sign in sign up
<<
Home , Amorphis, Arch Enemy, Black metal, Born From Pain, Brazilian thrash metal, Chinese rock

"THE SCREAMING SUCCESSOR": EXPLORING THE CHINESE METAL IN CONTEMPORARY CHINESE SOCIETY (1996-2015)

Yu Zheng

A Thesis

Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

December 2016

Committee:

Jeremy Wallach, Advisor

Esther Clinton

Kristen Rudisill © 2016

Yu Zheng

All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT

Jeremy Wallach, Advisor

This research project explores the characteristics and the trajectory of metal development in and examines how various factors have influenced the localization of this scene. I examine three significant roles – musicians, audiences, and mediators, and focus on the interaction between the localized Chinese metal scene and metal . This thesis project uses multiple methods, including textual analysis, observation, surveys, and in-depth interviews. In this thesis, I illustrate an image of the Chinese metal scene, present the characteristics and the development of metal musicians, fans, and mediators in China, discuss their contributions to scene’s construction, and analyze various internal and external factors that influence the localization of metal in China.

After that, I argue that the development and the localization of the metal scene in China goes through three stages, the emerging stage (1988-1996), the underground stage (1997-2005), the indie stage (2006-present), with Chinese characteristics. And, this localized trajectory is influenced by the accessibility of metal resources, the rapid economic growth, urbanization, and the progress of modernization in China, and the overall development of cultural industry and international cultural communication. iv

For Yisheng and our unborn baby! v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First of all, I would like to show my deepest gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Jeremy Wallach, and Dr. Esther Clinton for their patience, constant encouragement, and professional suggestions throughout the entire process of research and writing. I don’t think I could finish such a huge project without their kind support and help in the last three years. I would like to thank Dr.

Kristen Rudisill for her rapid response and insightful comments, even though she is on her trip in

Asia. I would also like to express my appreciation to Dr. Mathew Donahue. It is him who brought me to the world of metal and inspired me to study the metal subculture in China. My sincere appreciation also goes to Dr. Marilyn Motz for her kind help to go through all the processes for the degree since I first came to the department of Popular Culture four years ago. I owe my great gratitude to the sponsorship form the Stoddard & O'Neill Fund, which financially support my fieldwork trip to China. I want to thank Jason Wells-Jensen for his careful language editing, which really help me improve the writing quality of this thesis.

Furthermore, I must express my special appreciation to all the informants in China.

Without their support of this study and their devotion of Chinese metal, the research could not even happen. I am grateful to Han Ning, the chief editor of Painkiller magazine who not only provide a lot of information but also help me distribute the on-line survey on their social media. I would like to thank Jiang Wei who gave me a valuable chance to do the interview when was busy preparing ’s China Tour. I also want to thank Liu Zheng and Ashan who shared their experiences and stories about the growth of the Chinese metal with me. My sincere gratitude should also go to all 746 Chinese metal fans who voluntarily participated the on-line survey and 32 of them who also took time to respond the e-mail interviews. Because of their support, I got a really good sample size and meaningful data of the Chinese metal fanbase. vi Finally, I want to say thank you to my family for their understandings and support of my decision to devote to such a tiny field of study. Thanks to my husband Yisheng for his love, patience, support, and all various debates during the process of this project. vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………..... 1

Framework ...... 5

Methods ...... 8

Textual Analysis ...... ……………………………………………………. 8

Participatory Observation ………………………………………………….. 8

Survey ...... ………………………………………………….. 9

In-Depth Interview ...... 10

Background: Tang and the Early Metal Scene in China ...... 11

Rock Elite ...... ……………………………………………………. 11

Dakou Culture ...... ………………………………………………….. 14

A Flash in the Pan: Chinese Mainstream Metal…………………………….. 16

CHAPTER ONE “WE ARE FROM THE UNDERGROUND”: THE DEVELOPMENT OF

METAL BANDS IN CHINA ...... 20

The Expansion of Metal Bands in China ...... 21

Quantity ...... ……………………………………………………. 22

Location ...... ………………………………………………….. 26

Subgenre ...... ………………………………………………….. 28

An Interpretation ...... ………………………………………………….. 30

Suffocated: From Underground to the Globe ...... ………………… 32

CHAPTER TWO “STAND UP, STAND UP, YOU ARE CHINESE”: THE

REPRESENTATION OF NATIONAL IDENTITY IN CHINES METAL ...... 47 viii

Music ...... …………………………………………. 49

Performance ...... 52

Language ...... ………………… 54

Content ...... ………………… 57

CHAPTER THREE “WE STILL STAND HERE”: METAL FANS IN CHINA AND THEIR

INTERPRETATIONS OF CHINESE METAL MUSIC ...... ………………………. 65

Demographic Position of the Metal Audience in China ...... ……….. 67

Gender ...... ……………………………………………………. 67

Age ...... ………………………………………………….. 68

Region ...... ………………………………………………….. 69

Social Strata ...... ………………………………………………….. 70

The Expansion of the Metal Audience in China ...…………………………………. 73

The Practice of Metal Fans in the Scene ...... …………………………………. 75

Metal Fans’ Behavior and Generational Differences ...... 76

Metal Fans, Active Audience ...... 82

The Interpretation of Chinese Metal Music ...... …………………………………. 85

CHAPTER FOUR “PERILOUS JOURNEY”: METAL MEDIATORS IN CHINA AND THEIR

NEGOTIATIONS IN THE SCENE ...... ……………………………. 91

The Development of Metal Mediators ...... …………………………………….. 93

Indie Labels ...... ……………………………………………………. 94

Magazines ...... ………………………………………………….. 97

Live Performances ...... ………………………………………………….. 99

External Elements Affecting the Development of the Scene ...…………………….. 103 ix

Infrastructure ...... ……………………………………………………. 104

Market ...... ………………………………………………….. 107

Policy and Censorship .....………………………………………………….. 110

CHAPTER FIVE CHINESE METAL INTO THE GLOBAL SCENE: A CASE STUDY OF

PAINKILLER MAGAZINE ...... …………………………………………………………… 114

“Zhongxing Yinyue”: The Creation of Chinese Metal Magazine ...... 115

Global Metal Comes to China ...... …………………………………. 119

Chinese Metal Goes Global ...... …………………………………. 124

Challenges and Future ...... …………………………………. 126

CONCLUSION ………………………………………………………………………...... 128

REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………………… 134

CHINESE GLOSSARY………………………………………… .………………………… 141

APPENDIX A: SURVEY FOR THE CHINESE METAL FANS ………………………… 146

APPENDIX B: LIST OF CHINESE METAL BANDS …………………………………… 151

APPENDIX C: LIST OF CHINESE METAL INDIE LABELS …………………………… 161

APPENDIX D: LIST OF FOREIGN METAL BANDS PERFORMING IN CHINA...... 164

APPENDIX E: HSRB APPROVAL LETTER ...... …………………………… 171 x

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Page

1 The Number of New Bands Formed Each Year ...... 23

2 The Number of Newly-Formed and No-Beijing Bands Each Year ...... 24

3 The Number of Newly-Formed Northern and Southern Bands Each Year ...... 26

4 The Age Distribution of the Metal Audience ...... 68

5 The Geographical Distribution of the Chinese Metal Audience ...... 69

6 The Distribution of Metal Audience in Various Levels of Cities ...... 70

7 Correlation between Bands and Fans Increase ...... 75

8 The Number of Foreign Bands Performing in China Each Year ...... 100

9 The Number of Bands from Each Country Interviewed by Painkiller ...... 120

10 The Number of / Gigs Organized by Painkiller Each Year ...... 121 xi

LIST OF TABLES

Table Page

1 Appearance of First Metal Band, by Administrative Region ...... 27 xii

LIST OF IMAGES

Image Page

1 Dakou Cassette (AC/DC) ...... 16

2 Dakou CD (Slipknot) ...... 16

3 Chinese Map ...... 19

4 Suffocated (From left: Wu Peng, Wu Gang, Liu Zheng, Kou Zhengyu) ...... 36

5 Suffocated Performing in Coriolanus Directed by Lin Zhaohua ...... 36

6 Suffocated Performing in WOA in 2012 ...... 43

7 The Stage Setting of ...... 53

8 Costumes of Voodoo Kungfu ...... 53

9 Dream Spirit’s Stage Settings ...... 53

10 Cover of Xmusic (the 30th issue) ...... 97

11 Cover of Painkiller (the 54th issue) ...... 97

12 Poster of WOA Metal Battle China in 2015 ...... 124 1

INTRODUCTION

In 1988, two years after composed the first , “I Have Nothing,”

Ding Wu, , , and Andrew Szabo formed the first Chinese heavy metal band,

Tang Dynasty (Tangchao). Their , such as “A Dream Return to Tang Dynasty,” “Soaring

Bird” and “The Sun,” became the vehicles of their dreams of passion and freedom in the

generation after the . Their songs spread widely among the Chinese audience

in the early , promoting the growth of local metal scenes all over the country. Following

Tang Dynasty’s lead, more and more heavy metal bands were founded. At the same time, the

metal sub-genres expanded. For example, the first Chinese band, Overloaded

(Chaozai), was formed in 1991, and the first doom band, Tomahawk (Zhanfu),

followed in 1992. Adolescents in the early 1990s liked because of both the

uniqueness of the music and the ideology of that generation. After the suppression of the Cultural

Revolution, young people hoped to enjoy more freedom. In contrast to commercialized popular

music, Chinese heavy metal artists screamed in their authentic voices about their desire to pursue

liberty.

After the golden Chinese rock in the early 1990s, the glorious period of heavy

metal passed away, and the metal scene in China moved underground. However, it did not stop

developing: Many new bands were founded in different parts of China and they covered many

sub-genres of metal music; the number of metal performances increased each year, and Chinese

metal bands had opportunities to play abroad. Thus, although it moved underground, the metal

scene in China has kept expanding and metal music continues to play a significant role in

representing the real opinions of Chinese young people and their unique perspectives on personal

goals, social problems, and freedom. Moreover, with the development of metal music in China, 2

Chinese metal bands have gradually gone abroad and contributed to the development of the global metal scene.

Although metal music has existed in China for more than 20 years, has influenced generations of Chinese urban youth, and has started to interact with the global metal scene, little academic research has been done in this specific area – metal music in China. Since Cui Jian,

Tang Dynasty, and Panther stepped into Chinese mainstream popular music, Chinese rock has been recognized by both western and Chinese scholars. In 1992, Andrew Jones published the first English-language monograph introducing contemporary Chinese popular music and rock, as well as analyzing both genres and ideologies of Chinese popular music in the context of Chinese society from the end of the Cultural Revolution to the early 1990s. Following in the footsteps of

Jones (1992), Nimrod Baranovitch (2003) discussed the ethnicity, gender and politics in Chinese popular music from 1978 to 1997; Cynthia Wong (2005) investigated rock as a tool of urban youth after the Cultural Revolution to negotiate their identities and self-representation based on her fieldwork in Beijing between 1996 and 1999; and Jeroen de Kloet (2010) offered a comprehensive ethnographic study of the Chinese rock scene from 1992 to 2008 in his book

China with a Cut.

Meanwhile, Fu Boyi (2008) founded the systematic study of in China. In his dissertation, he provided a detailed discussion of the historical development of Chinese rock, as well as its representatives, social status, and cultural values, by conducting a case study of Cui

Jian, the “godfather” of rock in China. Subsequent young scholars also conducted research in various aspects of Chinese rock, such as the localization of rock subculture in China (Yi, 2008), a case study of the first metal band, Tang Dynasty (Chen, 2010), marginal rock musicians in Shu

Cun (Xiao, 2012), and in the area (Ma, 2013). These studies were 3 offered as important references to understand the context of Chinese popular music in contemporary society. However, although metal music in China has been mentioned in some previous works, such as China with a Cut (Kloet, 2010), Wong (2005)’s dissertation, and Chen’s

(2010) thesis, little systematic and detailed research from either a Chinese or a western perspective has been done specifically on heavy metal music in China. Thus, describing and exploring the heavy metal scene in China fills a meaningful gap in Chinese popular music studies.

Moreover, metal scholars have started to recognize the expansion of metal subculture all around the world and engage in global metal studies. While scholars continue to contribute to the study of metal music in western countries (Kahn-Harris, 2006; Walser, 1993; Weinstein, 1991), metal studies has expanded to other non-western countries, such as Indonesia (Wallach, 2008),

Nepal (Greene, 2006), (Kahn-Harris, 2011), (Kawano & Hosokawa, 2011),

(Avelar, 2011), (Muršič, 2011), and even Kenya (Knopke, 2015). In 2011, Jeremy

Wallach, Harris Berger, and Paul Greene published Metal Rules the Globe: Heavy Metal Music

Around the World, the first academic book investigating this phenomenon. The contributors investigated the metal scenes in more than ten countries to explore the distinctive sounds of metal and how it fused with indigenous cultures. As the key reference on this topic, this book provides a direction for global metal studies.

