried people at that time and felt that he can
speak it.
The relationships between rock music and officials weren’t easy. When this music
just appeared in China, it was disapproved by the government. If person went to
discos, had long hair and wear unusual wear, it meant that he or she was spiritually
polluted. Government launched short Anti-spiritual pollution campaign in 1983 but
it didn’t stop further spread of Western culture.
Government understood that it can do nothing with the changes in youth culture so
it decided at list don’t stop these changes. From the beginning of the 1980s’ rock
bands began to play music in China. It became possible due to more openness of
Chinese people to accept new music and spread of rock because of contacts with
foreigners. From 1980, foreign musicians got a chance to perform in China. The
first concert of foreign stars – British band Wham! took place in Beijing in 1985
The middle of the 1980s’ was a time of more freedom in musical sphere. In 1986
Cui Jian first appeared on the scene as a rock artist and the fact that he used
revolutionary aesthetic during his performances proves the extant of freedom in the
Chinese society. Such band as Black Panthers and Tang Dynasty began to play
heavy metal in 1987 and 1988. Mass media paid attention to rock music.
Also, the second half of the 1980s’ was a time of Democratic Movement and
student activism. People saw changes in economy, had an opportunity to
communicate with foreigners and get the ideas from the West and wanted to see
some changes in other spheres of the society. At my personal perception, the
spread of rock music and people’s attempts to speak out their views on policy were
parts of one process of changes in people’s mentality. Rock was music for welleducated youth and those people participated in protest movements. It correlates
54
with the fact that rock music as a symbol of protest that was used in the 1960s’ in
socio-political movements. That’s why Cui Jian performed in front of students on
Tiananmen Square in 1989 – his song was an anthem for the protest.
Rock music was one of the symbols of students’ movement in 1989. After
Tiananmen Massacre Yaogunyue some restricts toward rock-musicians followed.
But they weren’t as strict as they could be: rockers escaped from big cities to
villages, but after several months musicians came back to big and continued to
play music and release albums on Taiwanese and Hong Kong’s labels. Rockers
were forbidden to perform for a big amount of people and mass media didn’t use
term Yaogunyue for a whole decade. Anyway, musicians continued to play music
and even new names on the rock scene appeared. Even the first rock festival had
place in 1991.
Post-Tiananmen period was a time of emerging of new bands as well as bands
established in the 1980s’. Government prefer to ignore Yaogunyue and even this
word didn’t appeared in mass-media. At the same time officials used a trend of
nationalism in Chinese rock in their rhetoric. Rock music split in two parts: some
of musicians tried to be a part of popular culture and some of them choose
underground. Rockers were blamed in commercialization but I think it’s a quite
natural process in terms of whole marketization of culture that happened as a result
of the reforms of Deng Xiaoping. Anyway, Tiananmen Massacre wasn’t a cause of
the end of Yaogunyue. The first half of the 1990s’ wasn’t a simple time for
Chinese rock but it continued its development.
Yes, officially rock had no chances to exist, but actually there were certain
circumstances for playing rock music in the big cities. Timothy Brace carried out
three factors for that. “Rock performances and productions in the PRC since the
early 1990s are described as ‘distinctly urban phenomena’, and the growth of
Chinese rock music in Beijing is accounted for by three factors: (1) the PRC’s
large concentration of foreigners, particularly foreign students; (2) a comparatively
55
large number of sites for performance and a corresponding audience for the music;
and (3) good recording opportunities for rock musicians. In 1992 Deng Xiaoping
made his ‘southern tour’ to Shenzhen and other cities to defend open-door
economic strategies” [29, p. 447]
According to the comparative analysis that I’ve made in both case studies, I can
say that Chinese rock was inspired by American and Western music. At the same
moment musicians used Chinese cultural and musical heritage by including
traditional instruments or writing lyrics within the Confucius tradition.
I assume that the most indigenous band was Tang Dynasty. Starting from the name
of the band, they refer to the past of China that looks more attractive than
nowadays. The disappointment with present and no will to change anything carry
away them back to the previous days of ancient Tang Dynasty, to beautiful capital
city Luoyang.
In contrast to Tang Dynasty, Cui Jian talked about necessity of changes and they
will come and are coming now. Inspired by Bob Dylan at some degree, he became
a voice of the generation that felt lost in present days and have nothing. But he did
it in a different way: Bob Dylan talked to the mass of people and proclaimed
happening changes like an ultimatum to the older generation. Cui Jian used a form
of critics of government through metaphor. In a contrast with Confucius poetic
traditions, it’s a metaphor about unhappy love affair. The songs “The Times They
Are A-Changin’” and “Nothing To My Name” were written in close historical
context and were important part of civil movements.
