Why China’s rock music is here to stay
A new textbook warns that rock ‘n roll is a security threat. Yet China’s vibrant rock scene is mainly a source of creative freedom.
The Rolling Stones's Mick Jagger sings with Cui Jian, China's best known rocker, in Shanghai in 2006.
AP
A new textbook for university students in China warns that rock ’n’ roll is a security threat, designed by the West to stir up young people for revolution. That news is a bit off-key to the tens of millions of Chinese who attend rock music festivals almost every weekend, enjoy a vibrant underground music scene in big cities, and tune in to TV competitions among rock bands.
One industrial city, Shijiazhuang, even dubbed itself the “hometown” of rock in the past year, while Wuhan enjoys being known as “Punk City.” In April, one fan of Chinese rock, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, was in Beijing and bought the album “Black Dream” by rock star Dou Wei at a record store.
Rock certainly has roots in youthful rebellion. That’s why the first Elvis album from the 1950s was not released in China until 1977, or after the Cultural Revolution and death of Mao Tse-tung. The Rolling Stones did not play in China until 2006.
The first big Chinese rock star, Cui Jian, had a hit in the mid-1980s, “Nothing to My Name,” which was used during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Mr. Cui “introduced people not only to a new sound, but to a new idea: That there were alternatives out there; that you could be an individual, that maybe, just maybe, we didn’t have all the things we were supposed to have,” wrote Jonathan Campbell in his book, “Red Rock: The Long, Strange March of Chinese Rock & Roll.”
But rock in the Middle Kingdom has evolved, adopting Chinese instruments and sounds while often being overshadowed by pop music, especially songs by megastar Taylor Swift. It has “become more diverse and decentralized,” wrote one big rock fan, Cai Yineng, an editor of the cultural news site Sixth Tone. The new rock music, while often censored by authorities, is bringing attention to issues like pollution and globalization, he states.
If rock sparks revolutions – and it clearly had an influence in the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 – it is only in the thought of the listener. Rock relies on a creative freedom and a curiosity that breaks mental boundaries.
“By retaining our ‘open-earedness,’ we can enjoy all the new features and sounds that China’s rock musicians are constantly throwing our way, and perhaps also keep our ears to the ground of Chinese society and popular sentiment at the same time. Let’s stay curious,” wrote Mr. Cai in August.
What most worries the Chinese Communist Party is that rock music may be the bearer of “universal values,” like the idea of individual freedom. Yet the party’s new college textbook is up against a very strong music scene in China, whether it be rock, reggae, or rap. That was clear in a social media posting by China’s table-tennis gold medal winner Fan Zhendong during the Paris Olympics. An avid “Swiftie,” he wrote, “Music is universal. Great musicians like Taylor Swift bring us healing power and confidence.”