However, in this field, only the first Chinese heavy metal band, Tang Dynasty, has been discussed (Chen, 2010; Wong, 2005, 2011). Cynthia Wong offered a case study of Tang Dynasty in her dissertation and contributed a chapter to the book Metal Rules the Globe (Wallach, Berger,

& Greene, 2011) about the traditional masculinity and brotherhood represented in Chinese rock.

In the Western academic field, the study of Chinese metal stopped with Tang Dynasty in the 4 early 1990s. Meanwhile, in China, the study of metal music fell even further behind. Chen

Wenbo (2010) explored the composing technique of Tang Dynasty and briefly interpreted the

Chinese metal subculture in his Master's thesis, which became scholarly article in this field in China. When the Chinese metal scene moved underground in the mid-1990s, no related academic research in either western countries or China was conducted.

As a world leader, China has power and responsibility in both cultural fusion and dissemination. Music functions as a bridge between different cultures. Therefore, exploring the meanings and influences of the heavy metal scene in China not only helps Chinese people to better know this relatively new type of music and subculture, but also gives the world a particular eastern perspective and a significant case study in heavy metal globalization studies.

On the one hand, exploring the development of the Chinese metal scene can test the argument in previous research that the local metal scene in different countries developed via a similar trajectory (Wallach, Berger, and Greene, 2011). On the other hand, this research also discusses different ways in which the metal scene is localized in a modern Chinese environment characterized by traditional ideology, cultural industry development, and a rapidly changing social and economic situation.

Because of the significance mentioned above, this thesis project focuses on the development of the Chinese metal scene over the 18 years from 1996 (a year which represents the end of Tang Dynasty’s golden age and the beginning of the underground metal scene) to

2015. By conducting this research via multiple methods, I explore the way in which metal in

China is localized via a trajectory similar to that of other countries, but with unique Chinese characteristics, by situating the metal scene in Chinese and the modern state of society. I 5 also investigate how the Chinese metal scene has interfaced with the global scene, recursively promoting the metal scene both indigenously and internationally.

Framework

This study’s primary research question asks how the metal scene has developed and adapted in Chinese society. In other words, this research project aims to explore the characteristics and the trajectory of metal development in China and examine how various factors have influenced the localization of this music scene. In order to investigate the comprehensive social dynamics of the Chinese metal scene, I build a framework depending on

Deena Weinstein’s structure of the “transaction between artists, audiences, and mediators” (1991, p. 8). I plan to examine these three significant roles, which contribute differently and interactively to the formation and the development of the Chinese metal scene. Moreover, I focus on the interaction between the localized Chinese metal scene and metal globalization, illustrating a three-step process: the globalization of metal promoted the development of the metal scene in

China; metal subculture was gradually localized due to the negotiation of different roles in the scene; and, finally, Chinese metal became involved in the global metal scene.

Based on this framework, this thesis is divided into five chapters. In the first two chapters,

I will focus on musicians and metal music in China. Local metal scene development is characterized by two steps: First, fandom is established; then, more significantly, indigenous metal bands are founded (Weinstein, 2011, p. 52). Local bands are a core element in the development of the scene. Thus, in the first chapter, I explore the growth of metal musicians in

China starting with an analysis of the ways in which metal bands expanded in China in terms of the increase of numbers, the diffusion of space, and the expansion of metal subgenres. Then, based on these phenomena, I discuss various factors that influence the shape of this trajectory. I 6 argue that the time and place at which new metal bands join the scene is highly influenced by the external social environment. After discussing in general how metal bands expand nation wide, I move to a micro perspective, recording the process in detail by which one of the most successful underground metal bands, Suffocated (Zhi Xi), developed from an unknown band to standing on the global stage. By recording the life history of this band, I explore the local paradigm of indigenous metal bands in China and the issues they encounter when negotiating with Chinese mainstream culture, cultural policies, censorship, and the regulation of the Chinese music and performance industries. In the second chapter, I focus on the most significant component in the national and local scene –metal music created by Chinese metal musicians—and explore its creation of “Chinese-ness.” The Chinese metal music that combines Western style and indigenous Chinese culture is the most obvious representation of metal localization in China.

This chapter explores the strategies that metal music uses to represent Chinese characteristics, such as adding traditional instruments and using local dialects. Also, I categorize metal music in

China into three themes to examine the representation of “Chinese-ness” in content, as compared to the themes of typical western metal music.

The expansion of local metal bands in China occurred simultaneously with the enlargement of the Chinese metal fanbase. Thus, chapter three pays attention to the localization of metal in China from the fans’ perspectives. The first part of this chapter demonstrates the demographic structure of metal fans in China, including gender, age, social strata, places of residency, education level, and occupation. Through analyzing this statistical data, I discuss the characteristics shared by most metal fans in each stage of the fanbase expansion and their particular practice in the scene. Moreover, I explore the reception of metal in contemporary

Chinese society. Since the metal fanbase emerged in the late , metal has influenced three 7 generations of Chinese metalheads. Through interviewing metal fans from different generations, this section answers the following questions: How has each generation of fans accepted and enjoyed metal in different ways? How have various generations interpreted metal? How have fans connected metal music with social issues in each generation? How has metal influenced each generation? The answers to these questions illustrate the localization of the Chinese metal scene through the ways in which metal fans have accepted and adapted this form of music in their daily lives.

Finally, the last two chapters study mediators, the most significant contributors to the development of the metal scene in China as well as the important promoters of Chinese metal on the global stage. Various mediators in the Chinese metal scene are explored in the fourth chapter, such as metal magazines, record labels, and promoters. I examine these mediators’ contributions from three perspectives. Firstly, I illustrate the development trajectory of metal mediators in China. Secondly, by observing different places and interviewing mediators, I explore how Chinese mediators operate to promote the development of the metal scene in China and focus on external factors that affect the development of the Chinese metal scene, including policies, censorship, and the overall music industry. Thirdly, I study how these mediators promote Chinese metal in the global scene. Pierre Bourdieu’s theories of “field” and “capital” and the related concept of “subcultural capital” are applied to discuss how different roles in the scene interact with both internal and external powers in contemporary Chinese society, which shapes the unique trajectory of metal localization in China. In the last chapter, I conduct a case study of a Chinese heavy metal magazine, Painkiller, and illustrate the way in which this mediator not only brings global resources into the construction of the metal scene in China but also brings Chinese metal to the rest of the world. 8

After exploring the localization of metal in China through the roles of musicians, fans, and mediators, I attempt to provide a clear answer to the primary research questions: What is the unique trajectory of development of the Chinese metal scene and how does it interact with particular social dynamics of the Chinese context? I conclude this thesis with my prediction of

Chinese metal expansion through both localization and globalization.

Methods

This thesis project uses multiple methods, including textual analysis, observation, surveys, and in-depth interviews. In addition, some quantitative data, such as the information about

Chinese metal bands and indie labels, is collected from on-line sources. Each chapter utilizes various methods to explore different ways in which metal is localized in contemporary Chinese society.

Textual Analysis. The lyrics of 100 Chinese metal songs from different subgenres were collected to analyze the various themes and the content, which represent the ideology of the

Chinese new generation. Moreover, some lyrics containing words and expressions related to traditional Chinese culture exemplified the representation of “Chinese-ness” in the process of the localization of this western music in China. The detailed analysis of the lyrics is presented in the second chapter.

Participatory Observation. The observation was mainly conducted from May 16th to

July 19th, 2014, and from Mar. 4th to Mar. 13th, 2015, in Beijing. Since I was born in Beijing and

I’ve lived there for more than 20 years, my personal experience related to this city and musical activities I’ve participated in are also used for this project. The sites I observed include popular venues where both Chinese and foreign bands play in Beijing, such as 13 Club, Yu Yi

Shan, and The Star Live; record stores, such as 666 Rock Store and Freesound; and The Midi 9

Music Festival. When I was in the field, I attended two domestic metal bands’ performances and four performances by metal bands from , , the USA, and Andorra. These places and activities were chosen because they have all made significant contributions to the development of the metal scene in China. I entered these sites as an audience member, customer, and participant, observing not only the environment and decoration of these sites but also how staff work there, how participants interact in these sites, and how these sites play important roles in the metal scene. The observation data provide an important source when discussing the diversity of metal fans in China and their behaviors in chapter three and support the understanding of mediators’ contributions in the fourth chapter.

Survey. The survey about metal fans in China was conducted online in order to give a broad view of metal fans in China. A questionnaire with 32 questions about personal information and experiences related to metal was distributed on the micro-blog of Painkiller and shared by metalheads through re-posting. This questionnaire includes 4 parts to investigate several aspects of metal fandom in China:

(1) demographic overview in terms of age, gender, social stratification, and educational background;

(2) a few questions explore personal experiences and preferences, such as how fans enter the scene, their favorite sub-genres and bands, and when and where they listen to metal;

(3) some other questions investigate how fans actively participate in the scene and their interactions with different mediators, including the frequency with which they go to gigs or record stores, if they read metal magazines, and how many records they buy each year;

(4) the last question examines the reception of metal among metal fans in China. 10

Overall, 746 participants were recruited and 745 responses were available for analysis.

The survey results are one of the most important data sources used in chapter three when evaluating the structure and behaviors of Chinese metal fans.

In-Depth Interview. The in-depth interviews were widely conducted among metal musicians, fans, and mediators to explore the primary research question about the localization of metal in China. Each role has different emphases in terms of their different characteristics and contributions to the scene, which will be used to analyze various aspects in the process of this localization.

I interviewed two successful Chinese metal bands, Suffocated (Zhixi) and Nine Treasures

(Jiubao) in Beijing when I conducted fieldwork there. Suffocated is a thrash metal band founded in 1997 in the underground scene in Beijing. They survived the most difficult period of the

Chinese rock scene in their first ten years and successfully released their first in 2007.

Then, Suffocated gradually become an active band and one of the most significant contributors to the scene: they toured in more than 20 locations around China and performed in various music festivals; they founded and organized one of the biggest metal music festivals, 330 Metal

Festival, for 15 years; and, finally, they played on one of the main stages in in

Germany, the biggest metal festival in the world, in 2012. I record the growing experience of this band in detail in the first chapter, since their story is typical for the development of a successful metal band in China. This oral history of Suffocated helps in exploring the trajectory of a metal band growing up in the context of Chinese contemporary society. The interview of Nine

Treasures is used when discussing the Chinese characteristics of the Chinese metal music in the second chapter. 11

Next, I interviewed 32 metal fans ranging in age from 19 to 40 via e-mail. The participants had started to listen to metal music between 1990 and 2013, covering all three generations of metal fans in China. The interviews with different generations of Chinese metal fans explore how the Chinese metal scene developed in terms of their various receptions of metal music and the changes of both reception and habit when fans are involved in the metal scene at different periods of time.

Also, I conducted face-to-face interviews with two significant mediators, Han Ning, the chief editor/founder of the Chinese metal magazine Painkiller and Jiangwei, the founder of guitarchina.com. Both of them have contributed greatly in terms of promoting metal culture in

China through both traditional and online media and organizing musical events. These mediators are interviewed to explore their contributions to the Chinese metal scene considering external factors such as policy, censorship, and the music industry.

Background: Tang Dynasty and the Early Metal Scene in China

Metal music has been in China for around 26 years. Traced back to the earliest period, in which context did heavy metal music come to China? How did metal music come to China? Who started to listen to and play metal music? How did the first generation of metalheads contribute to the localization of the metal scene in China? I would like to address these questions to create a background for the research that follows.

Rock Elite. The metal scene in China emerged with a small group of young people who were active among the underground rock circle (Quan) in Beijing. These people were treated as rock elites not because they were rich but because they were able to access the resources of rock music (Liu, 2012). In the early 1980s, along with the initial process of China’s reform and opening-up economic policies, western culture, including popular music, entered China via 12

different ways. Unlike the official imported cultural production distributed through mainstream

media, such as and popular music, rock – including some metal music –

came to China through word of mouth. Since rock was not supported by the Chinese government

and mainstream culture, the only way to get rock music was from friends. Gao , the vocalist of

the first Chinese thrash metal band, Overload (Chao Zai), recalled his experience of getting the

music. “In those days, we couldn’t buy that kind of music, so we’d get it from friends. We’d ride

our bicycles an hour just to listen to it, and if we liked it, we’d bring the tape home, copy it, then

ride another hour back to return it” (Wong, 2005, p. 67). Gao Qi got some tapes of excellent western [metal] bands, such as and Anthrax, this way, which inspired him to the adopt the style of thrash metal.