Finally, Black Panther looks like the most Western influenced band of these three
examples. They sang songs about the problems of an individual, about love, a
place in the society and differences between a hero of the songs and others. These
topics more usual for American and European musicians than Chinese and that’s
why Black Panther was something new in Chinese culture. Their place is a capital,
they live now and here. Everything in their songs remains about global and
56
postmodern world where different trends, cultures and traditions are mixed up.
They could combine a chengyu in the name of the song and English in the next on
the first album and didn’t care that they look less indigenous than previous artists.
To sum it up, I want to say that I got the answers on three questions that I asked in
the beginning.
1) Yaogun emerged in a result of the Open Door Policy in the second half of the
1980s’. Chinese culture became more open to foreign influences and if musicians
copied American and European rock during the first middle of the 1980s’, they
brought new features to rock then.
2) Government had a controversial attitude towards rock music. in the beginning of
the 1980s’ it was blamed as “spiritual pollution” and banned. But at the same time
foreign artists came to China with concerts and domestic musicians played rock.
Since 1986 situation had changed: rockers appeared on the stage and in mass
media. But with the spread of the Democratic Movement and especially
Tiananmen massacre, rock felt under restriction again, but they were temporarily.
It happened because this kind of music was popular and brought money and also it
lost its political demands after 1989.
3) From my opinion, Yaogun is indigenous form of art with its own features. But
as it has roots in American and European music, there is a different extent of
influence on Chinese rock from the West, as we can see it on the example of Cui
Jian, Tang Dynasty and Black Panther.
This research can be continued in several directions. For example, it is interesting
to look at Chinese rock nowadays, to its place in the society, music industry and
relations with the government now. Another direction is more historic: there is an
idea to look at the social origin of the first Yaoguners: what education did they
have, from what families they are and what happened to them during the 1960 –
1970s’ and how did it influence on their decision to play rock music in the 1980s’.
57
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Appendix A. Interview with Wang Xiaofang, Cobra (1991), drummer and vocals
1. What American and European music did you listen to? Please name at least 5
bands/soloists.
In 80s’: Sting, U2 and Pink Floyd. In 90s’ Massive Attack and Cocteau Twins
influenced me a lot.
2. Did you meet them from 1978 to 1991?
No
3. From what time did you start listening to foreign music?
From 1987.
4. Who influenced you to play music?
PINK FLOYD
5. How much influence from HK and Taiwanese music did you have?
*no influence *a little influence * moderately *rather big influence *a great
influence
In early 80s’, I started to listen Taiwanese pop-music.
6. How much influence from American and European rock-music did you have?
*no influence *a little influence * moderately *rather big influence *a great
influence
I had a great influence.
7. Did you listen to foreign radio?
No
65
8. Did you get underground (smuggled) recordings?
Yes. Friends brought some types.
9. Did you have problems with authorities for playing music?
Cobra girls’ rock band was founded in 1989, and rock music was not a mainstream
music in the Chinese society. We faced the problem of making money for playing
music; it was hardly possible to make a living.
10. Did you ever travel outside the PRC with your music?
Yes, I participated in various music festivals in the USA, HK, and Europe.
11. Where did you get your non-traditional\non-Chinese music instruments?
I studied Chinese music, I learnt how to play Chinese dulcimer.
12. How did you learn to play them?
See as above
13. Did you have PR (public relation)?
No
14. Did you have magazines about rock-music?
I saw Western magazine about rock-music in 1991 in China. In 1992 I had a
photoset for German rock-music magazine.
15. Did you write songs in English? No
16. Did it make any difference to the authorities what language you sang your
lyrics in?
I wrote lyrics in Chinese, most of the lyrics are about our own personal living
conditions and social views.
66
17. Did you know about any official music organizations or societies?
In the mid-1990s, China has set up a new organization: Copyright Society of China
18. Did you know about any unofficial music organizations or societies?
I don’t understand.
19. How did you distribute your music?
CD Records
20. Did you have any clubs for playing music?
We often played music. In 1992 we toured in Europe; we played in clubs in
festivals. In 1996, we participated in festivals and club performances in the United
States. In 2002, we participated in festivals and club performances in Germany.
67
Appendix B. Interview with Yu Weimin, drummer
1. What American and European music did you listen to? Please name at least 5
bands/soloists.
1）Led Zeppelin
2）U2
3）Bob Marley
4）Buddy Rich (drummer)
5）Miles Davis
I like different music groups and genres, as well as styles, for example, hard rock，
Funk, Jazz, Fusion, bossa nova, reggea, flamenco, punk rock, drum&bass, latin.
