Ramblings on YAOGUN, Chinese rock music, by the author of Red Rock: The Long, Strange March of Chinese Rock & Roll
Yaogun is still at that point where it’s news when it gets on television. Particularly when it is shown on China Central Television (CCTV) — though in the Chinese television landscape, there is no less “Central” television station, the impression one gets when one says CCTV is of the Government’s living room.
So when word came, via Rock in China‘s Max and the rest of the gang at the RiC Facebook group that metal band Suffocated was on CCTV-5, it got my attention.
(Yeah, folk. Not rock. But bear with me.)
Remember, Toronto, when Red Rock: The Long, Strange March of Chinese Rock & Roll had its launch? And Shanren played? And rocked the house? I was tipped off by the World Music Network that there is new footage of them, in the studio, so wanted to share it.
NXNE, Toronto’s counterpart to Austin’s massive SXSW, takes over the city from June 11-17. A part of that chunk of time is for films. This year, a China documentary is on the bill. Down: Indie Rock in the PRC is a film by Andrew Field and Jud Willmont, and looks at a few bands that the filmmakers came upon in their search to document the yaogun scene in 2007.
I’ve been asked to attend the screening and be a part of the post-film Q&A session, and have graciously accepted. The screening goes down Thursday June 14 at 12.30 p.m. at the National Film Board (150 John St.). There’s more info here.
Speaking of anniversaries…
In late May, Beijing venue 2 Kolegas, known as “dos kolegas” celebrated its seventh birthday. I can think of no better way to honour and celebrate that occasion than this…
Twenty-three years ago, it was June 4, 1989.
I lived in Beijing through ten anniversaries, but the significance of the date, in what must sound, to those who didn’t live there over the past few years, odd, seemed to shrink over my stay. Until, however, I looked into yaogun’s history, and saw that the movement that brought thousands to Tiananmen Square was nourished at the same teet as was the passion for rock and the drive to yaogun. Citizens in the Square and yaogunners on stages were after the same thing: It was about possibilities. There was so much that was new, and there was a hunger to discover it all, and more. And there was so much hope.