During that time, the first generation of the Chinese rockers usually had at least one of the following characteristics. Firstly, some rockers' parents were musicians or culture workers, which not only made their children well-educated in music but also made themselves more accepting of new music genres. The father of Zhang Ju, an original member of Tang Dynasty,1

said during an interview, “Because I work in a culture and art organization, my son likes it too.

He can do both art (music) and sport. I support both of them” (Li & Lu, 2003). Many rockers

also benefitted from their professional education in music. Among this generation, young

cultural elites who gained professional training in music or art and then were assigned as cultural

workers became the first group to access western rock, accept it, and regard it as one of the most

significant parts of their lives (Wong, 2005). Cui Jian was originally a member of the Beijing

Song and Troupe; Wei, the vocalist of Black Panther (Heibao) had worked in the

Beijing Light Music Ensemble; and Zhao Mingyi, the drummer of Black Panther, was from the

1 Zhang Ju, who had played bass in Tang Dynasty since the band was founded in 1988, died in a motorcycle accident May 11th, 1995. 13

PLA military band. Their professional musician background, on the one hand, provided more access to listen to and play rock music, and on the other hand, laid a solid base for music making and performance. Moreover, many Chinese pioneer rockers had connections with overseas

Chinese and foreigners in Beijing who brought various western popular music styles to the new generation of Chinese youth (Wong, 2005). A few rockers had overseas relatives who were able to get some western for them. For example, Gao Qi mentioned in a documentary that his mother, who worked in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, brought back a

Beatles album, which sparked his dream of rock (Ci, unknown time). Many other rockers got to know rock from foreigners either visiting or studying in China. In the early 1980s, foreign students and staff in the embassies of various countries organized amateur bands and performed in small parties for foreigners in the embassy in Beijing. Soon after, some local rockers joined in and gradually began playing music there. Through this platform, young Chinese rockers became aware of different music styles and improved their skills in playing related instruments (Wong, 2005). The first Chinese metal band, Tang Dynasty, also benefited from foreigners. Kaiser Kuo, a Chinese-American who came to Beijing to study language, made friends with (the vocalist in Tang Dynasty) and introduced him to the world of heavy metal, which promoted the formation of the first Chinese metal band.

Considering the state of society in China in the 1980s during efforts to recover from the

Cultural Revolution, people with such backgrounds usually lived at the top of the social hierarchy. Therefore, most initial rock elites were also the real elites in China. They were able to not only access rock music but also afford the instruments and some signature accessories, such as leather jackets, boots, and motorcycles. However, in the late 1980s, the limited resources brought from western countries and distributed among the tiny rock community had not satisfied 14

Chinese rockers’ tremendous desire for abundant western rock music. Fortunately, a new underground channel was soon discovered and the colorful world of western music was exposed before young Chinese rockers.

Dakou Culture. Around 1990-1991, many damaged western albums were dumped by western labels and imported to China as plastic rubbish, called “dakou Dai” (cassette with a cut) or “dakou Die” (CD with a cut) 2. However, because many cassettes or CDs retained most of their audio tracks, this became the main channel for at least two generations of Chinese rockers and musicians to get western music before the popularization of the Internet. Youth who listened to and collected dakou albums were called the dakou generation. Jeroen de Kloet (2010) quotes an online description written by You Dali about the dakou generation:

This is a dakou world, a new life where you don’t even have to leave the country to

realize your spiritual adventure. When Americans fiercely give themselves a cut, they

also give the world a possibility of communism and unity. The government doesn’t

encourage 1.3 billion people to listen to . A small bunch of them therefore

secretly look for offerings to their ears, to their eyes, to their brains, and to their

generation. If you can’t do it openly, do it secretly! (...) Dakou products have ushered one

million Chinese youths into a new wave, a new listening sensibility, a new awareness, a

new mind and a new set of values. (p. 20-21)

2 Most dakou cassettes and CDs were from America. Most record companies cleared out their large stock of albums by destroying them. Since the CD boxes and CDs were still useful as high quality plastics, they were recycled and imported to China. During the destruction process, because of the importer’s request or other reasons (e.g. staff in the record companies didn’t supervise the destruction process well, or workers were careless), only a few CDs were completely damaged. Most of them were only cut a little bit on the edge of the CDs and some of them even retained the entire CD. These dakou CD were first shipped to Hong Kong and province. Then, the importers sold these CDs to various dakou dealers by weight and dealers shipped them to different cities for retail. (http://baike.baidu.com/view/1548.htm) 15

Because of their unique underground channel, dakou record stores were usually set in inconspicuous places and related information, such as location, time, and quality, was still distributed person by person. Young Chinese rockers made new friends with similar music preferences through sharing information about dakou products. The dakou record store also became a physical place for youth to hang out, discussing music and their beliefs. Moreover, most dakou CDs were affordable to youth in ordinary families3 in Beijing so rock no longer belonged exclusively to the elite culture.

The growth of heavy metal in America in the 1980s generated many metal albums in the market of dakou products. Liu Zheng, the vocalist of the Chinese thrash metal band Suffocated, recalled:

Because Suffocated is a metal-style band that was influenced by dakou cassettes. The

influence of dakou cassettes was far-reaching for this generation. During that time, most

dakou cassettes that were metal music came [from the west], such as and

Megadeth. These are better [than some rock, like Cui Jian and Black Panther], more

suitable for us, we thought. At that time, we felt these were heavy, extreme, and releasing

enough. And we said, ‘we could play this style as well.’ Then, we went step by step [to

today]. (personal communication, 2015)4

Dakou products greatly contributed to the emergence and expansion of the metal scene in China in the pre-Internet era. On the one hand, dakou cassettes and CDs provided many more opportunities to access the vast majority of great western metal music from most metal sub-

3 Dakou cassettes or CDs were inexpensive before 1997. Most dakou CDs were 10 to 20 RMB each (around 1.5 to 3 dollars). After that, the price of dakou CDs rose to around 30 to 70 RMB each (5 to 10 dollars). Some CDs without any damage or scarce albums might cost more than 100 RMB (around 15 dollars). (http://baike.baidu.com/view/1548.htm) 4 All the interviews were conducted in Mandarin. All direct quotation of interviews in this thesis were translated from Mandarin to English by the author. 16

genres, which promoted the diversity of metal bands in China. Thrash metal, nu-metal,

and many bands with other styles in China were all inspired by dakou products. On the other

hand, the circle of metal players and listeners was expanded due to these inexpensive and easy-

to-obtain products. However, the dakou market was still an underground channel. Without any

acquaintances in this circle, it was still difficult for many youth to open the door of metal music.

Most of the second-generation metalheads in China got to know heavy metal through

listening to a certain Chinese mainstream heavy metal band on the radio or TV, in official music

stores, during the national tour, or even in pirate music stalls. This band was the first heavy metal band in China and has been the most successful mainstream metal band so far. This band was called Tang Dynasty.

Image 1: Dakou Cassette Image 2: Dakou CD

A Flash in the Pan: Chinese Mainstream Metal. The early 1990s was the golden era of

Chinese heavy metal. During this period, Tang Dynasty and Overload were two popular bands that contributed to the development of Chinese heavy metal among mainstream listeners. Formed in 1988, the first Chinese heavy metal band, Tang Dynasty, started a new age in the history of

Chinese heavy metal. People were first introduced to Tang Dynasty in the “1990 Modern

Concert,” which paralleled the importance of in America. An audience of around 17

10,000 first experienced the power of Chinese heavy metal in person. At the end of 1992, Tang

Dynasty released their debut album, Tang Dynasty5, which was extremely successful and made the band members superstars all around the country. An unofficial data source has reported that they have sold around 900,000 legal copies and countless copies of pirated albums (Wong, 2005

& 2010)6. Then, in 1994, the band was invited to perform for a concert called “The New Force of

Chinese Rock” in Hong Kong and filled the Hong Kong Hongkan Stadium. Before performing in

Hong Kong, Tang Dynasty was invited to play in , and Fukuoka, Japan, making it the first Chinese metal band to play abroad. There is no doubt that Tang Dynasty has made an essential contribution to the development of Chinese heavy metal music. Guo (2007) argued in his book Shackles and Dashing: Observing the Attitude of Chinese Rock Music and Independent

Culture, 1980-2005 “Tang Dynasty is the insurrectionist of Chinese contemporary culture” (p.

236). In their first album, Tang Dynasty provided the specific context in that age, great music, the particular effects from Ding Wu’s voice, and their images of masculinity. Tang Dynasty gave a musical rethinking and retelling of Chinese culture, blending tradition and reality (Guo, 2007).

However, while the members of Tang Dynasty were enjoying their success, one of the founders of the band, Zhang Ju, died in a traffic accident, which made other members fall into despair.

Less than a year later, , the main in the band, left because of a creative disagreement. Since then, Tang Dynasty hasn't come back to this peak. After releasing its second album in 1999, Epic, Tang Dynasty finally faded out of the mainstream.

5 The founding members were Ding Wu (vocal), Zhang Ju (bass), Kaiser Kuo () and Andrew Szabo (drums). In 1989, Kaiser and Szabo were asked to go back to America because of the Tiananmen incident. Liu Yijun (guitar) and Zhao Nian (drums) joined after that and this lineup lasted for 6 years until Zhang Ju died in 1995. 6 Since legal copyright protections were weak in the 1990s, pirated cassettes and CDs were and welcomed by many adolescents and factory workers because of the much lower price. Thus, Tang Dynasty may have sold many more pirated copies than legal copies. 18

In 1991, one year before Tang Dynasty released its first album, Gao Qi, whose former band Breathing shared the stage with Tang Dynasty in the “90’s Modern Concert,” founded the first Chinese thrash metal band, Overload. Compared to Tang Dynasty, Overload had an entirely different style—rapid, sonorous, and complicated. The early works, “The Shadow of Ancestor” and “The Warriors,” became classic pieces in the history of Chinese metal. After much preparation, Overload released its eponymous first album in 1996. The complicated arrangements, abundant riffs, and various rhythms of typical thrash metal songs made this album a significant step in the history of metal in China. Nonetheless, through this album, Overload marked its position in the field while also suffering adversity. Since few listeners could understand and enjoy this passion and power, the album did not sell well. Thus, Overload changed its style to mainstream and became the last authentic metal band appearing before mainstream audiences.

The era of mainstream metal in China was transient but glorious. Tang Dynasty and

Overload set a high starting point for the development of Chinese metal, sowed the seeds of heavy metal throughout the country, and inspired more and more Chinese youth to pick up , form bands, and inherit the spirit of Chinese metalheads. After 1996, the journey of underground metal in China began. 19

Image 3: Chinese Map 20

CHAPTER ONE “WE ARE FROM THE UNDERGROUND”: THE DEVELOPMENT OF METAL BANDS IN CHINA

We are from the underground. Our power is emerging. We are from the underground. Our anger is enough to destroy anything. We are from the underground. Our voice is that real. We are from the underground. Our attitude will never change. —— “We Are From the Underground”, Distorted Machine (Niuqu Jiqi)

From Oct. 2nd to Oct 4th, 2014, hundreds of diehard metal fans gathered in Beijing

International Camp Park in the Fengtai district to enjoy the Mort Metal Carnival, the first outdoor metal festival in China, which was organized by Mort Production, one of the biggest indie labels focusing on metal and a metal gig promoter. During those three days, a total of 21 metal bands performed; they had formed at different times – Ritual Day (Shi Jiao Ri) in 2000,

Silent Resentment (Jijing De Youyuan) in 2009, and Black Lake in 2013 – and came from different places – Punisher (Pan Guan) from Jinzhou in province, Barque of Dante

(Dan Ding Zhi Zhou) from Mianyang in Sichuan province, and Dream Spirit (Meng Ling) from

Taian in province. Most importantly, these bands represented ten metal subgenres – thrash metal, death metal, , atmospheric , stoner metal, , , , , and nu-metal. This festival became a historic point in the trajectory of metal development in China: The Chinese now had their own outdoor metal festival.