Also I like ethnical, Indian music and music of Middle East.
2. Did you meet them from 1978 to 1991?
No.
3. From what time did you start listening to foreign music?
In my childhood in the 1970s’, I listened to classic European music a lot, in the
early the 1980s’ I began to listen to American and European pop music.
4. Who influenced you to play music?
The Police, It was the first foreign rock album that I’ve got and I liked it a lot.
5. How much influence from HK and Taiwanese music did you have?
It had a certain impact.
6. How much influence from American and European rock-music did you have?
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I had a great influence; I listened to definer genres from pop to rock music.
7. Did you listen to foreign radio?
No
8. Did you get underground (smuggled) recordings?
No
9. Did you have problems with authorities for playing music?
In 1988 – 1990 I started to play in bands that played covers, I was in college that
time and the most important was to compare European and Taiwanese pop-music.
In 1990, I started to play rock in a band and it was our music. From 1995 I play in
different styles. The most difficult thing is to play original music and get money
for that and be happy at the same moment.
10. Did you ever travel outside the PRC with your music?
HK, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Turkey
11. Where did you get your non-traditional\non-Chinese music instruments?
I got it from HK, Japan, the USA, Turkey. I bought some instruments by myself
when I travel abroad.
12. How did you learn to play them?
I started to play the guitar about 1985; I studied at school that time. I sometimes
took guitar lessons after school and sometimes we played music with friends. It
was our way to have fun.
We had a dream to play music in a group and when I was in university I learnt how
to play the drums.
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In 1987, it was possible to learn only classic and folk music in colleges in Beijing.
It was no special school for teaching how to play drum set. I had a friend how
taught me how to play the drums on introductive level. Also it was some books and
audiovisual materials. It was important to study by oneself because it was no
systematic courses to take.
13. Did you have PR (public relation)?
No
14. Did you have magazines about rock-music?
Probably in 1991 I read a foreign magazine abroad about guitars at the first time.
Later I read “Rolling stone”, but not often, only when a friend brought it from
abroad, but then I had a lot of “Modern drummer”, “Jazziz” and so on.
15. Did you write songs in English?
In 1992 I started to play in group Xuewei. The lead singer was half-British and
half-Chinese. All the lyrics were in English. But when we recorded our songs we
used lyrics as in Chinese as in English.
16. Did it make any difference to the authorities what language you sang your
lyrics in?
English lyrics mainly considered as a part of globalization.
17. Did you know about any official music organizations or societies?
All the official music associations and organizations were for pop music. Rock
music was to alternative for that.
18. Did you know about any unofficial music organizations or societies?
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In early 90s’ it was a German guy called Wudou who lived in Beijing and played
on Beijing Jazz festival but it was over.
Scale music organizations and
associations were rare at that time.
19. How did you distribute your music?
We distributed our music mainly through live performances.
20. Did you have any clubs for playing music?
We played music in different places, from Live house to Disco club. Also we
played in theaters, gymnasiums, stadiums, large outdoor music festivals.
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Appendix C. “The Times They Are A-changin' lyrics”. Bob Dylan. (1964)
Gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
Keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
Don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'
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For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they, they are a-changin'
Come senators, Congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand at the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it's ragin'
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
Don't criticize
What you can't understand
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Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend a hand
For your times they are a-changin'
The line it is drawn
And the curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'
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Appendix D. “Nothing to My Name” lyrics. Cui Jian. (1986)
I have asked you endlessly,
When will you go with me?
But you always laugh at me with,
Nothing to my name
I want to give you my dreams,
And give you my freedom.
But you always laugh at me with,
Nothing to my name.
Ohhh….
When will you go with me?
The earth beneath my feet is moving.
The river beside me is flowing.
But you always laugh at me with,
Nothing to my name.
Why do you always laugh at me so?
Why don’t I give up?
Why do you see me as,
Forever having nothing to my name?
Ohhh….
Just go with me now!
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Listen - I’ve waited so long,
So I’ll make my final request.
I want to grab you by the hands,
And take you with me.
Now your hands are trembling,
Now your tears are falling.
Perhaps you are saying,
You love me with nothing to my name
Ohhh….
Just go with me now.
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Appendix E. Photo materials
Pic. 1. Cui Jian at Tiananmen Square
Pic. 2 Cui Jian performing “A Piece of Red Clothes”, 1990
Pic. 3 A cover of “Rock’n’roll on the new long march”, 1989
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Pic. 4 Black Panther with Dou Wei
Pic. 5 A cover for the album “Black Panther”, 1991
Pic. 6 Tang Dynasty
Pic. 7 A cover for the album “A Dream to Return to Tang Dynasty”, 1992
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