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.
Armpit jokes may abound, but there’s a reason the land whose fertile ground birthed not only The Boss and Bon Jovi rocks even harder these days:
Mi Jiayan’s seminar on Rock ‘n’ Roll in Post-Mao China. I was told that they’ve just finished the Cui Jian unit, and are on to Tang Dynasty.
I mean, Denmark gives a valiant effort with the Danish Rock Council, the government agency devoted to educating the world in the ways of Danish rock. The mere existence of that agency impressed me (and, subsequently, flattered me, when, first, they spent money on sending me to Denmark, and then, on sending Danish rock bands to me, in China like, for example, these ones).
But Joizy takes it up a notch with the yaogun seminar. Get thee to The College of New Jersey!