Twenty years had passed from the first Chinese metal band to the first outdoor metal festival. During these two decades, the metal scene in China kept developing and expanding via its own trajectory. This first chapter focuses on the localization of Chinese metal bands. I present the way in which metal bands developed in China in both horizontal and vertical dimensions. On the one hand, I discuss the nationwide expansion and increase of stylistic diversity among metal bands in China and analyze various characteristics of this expansion in a macroscopic view. On the other hand, from a micro perspective, I highlight the growth of a 21 single Chinese metal band in detail, in order to illustrate the process of a metal band growing up in China and factors that affect the success of Chinese metal bands.

The Expansion of Metal Bands in China

The continued expansion of metal bands in China is the basis and precondition of the

Chinese metal scene's development. Thus, in the first part of this chapter, I provide a broad view of metal band expansion in China in terms of the increase in numbers, the diffusion in space, and the development of metal subgenres, then interpret these phenomena by analyzing several factors which form and affect this trajectory of expansion.

In order to explore the characteristics and the process of expansion of metal bands in

China, I collected information on 260 bands, including when and where each band was formed, which subgenre the band belongs to, and other characteristics of the band. The information on

175 of these bands was from metal-archive.com/list/CN, while the rest was collected through

Douban and Xiami, two main music websites through which metal bands share their music, photos, and videos with fans in China.

Before I present the results, there are several things that be mentioned. Firstly, these 260 bands do not account for all the metal bands in China. Considering the degree of influence of each metal band in the scene, I only selected the bands which have more than 50 followers in Douban. Also, even though most bands have Douban pages, some newly formed or very old underground bands may not have one. Therefore, it’s possible that I missed some bands which may be active in the local scene. Secondly, I didn’t include bands from Hong Kong,

Macao, and Taiwan because the development of metal scenes there is totally different from

Mainland China due to economic and historical issues. Finally, bands originally formed in some small locations may and perform in Beijing where more performance opportunities and 22

resources are provided. I tried to record their original location to see how metal is geographically

diffused. However, there’s one situation I could not control: some bands were formed in Beijing

although members were from different places. Since I’m not able to record where each member

comes from and when and why they came to Beijing, when reading the data and results, readers

need to be aware that a band formed in Beijing is not necessarily equal to a band formed by

people from Beijing. Based on this data set, I explain some basic analysis from the dimensions of

quantity, location, and subgenre to investigate how metal bands expanded in number, space, and

style.

Quantity. That the number of Chinese metal bands increases each year is a basic

component of metal's expansion in China. Therefore, this section evaluates the overall increase

of metal bands in China, the difference between inside and outside of Beijing, and the difference

between northern and southern China. In general, since the first Chinese metal band, Tang

Dynasty, was formed in 1988 at least one new metal band has been formed each year. In the first

few years, only one or two bands were formed every year. Since 1997, newly-formed metal

bands have kept increasing. 1997 to 2004 represented the underground period of Chinese rock

(Liu, 2012, p. 29), including the history of Shu Cun7 and the Nu-Metal movement in Beijing8 associated with the migration of outside bands to this holy land of rock in China. Metal,

7 Shu Cun (“Tree Village” in English) is a tiny village located in an area called “Shang Di” in northern suburb of Beijing. Few people knew of it until some rock players from other provinces moved in. From 1997 to 2003, hundreds of rock players and fans, including more than 20 complete underground bands, chose to move there from all over the country to pursue their dream of rock. During that time, Shu Cun became the holy land of Chinese underground rock, which attracted more and more young people (Xiao, 2012). 8 Influenced by American nu-metal music, many outside rock players who lived in the suburb of Beijing (mainly in Shu Cun) founded their own nu-metal bands. Around 1999 to 2000, driven by the outside bands, Yaksa (Yecha) and Miserable Faith (Tongku de Xinyang), and an underground venue, “Happy Land” (Kaixin Leyuan), “Beijing Nu-Metal Movement” (or “Beijing Underground Hardcore Movement”) had formed (Yan, 2006). 23 especially nu-metal, was quite active among Chinese underground and scene.

Compared to the first 8 years, the number of newly-formed metal bands significantly increased from 2001 to 2012. In 2005, 2008, 2009, and 2012, the number of new bands reached a peak: more than 20 metal bands were added to the metal scene each year among the sample of 260 bands. Starting in 2013, the number of newly-formed metal bands decreased (See Figure 1). We can separate the band expansion in China into three periods: the emerging period (1988 – 1996), the rising period (1997 – 2003), and the boom period (2004 – 2012). It’s too early to characterize the decline since 2013 for two reasons: first, a period of two years is too short to draw a conclusion; second, bands formed in this period may be too recent to be recognized in the scene.

However, I predict that the apparent decline period may be continued depending on the general musical environment and the preference of the younger generation in China.

Figure 1: The Number of New Bands Formed Each Year

25 22 23 23 20 19 20 18 16 14 15 15 11 12 11 9 10 10 7 6 5 5 3 2 1 1 2 1 2 1 1 0 1989 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1997 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2007 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 1988 1996 1998 2006 2008

Moreover, I compared the number of new bands from Beijing and from other areas every year (see Figure 2) to examine the status transition of Beijing, the birthplace and the holy land of

Chinese rock, in the development of the Chinese metal scene. Before 1994, all metal bands were 24 formed and active in the Beijing area9, but starting in 1995, other cities in China began to produce their own metal bands. Yaksa (Ye Cha), for example, was formed in 1995 in Sichuan province. From 1997 to 2002, Beijing and other provinces in China were adding similar numbers of bands to the metal scene. However, since 2003, the number of new metal bands formed outside Beijing each year has kept surpassing the number of new bands formed in Beijing. In

2005, while only five new bands were formed in Beijing, 16 new bands from outside of Beijing started to be active in both local and national scenes, such as Explosicum (Bao Jiang) from

Jiangxi province and Midwinter (Dong Zhi) from province. Generally, among this sample of 260 metal bands in China, excluding 6 bands for which data were missing, 96 bands were formed in Beijing and 158 outside of Beijing. Therefore, from the data shown in figure 2, I would argue that even though Beijing contributed strongly to the metal scene in the first few years, metal subculture has more recently distributed itself all around the nation. More and more bands formed in other provinces have contributed to the development of the national metal scene in general.

Figure 2: The Number of Newly-Fromed Beijing and Non-Beijing Bands Each Year

20 16 16 14 15 12 11 11 10 9 9 9 9 Beijing 8 8 8 10 7 7 7 7 6 5 5 5 5 5 Non-Beijing 4 4 4 4 4 3 3 5 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1989 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1997 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2007 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 1988 1996 1998 2006 2008

9 Vomit (Ou Tu), founded in 1994, is from . However, it only takes about 2 hours to drive from Beijing to Tianjin. 25

Finally, I evaluate the difference in the metal bands’ increase between northern and southern China.10 In China with a Cut, Jeroen de Kloet (2010) established the geography of

Chinese rock, illustrating a binary opposition between north and south consistent with the division of rock and pop, hard and soft. In the metal scene in China, this difference exists as well.

Among this collection of bands, around 70.3% are from northern China, and the number of metal bands formed in northern China has been more than southern every year since 1988. I speculate that this phenomenon may be related to the different cultural personalities of northern and southern people. Usually, northern Chinese are seen as strong, rough, and relatively straightforward while southern Chinese are seen as mild, delicate, and sophisticated. Therefore, northern people may better fit the characteristics of metal music. Moreover, it may be affected by a rock/pop and cultural/commercial distinction (De Kloet, 2010). In such a strong commercial atmosphere, it may be more difficult to form and maintain metal bands in the south. However, fewer local bands doesn’t mean a frigid metal atmosphere. According to bands that have toured around the country, there’s no difference between the north and the south:

Honestly, there’s no essential difference, no matter the number of audience or the

atmosphere. It’s good. We used to think southern is not good. But, southern people are

really ‘Zao’11 [passionate, intense, crazy]. Otherwise, 330 Metal Festival wouldn’t have

chosen a stop in . The audience who showed up in Guangzhou was more than

Shenyang. ... Afterward, we analyzed why. The main reason is the economies developed

very well in some southern cities. Only when people are well-fed and warmed, can they

10 Northern and southern China are divided by the Yangtze River. 11 Zao is a term used among metalheads in China to describe the overall crazy atmosphere, action, or emotion during the live performance. It can be used to describe heavy and fast metal music, players’ great performances, or audience’s reactions, such as , etc. 26

enjoy this stuff. So, the economics directly influences the culture. (Liu Zheng12, personal

communication, Mar. 10th 2015)

Even though the local metal bands are scarcer than in northern China, many southern cities benefit from their coastal locations. Their convenient worldwide connections and well-developed economies provide various resources and a good environment for metalheads to enjoy and play metal music. and Guangzhou have become two places where huge metal scenes are located in addition to Beijing.

Figure 3: The Number of Newly-Formed Northern and Southern Bands Each Year

18 17 17 16 14 14 13 13 13 13 12 10 10 9 9 10 8 8 7 7 7 7 8 6 North 5 5 5 5 6 4 4 4 South 3 3 3 3 4 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1989 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1997 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2007 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 1988 1996 1998 2006 2008

Location. In addition to the difference in the number of bands between Beijing and non-

Beijing, and north and south, there are more characteristics of metal band expansion in China through the dimension of space. Normally, we assume that the features of metal band diffusion in China include:

(1) overlaying a broad area in the country

(2) the expansion from Beijing to other big cities

(3) the extension from first-tier cities to second- or third-tier small cities or towns

12 Liu Zheng is the vocalist of the Chinese thrash metal band Suffocated. 27

The data I collected confirmed some of these assumptions while challenging some others. First

of all, even though my collection of 260 metal bands represents 29 provinces (including

municipalities and ethnic autonomous regions), after searching the missing provinces, all 31

provincial regions13 have at least one metal band. The formation of a local metal band is a significant indicator to evaluate the local metal scene (Weinstein, 2010). Therefore, based on the location of Chinese metal bands, I argue that the metal scene has spread to cities all over the country.

North South Beijing 1988 Anhui 2002 2005 2003 2003 Guangdong 2003 1999 2006 Jilin 2006 Guizhou 2009 Liaoning 1997 Hainan 2007 Inner 2000 2005 2012 2002 Shandong 1998 Jiangsu 2005 Shanxi 1998 1997 Tianjin 1994 Shanghai 2001 2008 Sichuan 1995 2004 1999 Qinghai 2007 1999 Table 1: Appearance of First Metal Band, by Administrative Region Moreover, other than Beijing, there’s no advantage for either northern or southern cities to first have local metal bands. Among this collection, Sichuan province (south) had their first metal band in 1995, prior to most northern provinces. So did Jiangxi province (south). On the contrary, even though Ningxia Hui ethnic autonomous region belongs to northern China, it was

13 China has 34 provincial-level administrative regions, including 23 provinces, 4 municipalities, 5 ethnic autonomous regions, and 2 special administrative regions; however, two special administrative regions – Hong Kong and Macao – and Taiwan province have been excluded from my data collections, leaving 31 provincial-level administrative regions represented in this study. 28 not until 2012 that brutal death metal band Eblis was formed in its provincial capital, .

Thus, north and south is not a factor that influences the priority of the diffusion from Beijing to other places. In other words, distance from the rock holy city, Beijing, does not determine whether local bands appeared earlier or later. In comparison, the accessibility of metal music and the province’s overall economic status are more important factors when analyzing characteristics of metal bands’ diffusion nationwide.

However, the assumption that metal bands first appeared in big cities outside of Beijing has been challenged. In 1995, the first year a metal band was formed out of the Beijing area,

Yaksa was founded in Zigong, Sichuan province, which is a small town famous for producing well-salt. In the following year, a thrash metal band, Soul (Ling Hun) was founded in ,

Jiangsu province. Both Zigong and Xuzhou are not big cities but the metal bands were formed quite early there. In the early period, the distribution of metal bands out of Beijing was discrete due to various channels of access to metal music, such as the promotion of mainstream metal bands, foreign relatives & friends, and the dakou trade. Thus, it was possible for a metal band to form in any city in China. However, generally, during the early period, metal bands were commonly active in big cities. The development of the \metal subculture and the growth of the overall living standard allowed youth in some small cities in China to organize their own metal bands.

Subgenre. The last dimension of metal band expansion in China is style. The expansion of metal subgenres in China represents the maturation of the Chinese metal scene. In the last two decades, more and more different subgenres have been applied by metal bands all over the nation.

From analyzing the collected information of 260 Chinese metal bands, I find that metal in China emerged from a high starting point. The first Chinese metal band, Tang Dynasty, combined 29 classic heavy metal style with folk metal elements in their first album, A Dream Return to Tang

Dynasty, which was released in 1992 though most songs were created around 1990. In 1991, the first thrash metal band, Overload, and the first death metal band, Narakam (Ming Jie) were formed. In the following two years, China had its own and nu-metal bands. Since metal in China started almost 20 years later than most western countries, young metal bands in

China were able to access the 20 year accumulation of the subgenre evolution in a short period of time by listening to various dakou cassettes and CDs; then, they could easily pick up the style they liked to create their music. Thus, less than 10 years after the metal scene was established in

China, Chinese bands had covered most main metal subgenres. Next, metalheads in China accelerated their step to catch up with western countries, continuing to add in different styles in their music and performance. Along with the collection of 260 bands, around 45 metal subgenres and sub-subgenres were recorded, almost overlapping subgenres in western countries.

In addition to adopting different metal subgenres from western countries, some Chinese metal bands also mixed different ideas with metal to create their own style. For example, a band called Soul Liberty (Shi Hun), coined a term “moderate metal” (Zhong Jinshu) as their representative style. A band member posted an explanation on their Douban page: “We want our music to have the balance of both strength and melody and pay equal attention to the ideology and audibility.” Cave Have Rod (Xue You Gun) formed in 2011 defines the style of the band as

“cartoon .” Likewise, VirusBase (Bingdu Ku) indicates its style as “Kungfu &

Electronic nuclear metal.” These experiments and creations indeed provide some fresh elements that enrich the style of metal in China. However, whether these creativities work to bring the bands success, and how the audience responds to these new styles, still need further evaluation. 30

An Interpretation. Metal bands in China have been expanding through the dimensions of number, space, and style for two decades through a common trajectory and with particular

Chinese characteristics. However, the phenomena presented and briefly analyzed above need a more detailed interpretation about how and why such expansions occurred. At the end of this section, I discuss four general aspects that influence the distribution of metal bands in China.

Firstly, the development of the overall market economy, urbanization, and globalization in China, especially the modernization of second- and third-tier small cities and towns, promotes the expansion of metal bands in China and drives the emergence of local metal scenes in various small cities. “Metal is clearly dependent upon the tools of modernity” (Wallach, Berger &

Greene, 2011, p. 27). Since the improvement of the overall environment, more and more small cities, such as Mianyang, , , and Yuxi, have had metal bands come up. Even though there were metal bands founded in small cities in the early period, it is the comprehensive development of the nation that the local bands in small towns have in common.

Furthermore, economic growth also promotes the development of the music industry. For the increased number of venues nationwide, the market demand of gigs in diverse local venuesn keeps increasing. There are a plenty of music festivals every year. More and more indie labels have been founded. And more mainstream music websites are open to and gradually pay attention to indie music, including metal. Those positive changes in the industry provide numerous opportunities for newly-formed bands to survive in this field as professional musicians.

The better environment encourages more musicians to realize their dream of organizing a band, which contains to make the number of new bands to increase and as a result metal bands have expanded to various places. 31

Additionally, as one Chinese proverb says, the effect of good examples is immense. The success of one metal band may inspire a group of youth to pick up their instruments and organize a band. Tang Dynasty’s overwhelming success in China not only made youth all around the country know metal music, it also planted the seed of a dream to become rock heroes in the minds of youth in that generation. Moreover, since two bands in Shu Cun, Miserable Faith (Tong

Yang) and Yaksa (Ye Cha), signed contracts to release their first albums, more and more musicians with the same dream moved into this tiny village, formed bands (mostly nu-metal bands), practiced every day, and waited for the opportunity. Thus, that the number of metal bands has rapidly increased in a short period of time may be explained as influenced by the promotional achievements of some metal bands, such as signing contracts with international labels or performing abroad.

Finally, the Internet popularization hugely benefited the expansion of metal bands and the overall development of the Chinese metal scene. The wide accessibility to the Internet all over the nation challenged the core status of Beijing as the center of rock, including metal, and helped the distribution of the resources, which benefited the formation of new bands outside of Beijing and improved the quality of local bands. Previously, metalheads in small towns were not able to watch live performances by excellent domestic and international bands. However, since gaining the ability to surf the Internet, they have been able to watch live performance videos of bands all around the world. Also, they can learn different techniques by watching videos, which helps the metal band expansion to small places.

In conclusion, the trajectory of metal bands’ expansion in China has a close relationship with the comprehensive development and social changes of this country. However, the phenomena and interpretations provided above still need a more detailed explanation and 32

evaluation. More detailed discussions of external factors that influence the development of the

metal scene will be presented in chapter four when exploring the contributions of mediators and

various negotiations between the metal scene insiders and different external stakeholders.

Suffocated: From Underground to the Globe

This section moves from the general development of metal bands in China to the growth

of a specific metal band. The Chinese thrash metal band Suffocated was chosen since this band

has experienced most of the typical steps in becoming a successful metal band in China, such as

forming in the underground scene, surviving in hard times, releasing albums, touring around the

nation, and performing abroad. By presenting the oral history of this band, I describe the process

by which a Chinese metal band developed and explore how metal bands grew up in the context

of Chinese contemporary society.

March 10th, 2015, a cool and windy early spring afternoon, I met Liu Zheng, the vocalist

and bassist in Suffocated, at the north end of Nanluogu Xiang14; he then brought me to the

rehearsal room of Dream Spirit (Meng Ling) in a small alley beside Nanluogu Xiang, where he

was working with members of Dream Spirit to prepare for the 2015 Metal Battle band

competition. The rehearsal room was set in a dark semi-underground apartment. When we

arrived there, the members of Dream Spirit were sitting on the sofa and smoking. After greetings,

the interview was arranged in a tiny recording room that only fit a drum set and two small chairs.

In this room, Liu Zheng recalled the story of Suffocated from the beginning.

Like most young rockers who grew up in typical families in the 1990s, the members of

Suffocated were influenced by the first generation of rockers and bands in China, such as Cui

14 Nanluogu Xiang is one of the oldest traditional alleys (“Hutong” in Chinese) in Beijing. It is also a famous walking street and tourism spot known for its fusion of Beijing traditional culture with contemporary . Many distinctive bars and some venues for indie music are located here, which makes this area important and popular for many indie musicians. 33

Jian, Tang Dynasty, and Black Panther. Liu admitted that it was because they were attracted by

this fresh and cool music style, that he and his friends decided to pick up guitars and had the idea

to form their own band:

Our generation born in the 1980s was influenced by rock music in the early 1990s since

that was when the first generation rockers released their albums. During that time, we

were just in middle school and just experienced the transition period, puberty. So, due to

the secretion of hormones, we were emotional and hyperactive. Occasionally, we heard

these rock cassettes and felt they were absolutely different from popular music15

culture. During that time, we didn’t consider the content or deep meaning but were

completely attracted by the music style, or the looks. Those rockers looked handsome and

cool with long hair and electronic guitar. Then, we started to consider if we could learn to

play guitar and copy songs from Cuijian and Tang Dynasty. However, not like nowadays,

we didn’t have Internet or many resources, it was completely word of mouth. We were

able to know a few so-called insiders of the rock circle, telling us what’s going on and

teaching us to play guitar. Around 1995-1996, several close friends had played together.

In 1997, some older friends had started to work and we found a place, put in a drum set

and loudspeaker, and began to rehearse. (Liu Zheng, personal communication, Mar. 10th,

2015)

Due to the lack of resources, second generation rockers first listened to domestic rock, then gradually accessed diverse western rock music. Suffocated was no exception. Cui Jian and Tang

15 Gangtai popular music is mainstream popular music from Hong Kong and Taiwan. Starting from the late 1980s, Gangtai pop became the most welcome in . Compared to rock, Gangtai is soft and commercial. The main theme of Gangtai pop is love and emotion (de Kloet, 2010). 34

Dynasty brought them to the world of rock; however, it was dakou cassettes that made

Suffocated set foot on the journey of metal:

During that time, we didn’t know much about different styles. We were like “crossing a

river by feeling the stones on the bottom”16 [When we selected dakou cassettes,] we

didn’t know any style. Just looked at the cover. Like, wow, this one must be cruel, big

skull, etc. This should be fierce and heavy. We like Metallica. We want to be like

Metallica. But, we want to be a little bit more extreme than Metallica. So, we didn’t know

the style until we heard from people in Painkiller magazine that we are more like thrash

or American style. (Liu Zheng, personal communication, Mar. 10th, 2015)

Through this channel, members of Suffocated got to know different metal sub-genres and chose

their style as thrash metal. This was the emerging period of Suffocated.

When the band was formed, Liu Zheng was still in high school and another member, Kou

Zhengyu, was already working. One year later, driven by the rock spirit and the desire to be

different from their peers and parents, they their ordinary jobs and focused on playing

metal music. However, they met a lot of difficulties, such as the overall poor environment,

unsupportive families, and financial hardship. In the late 1990s, Beijing was dominated by punk

and grunge because of the mythology of . There was almost no environment for

metal:

Since the band formed in 1997, I think Chinese rock or Chinese metal had disappeared.

We usually performed with punk or other styles. There was no , except

Midi music festival. Mostly, we played in bars with some basic equipment. There were at

16 “Crossing a river by feeling the stones on the bottom” (“摸着石头过河”) is a Chinese proverb. In this context, it describes someone who lacks experience with something and needs to gain experience by actually doing it. 35

most eighty to one hundred in the audience. After performing, they paid you one hundred

to three hundred RMB. That was already a lot. (Liu Zheng, personal communication, Mar

10th, 2015)

Due to these conditions, it was impossible to make a living from just playing metal music.

Members of Suffocated spent some time without work. However, the families’ opposition and their really low income made them realize that they had to have a job:

The most difficult parts were lack of money and objections from our families. Our

parents didn’t support us but they are not wrong. They have an ordinary life. We have

different thoughts and lifestyles. They cannot understand us. My family always said,

“You didn’t have the gene of playing music. You played so many years but why weren’t

you not on TV?” It is indeed a stereotype for most families. Ordinary factory workers

certainly thought like this. So, we needed a long time... Presently, because we get older,

no matter how many achievements we made, at least, they know we could survive by

playing . They know their child has played for more than ten years and is still playing it.

He indeed likes it. This is a serious career. So, it’s much better now.…

And, in terms of the financial issue, we found that we have to work. No job means no

income. At least, we need to feed ourselves. We didn’t earn money for enjoying lives.

We need to buy some instruments and appliances. They are necessary. Buying a string set

or even a pick requires money, right? We don’t have much income but it’s enough. We

live in Beijing. We can eat and sleep at home. So, we don’t have that much economic

pressure compared to those outside rockers. (Liu Zheng, personal communication, Mar

10th, 2015) 36

Image 4: Suffocated. From left: Wu Peng, Image 5: Suffocated performing in Wu Gang, Liu Zheng, Kou Zhengyu Coriolanus directed by Lin Zhaohua Under this realistic situation, members of Suffocated worked during the day while they kept

rehearsing and performing. They regularly performed in many underground venues, such as the

old and new Haoyun Bars, Wuming Gaodi Bar, and 13 Club, gaining a lot of performing

experience. In order to ensure the rehearsal time, everyone in Suffocated tried to find jobs related

to music with relatively free schedules, such as in instrument stores, so that they could leave

whenever they had rehearsal or performances. Kou Zhengyu (guitar) and Wu Gang (drum)

worked as instrumental instructors, Liu Zheng (vocal/bass) was employed by the Hengyun

instruments store, and Wu Peng (guitar) finally opened his own guitar shop in 2009 (On the

Road, 2009). From lacking instruments to earning money to buy them, from no performance to

several performances each year, Suffocated never stopped striving for their metal dreams in the

underground scene. Nine years after the band had formed, in 2006, the band believed that they

were well-prepared to release their first album.

On January 13th, 2007, the launch show of Suffocated’s first album, Nifeng Feiyang

(“ Wind Rising”) was held at Haoyun Bar. Nine years is a long time for even an underground band to release an album. Some bands that were formed after Suffocated had already released albums. However, when asked why they waited for so long, the response was: 37

During the period of the Nu-Metal movement, we had the opportunity to release the

album. We were anxious. You looked at them, formed later than us but they had released

an album. We needed to talk to some record companies as well. And, they said, “OK, you

can release an album.” But, we calmed down and considered: our work was not good

enough and the recording condition was, compared to western, too far off. Also, we

listened to Tang Dynasty and Overload. They all had a really high quality. Ideally, the

longer you play, the better you become because the era is advancing. However, we found,

after that, that the quality of album was not very good. Heavy metal requires a high

quality and a high level of hardware; otherwise, you cannot get that feeling. So we didn’t

choose to release our album during that time. Till 2006, we felt our work was good

enough; we had some investments like a good studio, and a recording engineer; our

equipment was good. Then, it was time to record [the first album]. (Liu Zheng, personal

communication, Mar 10th, 2015)

Suffocated’s first album cost around 40,000 to 50,000 RMB, which was a huge investment for an underground band in China. Unlike some bands that used drum machines during recording,

Suffocated chose to record real drums, which greatly increased the recording cost because they wanted everything to be real. When the first album came out, everybody in Suffocated was very excited:

At that time, when the record company brought out a big paper box [with albums in it],

we felt a bit of disbelief that we had really released the album; we really have such a day!

The band didn’t die. We were really proud of ourselves... It’s indeed like delivering a

baby. Creating something from nothing, we experienced a lot during this process, a lot of

difficulties... For example, we gave the master tape to the record company. They were 38

responsible for burning CDs. Several thousand copies came out and ready to sell. We

listened to it and found there’s around a one minute gap in the middle of one song. We

suddenly felt our minds went blank. We tried to negotiate with the company and they

agreed to invalidate those albums and remade like 5,000 copies. The second time, we had

a in our album but they forgot to put it in. It was a second blow for us. So,

we had to negotiate again. Finally, they added another 5,000 copies. Any economic losses

were nothing for us. But, we were not able to accept the mistake in our mind. So, yes, we

had the company to help us. But, we really needed to depend on ourselves. (Liu Zheng,

personal communication, Mar 10th, 2015)

Despite this episode, Suffocated’s first album sold well nationwide. After releasing this album, the band started their first national tour.

In 2007, Suffocated toured 18 stops in China, mainly the first-tier cities, due to the venues and the overall metal atmosphere. Touring was tough for an underground band at that time. Besides contacting the venue and scheduling the trip, the venues’ conditions and the slow transportation also brought some difficulties:

Poor venue and equipment condition are the most difficult and uncontrolled parts during

the tour because we hadn’t been to some venues before. The organizers said that they had

arranged all the stuff and told us that we could perform there without any problems. But,

when we arrived, we found some places either had really tiny stages or even no stage.

They didn’t have any sound system, just two small speakers. And only dozens of people

came. Touring itself is hard work. We were in the era of green carriage train17 in 2007.

17 The Green carriage train was a first generation passenger train in China, with a dark green surface. This train generally travelled 100-120km/hour, which is extremely slow compared to 39

We, basically four people, at most five people including an assistant, needed to carry the

instruments, effects, our clothes, albums, and some other souvenirs and toured stop by

stop. We felt bad if the result was not good. Also, due to the slow trains, sometimes we

had to perform on workdays. Like, if you play on Monday, who comes? Right? But, we

could do nothing about it. (Liu Zheng, personal communication, Mar 10th, 2015)

After listening to their experiences, it seems that neither the first album nor the first tour went very smoothly. However, 2007 was still a significant year in the history of this band. Because of the album and the tour, the members of the band first realized they might be able to play metal music for a living and became a professional full-time metal band.

At the end of 2007, another great opportunity came. Suffocated was invited to cooperate with famous drama director Lin Zhaohua, to produce Shakespeare’s classic play, Coriolanus.

Through two months of rehearsals and performance, Suffocated benefited a great deal in terms of their understandings of art:

The crossover of metal bands was one of the highlights of this drama because the

proportion of our performance in this play was quite large [...] Of course, Lin Zhaohua is

a real artist... [The play] is extremely profound and powerful. At the beginning, we didn’t

quite understand this until after many hours of rehearsal and performance. We gradually

realized the meaning the play delivered and how our music was used. It’s so right and

accurate. [...] Since this drama includes descriptions of wars, [the director used] the

opposition of two bands and used our music’s dark, emotional, and depressed tones. For

example, there’s a plot that the mother persuades Coriolan to come back to his home

country. We thought it was sorrowful, like mother and son. So, at first, we played some other trains. However, since it was also the cheapest, and stopped at every single station, the green carriage train remained popular until it was permanently retired in 2012. 40

soft, sad, but beautiful pieces of music. The director said, “It’s wrong, absolutely wrong.

Mother is a ruthless character, like a war criminal. She wants her son to go back to the

war and revitalize the entire family.” So, we changed to a really cold piece and finally got

to the point. [...] Thus, we really appreciate this crossover cooperation. It’s not because

this play brought any fame [though they did get in !] or profit, but it

helped develop our artistic attainment. (Liu Zheng, personal communication, Mar 10th,

2015)

In 2010, three years after the first album, Suffocated released their second album, Fenrao

Shijie (“World of Confusion”). 2010 is also the first year that Suffocated made enough money to start playing metal music full-time. Because of everyone’s hard work and the development of the metal scene and market, Suffocated was finally on track:

In 2010, we first got five digital performance fees [for a single music festival

performance]. It happened all of a sudden. During that time, we thought: is that

appropriate? We didn’t thought of we had worked really hard for so many years. We just

thought we only performed like thirty to forty minutes but they gave us such good money.

We still hadn’t adapted our view to this. Now, we realize we indeed deserved that much

money. [...] Other people’s views of us, and our views of ourselves, were gradually

changing and our record company was more and more mature. We needed to be on a

more professional track, like how to brand, how to operate, and how to promote the band.

Especially, after self-media developed in recent years, we learned that we needed to

upload one thing today and another thing tomorrow. Like, after releasing the album, you

should first upload one single, and then launch the cover, etc. Anyway, a band in China

needs to know not only how to play instruments but also everything else, from 41

advertising to even the material of T-shirts. (Liu Zheng, personal communication, Mar

10th, 2015)

The recovery of the music market and the development of the metal scene in China brought profit to Suffocated and made the band mature. At the same time, the overall environment also led the band to another struggle: they needed to find a balance between art and business. Instead of the emerging or underground period, Liu Zheng indicated that it was after 2010 that

Suffocated experienced the most difficult period:

First 13 years, we were innocent, just had fun. When performing in the music festival

before, [we thought] they finally gave us the opportunity to perform on such a big stage.

It’s great. We didn’t care about whether we got paid or not. If we were able to perform in

a music festival, we even liked to pay travelling expenses ourselves. But, nowadays, it’s

all like when you felt this makes money, you would have such a desire. We would think

about why other bands make more money than us; or, we also wanted to perform at

certain music festival. Sometimes, we feel we are not that innocent now. It’s not good.

But, there’s no solution. We have to depend on this for a living. However, we had some

base lines we will never give up. Except for the style, why do many people like

Suffocated? It is because of the stronger spiritual power. If we just play a style, we can

play faster, more fashionable, and more beautiful melodies. Maybe we can make more

money. However, we don’t want to compromise. But, we don’t want to compromise

doesn’t mean we didn’t compromise. We have to relatively adapt to the market because

we need to survive. We will not lower the standard of art. Under this premise, we could

adapt it to be a little bit more acceptable to a mass audience from music format and 42

structure. [...] But, we definitely stay in metal music. (Liu Zheng, personal

communication, Mar 10th, 2015)

Keeping this balance of art and commerce in mind, Suffocated, on the one hand,

continued to tour in the underground scene nationwide, and on the other, became the first

underground metal band to perform on mainstream media. On the last day of 2012, Suffocated

was invited to perform in the Guangdong New Year’s Eve Concert, which was broadcast live

across the country on television. That year was Suffocated’s 15th anniversary.

In the same year, Suffocated also had the opportunity to perform on the party stage of

Wacken Open Air (WOA) in Germany, one of the biggest metal music festivals in the world.

However, few people know that Suffocated missed the opportunity to become the first Chinese

metal band to perform in WOA four years before in 2008. Members in the band hadn’t forgotten

about Wacken, and the staff who scheduled the lineup also didn’t forget them:

Actually, in 2008, we participated in the domestic metal battle competition18. On that day,

there were seven to eight bands. Two staff members who decided the lineup also came to

see our performances because they paid attention to the Chinese market. Suffocated was

the fourth band to perform. There were another three bands after us. After our

performance, two foreigners went out and said to Yu Yang19, “Alright. There it is. No

problem.” But, why didn’t we go to WOA? It was really because we had no money. We

had to get there at our own expense. In 2008, each member cost around 15,000-18,000

18 Metal Battle is a world metal band competition organized by WOA. Each country holds its domestic metal battle and the winner competes with bands from other countries in the Metal Battle final at WOA. Metal Battle China was first held in 2008, organized by Painkiller Magazine. 19 Yu Yang was one of the founders of Painkiller magazine, the first heavy metal magazine in China. As one of the significant contributors in the scene, Painkiller magazine will be discussed in detail as a case study in the fifth chapter. 43

RMB. That was huge amount of money for us at that time. [...] It was until 2012. 2012

was the 40th anniversary of China-Germany diplomatic relations and, in Germany, was

“Chinese Culture Year.” And through Midi School [to select band], Midi School

definitely chose their own bands, such as Yaksa. Then, the foreigner thought of us again

and asked if they could contact Suffocated. And then, contacted Yu Yang and said

Suffocated could come. We didn’t need to pay any expenses for this. And, we didn’t

expect we could perform on an outdoor stage, not the stage in the tent. It was pretty

amazing. (Liu Zheng, personal communication, Mar 10th, 2015)

2012 was both a lucky and unlucky year for Suffocated. In 2012, Suffocated realized the dream of performing abroad. It was also in 2012 that heavy rain shattered their expectations in Wacken:

It started to rain heavily before we performed. After we performed the last song, the rain

stopped and it was sunny again. The rain lasted the entire 40 minutes. If it hadn’t rained,

from what we observed with other bands performing in the first two days, we would have

had thousands of people in the audience. It was absolutely an excellent opportunity for us

to show our music. But... Maybe, heaven felt we were not good enough to reach that step.

However, that year’s Wacken DVD included three of our songs. That was really a lot.

Image 6: Suffocated Performing in WOA in 2012 44

Our music didn’t have any folk elements, not like Nine Treasures (Jiu Bao) or Spring

Autumn (Chun Qiu). But whatever the style, people know you are a good band. You

deserve 40 minutes on that stage. We were finally delighted. (Liu Zheng, personal

communication, Mar 10th, 2015)

After an 18-year journey with countless excitement and setbacks, Suffocated has been one of the most successful metal bands in China. As an underground thrash death metal band, even members of the band themselves thought their success in China was a miracle:

Sometimes, we also chat, discussing how we got to where we are today. We joked: we

were fools, or stupid, which means we didn’t feel tough. We were quite pleased during

our early period. Like a few people stood off the stage but we are still enjoying our

performance. It was like bittersweet. Gradually, we got through this. [...] Ordinarily, we

guessed youth nowadays would not like our music much since our music didn’t include

various fashionable music elements. But, it may be because the spiritual core in our

music makes sense. Many people take our lyrics as their life’s motto. We are indeed

really proud of this. It’s a huge achievement for us that our work can influence people’s

lives and change their view of life. [We had a view:] Never fail a course after listening to

Suffocated. We create a so-called positive energy metal, providing some inspirational

comments in an extreme way. So, that is one way that Suffocated is different from other

bands. Another reason, I think, is our professionalism. We have a professional and

respectful attitude toward the performance. We know it is serious, not for fun. We never

drink alcohol before the performance in order to make the music we play accurate. Also,

we always prepare some small tools during the performance in case of any emergency.

(Liu Zheng, personal communication, Mar 10th, 2015) 45

Considering their road to success, persistence, conscientiousness, and positive content are three significant factors for the success of this band. A positive attitude has helped members in the band to persist with their dream for more than ten years under difficult conditions; Professional practice and attitude in performance make them respected in this field; and, most importantly, the idea of positive energy metal, which they have promoted through their lyrics, attracts and inspires many Chinese metal fans. These are the reasons that the miracle is made.

Along with being an excellent Chinese metal band, Suffocated have also contributed to the Chinese metal scene as the organizers of 330 Metal Festival, one of the biggest metal festivals in China since its founding in 2002. From just having different bands playing in a specific venue for pleasure to planning a formal music festival with different elements and ideas, the members of Suffocated have all made a lot of contributions. As Liu Zheng mentioned in the interview, in addition to playing music, everyone in the band needs to do much more. For example, Liu Zheng takes charge of copywriting and Kou Zhengyu is responsible for the external communication. Suffocated would like to do their own small part to help develop the

Chinese metal scene through this medium, letting more and more people first know metal, accept it, and like it.

The journey Suffocated experienced is a standard trajectory for most metal bands founded before 2006: forming in the underground, suffering in the underground scene for a long time, and waiting for a better environment, which might bring opportunities of releasing albums or performing on a bigger stage than at bars. Many bands give up in the middle of this process due to either financial difficulties or families’ lack of support, while a few bands stick with it and survive the long underground journey. Bands formed after 2006 are likely to be luckier since they can benefit from the emergence of the prosperous indie music industry in China. For 46 example, another band I interviewed, Nine Treasures (Jiu Bao), formed in 2011, released their first album in 2012, and got the opportunity to perform in WOA in 2013. Thus, the external environment, such as resources and industry, has significantly influenced the development of metal bands in China. However, Suffocated’s story also proves that there are the internal factors, such as attitude and personal beliefs, which drive a band to success.

In conclusion, after a fleeting period of Chinese mainstream metal, the metal subculture in China mainly developed in the underground scene, contributed to by players and fans. Both the expansion of metal bands in China and the growth of a single Chinese metal band are primarily dependent on insiders themselves but they are also highly influenced by the accessibility of related resources and external factors, such as economic development, the music industry, communication technology, and the acceptance of diverse cultures in Chinese contemporary society. Yan Jun argues that, since the limitation on the import of cultural products, players and insiders only learned parts of western music history and culture, so the scene developed from a broken historical line, an unordered explosion of information, and the underground distribution of culture (2006). Chinese metal bands were gaining experiences by keeping trying and practicing on the road of playing metal. In this way, Chinese metal musicians have established a localized trajectory of metal band development.

After getting through more than 10 years of “cold winter” in the underground scene, many bands like Suffocated welcomed the “spring” of Chinese metal subculture. More and more bands got the opportunity to perform abroad. However, a new problem came to their minds: how could they make audiences all around the world know and remember that they come from China? 47

CHAPTER TWO “STAND UP, STAND UP, YOU ARE CHINESE”: THE REPRESENTATION OF NATIONAL IDENTITY IN CHINESE METAL

Do you realize who you are? You are the essence of this country. Five thousand years of culture, five thousand years of roots, Five thousand years’ souls the responsibilities you should take.

Get up, get up, get up, yellow skin. Get up, get up, get up, you are Chinese. Get up, get up, get up, yellow skin. Get up, get up, get up, you are descendants of dragons. —— Yaksa (Yecha), “Get Up, Get Up, You are Chinese”

2012 was the first time that three Chinese metal bands – Yaksa, Suffocated, and The

Falling – came to play at Wacken Open Air (WOA) in Germany.20 These three bands employed various strategies onstage to signal to metal fans from other countries that they came from China:

Yaksa’s vocalist screamed, “Get up, get up, we are Chinese”, an adapted lyric from their song

“Get Up, Get Up, You Are Chinese”, at the beginning of their performance, while Suffocated hung the national flag on the stage. However, when I showed a video clip of their performances in Wacken during my presentation at the International Metal Conference in 2013, some scholars still came to ask how Chinese metal music is different from western metal, since they thought there was no difference when they listened to the music in that short video. I was a little bit dumbstruck at that moment, because I had to admit that there was indeed no difference in terms of the music. Then I realized that the ways in which Chinese metal bands represent their Chinese identity is a serious question as more and more Chinese bands appear on the global stage. Some bands are easy to identify as Chinese bands since they use traditional instruments or rhythms.

20 Before 2012, only two Chinese folk metal bands had ever performed at WOA. Voodoo Kungfu was first invited to play in 2008 and Hanggai in 2010. 2012 was the first year that more than one Chinese metal band performed in Wacken. 48

However, there are always other signs to indicate they are Chinese bands, even when the music

itself is the same as western metal.

Thus, in this chapter, I explore a presentational framework that Chinese metal bands use

to create their overall image as bands from China by examining four categories – music,

performance, language, and lyrical content. Through analyzing these four areas, I argue that

metal music in China has been aesthetically and ideologically localized through combining metal

with Chinese culture. Chinese metal bands continuously add various elements from traditional

Chinese culture and their personal experiences in the context of contemporary Chinese society to

their bands’ names, logos, music, lyrics, and performance style to express their emotions and

demonstrate their thoughts toward the entire world. Nevertheless, since metal is a globalized

music genre that originated in western countries, metal bands in China also cannot ignore the

principles of metal subculture and some international elements in order to present authentic

music and be involved in the global scene. In this case, I illustrate at the end of this chapter that

Chinese metal bands apply the collaboration of national and cosmopolitan identities in their daily practice of metal subculture to represent metal in China as actively involved in both the local and global metal scenes.

Chinese metal, as the name implies, means metal from China or metal with certain

Chinese characteristics. However, Chinese metal has a more complicated meaning than the name itself. The audience can see that a band is Chinese from their facial features and the language they speak. However, the deeper level of Chinese metal recognition acknowledges that metal bands in China combine their culture with the metal format and create new meanings on behalf of the Chinese young generation. The external presentations, like hybrid music and performance style, can easily be and welcomed by the western metalheads while the internal 49 meanings and the comprehensive use of both vernacular and national language are usually ignored. By analyzing those internal symbols, I aim to explain why Chinese metal is still different from western metal although they sound similar. But, before that, I start the analysis from the most obvious and significant components in metal – Music.

Music

As a genre of music, metal must follow certain conventions of instrumentation and composition to create a sound that can be identified as metal music (Weinstein, 1991). However, since the worldwide diffusion of this musical genre, folk metal has emerged. More and more non-western bands have brought some folk musical elements to the established metal music structure for the representation of their nationality, such as in Brazil (Avelar, 2011) and Arkona in . So do Chinese metal bands.

In a chapter introducing the representations of masculinity shown in the first Chinese metal band, Tang Dynasty, in the book Metal Rules the Globe: Heavy Metal Music around the

World, Cynthia Wong (2011) mentions how Tang Dynasty used the subtle sounds of the Qin and the Zheng (traditional Chinese zithers with 7 strings or 21 strings) in the quiet sections of songs, symbolizing the pentatonic features in some specific melodies combined with the distorted guitar riffs. Tang Dynasty was the first band in China to bring folk elements into metal music.

Following this pioneer band, some young Chinese metal bands continue to play this folk style in different ways.

In general, there are three ways in which Chinese metal bands apply Chinese musical elements to their music:

(1) add in traditional or vernacular instruments

(2) arrange Chinese folk songs in their metal music 50

(3) use pentatonic scales to compose

Among these, using traditional instruments is the most obvious way that some metal bands in

China show their national identity. In addition to the Qin and Zheng, one Chinese progressive

metal band, The Last Successor (Mo Yi), used the bamboo and the (a two-stringed

bowed instrument with a low register) in their self-titled album. Beside the usage of some Han

national instruments, some folk instruments from ethnic minority groups in China are also used

in metal music arrangements. For example, the (the horsehead ) is a popular

and typical instrument in most Mongolian folk metal bands in China, such as Nine Treasures,

Tengger Cavalry (Tie Ji), Ego Fall (Dianfu M), and Voodoo Kungfu (Ling Yi). Taking this

strategy to the extreme, Chthonic (Shan Ling), a band from Taiwan

province, invited an entire 14-piece folk of traditional instruments to perform with

them at WOA in Germany and the Summer Sonic Music Festival in Japan.

Furthermore, some metal bands incorporate Chinese folk melodies into their metal music

and play them using both folk instruments and typical metal instruments. The Last Successor re-

adapted “Jasmine Flower,”21 a folk song from Jiangsu province, into their song “See Jasmine

Flower Again” and sampled “Dance of the Yao Tribe” in the last song on their album. Also, in the last part of the song “Hero,” Nine Treasures played the Mongolian folk song “Gada Meiren” on both Morin Khuur and , and all members sang together with the melody to and commemorate the Mongolian hero, Gada Meiren, who used his life to protect the homeland

21 “Jasmine Flower” is a folk song that originated in , Jiangsu province, hundreds of years ago. In 1804, an Englishman published the score in his Chinese Travel Notes, and it became the first Chinese folk song to go abroad. The Italian opera composer, Puccini, used the melody of “Jasmine Flower” as the main musical resource in his well-known opera Turandot. “Jasmine Flower” is also used in most important events, such as the Olympic games, to represent China. Because of the significant influence of this song all around the world, “Jasmine Flower” is considered a symbol of Chinese culture and the second national song. 51

of the Mongolian people. Additionally, Black Kirin (Heiqi) combines traditional

with black metal to create its own style called Guocui Jinshu.22 In their new full-length album, Ai

Ying (“National Trauma” in English), some sung and spoken parts of Peking opera performed by

Huadan23 are presented along with distorted guitar and growls. By incorporating these internationally popular Chinese folk songs and traditional Chinese musical formats in their metal music, the bands have achieved both the representation of their national identity and the expression of Chinese culture.

Finally, a few metal bands have managed to embed the traditional Chinese music scale – the pentatonic scale – into the composition of their metal songs to produce Chinese metal in its true sense. The main guitarist in Tang Dynasty, Lao Wu, said in one interview that their first album,

The Dream Return to Tang Dynasty, is the best one to integrate Chinese primitive pentatonic culture with art (Chen, 2010). As one of the best and earliest Chinese , Lao Wu was able to imitate the Zheng or Chinese through playing this Western instrument, the guitar.

Similarly, Spring Autumn (Chun Qiu), founded by Kaiser Kuo, an original member of Tang

Dynasty, also composed a song “Between Mountain and Sea” in which the sound of the guitar simulates the 21-string Zheng. To use traditional Chinese music theory and structure to compose metal songs is the goal of some Chinese metal bands, such as Nine Treasures. Ashan, the vocalist in Nine Treasures mentioned during an interview:

We want to completely mix the folk instruments and metal music, intergrating the folk

instruments into the rhythm of metal, not like other bands, which use metal instruments

22 Guocui Jinshu (“Guocui Metal”) is metal music with the quintessence of Chinese traditional culture in its literal meaning. Black Kirin created this sub-genre to present their style as folk metal with Chinese Han culture. 23 Huadan is a branch of the dan character in Chinese traditional opera. Among characters with various ages, identities, and personalities, the huadan always plays the role of a bright, vibrant, and outgoing young girl. 52

as base and put a piece of traditional melody on that base. We hope that, at one time, the

folk melody and style can really go into metal music, which means, even though you

don’t use folk instruments and only play metal instruments, the song still sounds like folk

metal. If we achieve this, we may release two albums at the same time with the same

composition, but on one only use folk instruments and another one only use metal

instruments. (personal communication, June 2014)

The appropriate practice of these strategies gives some bands an advantage on the global stage since their music is unique and exotic, and stands out from all other typical western metal sounds. For example, because of their successful combination of Mongolian folk culture with metal music, Nine Treasures was warmly welcomed at WOA in 2013. They not only won the second prize in the Metal Battle Final but also participated in the shooting of the Wacken 3D film.

In addition to playing folk instruments, some bands also arrange their clothes, add vernacular icons to their performance, or design a certain performance styles in order to reinforce their national identity on the stage.

Performance

As Deena Weinstein indicates, “In the case of heavy metal, the sonic, the visual, and the verbal dimensions all make crucial contributions to the definition of the genre” (2000, p. 7). Live performance is a significant aspect of the visual dimension. Each band all around the world hopes to provide an impressive performance. In addition to sending power and energy to the audience, some Chinese metal bands definitely want to do more to declare that they come from

China and experience a different culture. In this section, I will use two bands, Voodoo Kungfu

53

and Nine Treasures, who provided distinct performances at Wacken Open Air, as examples to

illustrate how Chinese metal bands adapt their performance to show their national identity.

The first thing they adapt is clothing. Instead of black t-shirts, leather jackets, or leather

pants like most western bands, some Chinese bands wear traditional costumes, which represent

their national / regional identity and religious beliefs. In each important performance, both in and

out of China, and every media photo, the members of Nine Treasures always wear their

traditional Mongolian clothes. Members of Voodoo Kungfu wear the costumes of the wizard in

Shamanism or a white robe spattered with blood on the stage. Dream Spirit, a Chinese folk metal

band that won the Metal Battle China in 2015, wears the traditional costumes of Chinese

swordsmen. In addition to the costumes, they add in other elements to the stage settings to

increase the national atmosphere during their performance. Nine Treasures tie a white Hada24 on

every microphone stand to show their nationality and sincere greetings to the audience all around

the world and Dream Spirit use red tassels25 to decorate their microphone stands to represent the

theme of martial arts. As a representation of , Voodoo Kungfu hangs the incantation

and written in yellow joss paper on the stage and spills blood on them to create a sense of

Image 7: The Stage Setting of Image 8: Costumes of Image 9: Dream Spirit’s Stage Nine Treasures. Voodoo Kungfu Settings

24 Hada is a piece of white silk used as a greeting gift in Mongolian culture. 25 Red tassels are commonly used to decorate swords and spears in Chinese traditional culture. The tassels used on spears also had some practical functions when the spear was used as a weapon in traditional war.

54 mystery and horror. Voodoo Kungfu designs an entire performance style including the costumes, stage settings, and performance to resemble a Shamanist ritual.

In contrast to Nine Treasures and Voodoo Kungfu, most Chinese bands dress and perform like western bands on the stage. Sometimes, they may just bring a national flag with them or tell the audience they come from China before or during the performance, like

Suffocated did at the WOA stage.. However, some metal bands in China use the Chinese national or vernacular language to name the band, write the lyrics, and sing the songs, which become outstanding symbols for them to show their national identity.

Language

Language belongs to the verbal dimension including “bands’ names, album and song titles, and lyrics” (Weinstein, 1991, p. 31). Even though English is the most common international language used in metal music (Weinstein, 2000), Chinese metal bands have used

Chinese to write the lyrics and sing from the beginning. They adopt China’s history and rich linguistic culture to name the bands and express their feelings through the lyrics.

First of all, Chinese bands almost always have Chinese names. Among a collection of

260 metal bands in China, only 20 of them did not have Chinese names. Additionally, the names of the bands exhibit specific Chinese characteristics. Many Chinese bands focus on finding names from Chinese history and culture, folk stories and mythology, and Chengyu (four character idioms)26. For example, the bands Tang Dynasty and Spring Autumn used the names of specific dynasties in Chinese history. As a former member in Tang Dynasty, Kuo suggested

26 Chengyu (“four character idiom” in English) is “a type of traditional Chinese idiomatic expression, most of which consist of four characters. Chengyu were widely used in Classical Chinese and are still common in vernacular Chinese writing and in the spoken language today.” (Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chengyu)

55

“naming the band ‘Tang Dynasty27’, recalling a period when ‘outside ideas were freely incorporated into Chinese culture without threat to its own Han identity’” (Wong, 2011, p. 70).

Spring Autumn (Chunqiu period28) evokes a period when different state powers were in conflict but the culture and technology developed greatly. Some bands in China prefer to use terms related to brutal punishments in Chinese history as their names, such as Ren Chei29, and Che Lie.30 Also, bands like Yaksa (Ye Cha) and Narakam (Ming Jie) name their bands by using the Chinese mythology related to Hell. Moreover, a Chinese metalcore band uses a

Chinese four-character idiom to name the band Healing Force (Xuan Hu Ji Shi31). These band names with signs in Chinese culture work well to represent their nationality but the members in the bands need to explain the meaning of the names to help international audience realize these symbols have Chinese characteristics.

The same situation happens in the lyrics. Instead of just using Chinese in the lyrics, some metal bands deeply excavate the aesthetics of the , especially archaic Chinese and traditional poetic styles, in their lyrics. Tang Dynasty and its successor, Dream Spirit,

27 The Tang Dynasty is “regarded as one of China’s greatest periods from the development of arts, , and culture. It was the longest and arguably most stable dynastic reign, spanning the years 618-907. During this period, China achieved unprecedented levels of prosperity, political stability, foreign relations and trade, and military power” (Wong, 2011, p. 84) 28 The Chun Qiu Period (770-476 B.C.E.) was the first era when a national split was formed in politics. However, it was also an era with huge cultural developments. In this period, China achieved the transition from religious superstitions such as divination and witchcraft to human- centered rational humanism. This period was also called the period of “hundred schools of thought” (Zhu Zi Bai Jia). 29 Ren Chei is “a cruel punishment that turns a woman into a ‘human pig.’ According to historical accounts, primarily "Shi Ji", Ren Chei was created by Empress Lü Zhi against Consort Qi of Emperor Liu Bang.” (http://www.metal-archives.com/bands/人彘 /3540304433) 30 Che Lie is “a cruel penalty used in ancient China to split a criminal by five carriages running in different directions. It is similar to ‘dismemberment style’ executions common in Medieval .” (http://www.metal-archives.com/bands/车裂/108842) 31 Xuan Hu Ji Shi is a Chinese four-character idiom praising benevolent doctors who practice medicine to cure the sick.

56 adopted an ancient Chinese poetic form – the Tang Poem (Tang Shi), which flourished during the Tang Dynasty in Chinese history – to present the themes of heroism and the pursuit of a prosperous age. The traditional five- or seven-character quatrains and metrical verse were used in some songs’ lyrics. “Restore Our Lost Territory” by Dream Spirit is an example of seven- character metrical verse (seven characters are shown in the brackets):

The sun comes up in the east and is stationed above the cloud.

(Ri Chu Dong Fang Zhu Yun Duan)

Laugh at the mountains at the food from a highest heaven.

(Jiu Chong Zhi Shang Xiao Qun Shan)

A red sunglow up the sky.

(Yi Mo Hong Xia Zhao Tian Ming)

Day and night chaos of wars spread all over.

(Tian Xia Fen Zheng Ri Ye Xing)

Cold wind blows, strong horse screams toward the world.

(Feng Chui Tie Ma Xiao Jiu Zhou)

The melodic song waves in the air, expressing the warrior’s depression.

(Chang Ge Dang Kong Zhuang Zhi Chou)

Embarking on this road without turning back.

(Ji Qu Ci Lu Bu Fu Fan)

Honesty and full of patriotic fervor handed down from generation to generation.

(Jing Zhong Chi Dan Qian Gu Liu)

And the lyrics to Tang Dynasty’s “Legend” exemplify five character quatrains:

The years silver the hair. (Sui Yue Zheng Hua Fa)

57

The treasured sword remains glow. (Bao Jian Yi Jiu Liang)

Blood erodes the battlefield. (Re Xue Xi Sha Chang)

Go back homeland along the river. (Jiang He Gui Gu Xiang)

Since Tang Dynasty provided a successful example of applying ancient poetic styles in lyrics, later bands also adopted some related styles, such as Song Ci and Yuan Qu, in their songs. For instance, the black metal band Zuriaake (Zang Shi Hu), used traditional poetic styles to write the lyrics of the entire album Afterimage of Autumn (Yi Qiu). Also, the folk metal band Black Kirin

(Hei Qi), adapted a famous Song Ci, Qinyuanchun Xue, from Mao Zedong as the lyrics in their metal music. Using a traditional Chinese poetic format in the lyrics meaningfully mixes Chinese culture with western metal music. Yet writing traditional poems as lyrics requires a great deal of familiarity with Chinese traditional literature, and these lyrics are difficult to translate into

English. Therefore, only a few Chinese metal bands represent their Chinese identity in this way.

Generally, the method of using different styles of language from Chinese history and characteristics needs further interpretation to be recognized by a wide range of audiences all around the world. However, even if bands from China don’t use any of the strategies mentioned above, there’s still another way to represent their identity, which they cannot ignore – the content they scream out to express the ideology of the Chinese young generation and their experiences in contemporary society.

Content

Content is the most important aspect of presenting nationality for metal bands in China; also, it is the easiest aspect to ignore and the hardest for the worldwide audience to understand.

Metal in China continues to play a significant role in representing the real opinions of Chinese young people and their unique perspectives on personal goals, social problems, and freedom in

58 the context of Chinese contemporary society. Thus, the emotions and ideologies expressed in metal songs in China are unique in the world. By analyzing 92 metal songs collected in eight compilation albums of Resurrection of , Yuan Wang (2015) demonstrated the content of

Chinese extreme metal in terms of its overall relevance, relation to mainstream values, and ten specific themes. He illustrated that and real life were two major themes, while religion and politics were rarely mentioned. Moreover, he concluded that extreme metal music in China concentrats on both positive and negative aspects. By combining his analysis with my personal listening experiences, I argue that, like western metal music, Chinese metal songs can generally be divided into three themes – historical and heroic stories and mythology, inspirational and or desperate thoughts about personal life, and the critique of society. Next, I introduce each of the three themes and provide specific examples to illustrate how the content of Chinese metal songs is unique and represents specifically Chinese culture and ideologies.

The first theme is historical and heroic stories and mythology. Although many metal bands use heroic stories in their culture in the creation of metal songs, five thousand years of Chinese history and patrilineal culture provide abundant resources for Chinese metal bands to use in their songs. The first Chinese thrash metal band, Overload, had a song called “The Shadow of

Ancestor” in their early period, describing in detail the process of the dramatic peasant uprisings in Chinese history: killing enemies, occupying the throne, choosing the princesses, and building the graves. In addition, Black Kirin depicted the miserable and dark situation of the Nanking

Massacre in their song “Nanjing”:

Japanese pirates behave with aggressive arrogance.

Fresh blood flows in the moat.

The smell of corpses pervades and vital organs are all over.

59

Tens of thousands wronged ghosts, where to return home.

In thousands of years of Chinese history, there is never a shortage of resistance and combat from which the heroic stories arose. The rise and fall of dynasties, foreign invasions, civilian rebellions and so on are all perfect to narrate through metal music. Thus, this is a significant theme to introduce Chinese culture to the world through metal; at the same time, it is also a great way to show the uniqueness of Chinese metal in the global scene.

However, rather than about history, many more metal bands write about themselves and their personal lives. Therefore, the second theme, the inspirational or desperate thoughts about their personal life, is the most common topic of Chinese metal music. As music critic and rock subculture scholar Yan Jun argues in his book Gone Up in Smoke: A Personal

Observation of Rock Music, the youth in China nowadays have to deal with not only depressive emotions during puberty but also the pressure exerted by society. Since most of them cannot find a solution to this depression, confusion becomes the main theme in metal (2006). However, the

Chinese young generation never gives up searching for a solution to achieving self-realization in this society. For instance, there is one song from Yaksa called “Responsibility.” In this song, the band asks a serious question about how we respond when the responsibility to act is right in front of us. They provide a suggestion by screaming out the lyrics: “When feeling confused, it is our responsibility to guide the direction where we come and go / Fire ourselves to awaken people’s stubborn insensitivity.” The young generation’s confusion might be a worldwide issue. However, only Chinese youths know how they feel under the Chinese system and how to respond to the complicated Chinese society.

The final theme, the critique of society, which represents the rebellious feature of the metal music genre, is also a quite familiar topic in metal songs worldwide. However, China has a

60 complex social system combining political socialism, a market economy, Confucian ideology, and bureaucracy. Thus, the critiques of social issues in China become special. For example, one rebellious band in China, Ordnance (Jun Xie Suo), has a song called “By No Means Stay

Temporarily in My Motherland,” which addresses the issue that people from the countryside cannot legally live in big cities unless they apply for a temporary resident certificate; otherwise, they may be forcibly repatriated to their hometowns:

By no means stay temporarily in my motherland

What you are based on

Burst into my family at checking my temporary residence certificate.

What you are based on you can live in the city but he have to in the countryside.

What you are based on deliver me to a railway station force repatriate.

What you are based on see that person will grasp like a rabid dog grasps an elephant

I am reluctant to have stayed temporarily in my motherland...

These three themes and the distinctive interpretation of these themes by Chinese metal bands represent abundant meanings for the representation of Chinese national identity. Because of the language barrier, few audiences in other countries can access these meanings. That’s why the audience in western countries may question the difference between Chinese metal and western metal, even though most Chinese metal bands have Chinese features in the content of the songs.

Overall, by analyzing these four categories of strategies – music, performance, language, and content, I have illustrated how Chinese metal is different from western metal and the ways in which metal bands in China represent their national identity. Because they use various methods to show their nationality, the diversity of Chinese culture is presented to metal listeners

61 worldwide. For example, both Nine Treasures and Black Kirin are Chinese folk metal bands but they represent two different types of culture in China: Mongolian culture and Han culture. Folk metal bands such as Tengger Cavalry, Nine Treasures, and Ego Fall combine Mongolian elements, such as throat singing and the horse-head fiddle, and their energetic grassland nomadic culture in northern China with metal music, and have thereby established a unique sub- genre – Mongolian folk metal. In contrast, Spring Autumn, Zuriaake, Deep Mountain, Dream

Spirit, and Black Kirin add various elements of Han culture, including traditional Han instruments (Qin, Zheng, bamboo flute, etc.), ancient poems, folk operas, and so on, in their songs representing another branch of folk metal in China, Han folk metal. Even though Han people are the majority of the population, Mongolian culture is also a significant component of

Chinese culture. Then, the answer to the question whether Mongolian folk metal could show

Chinese national identity becomes clear. As a Chinese metal musician developing his career in

America, Li Nan32 provided his understanding of Chinese culture during an interview conducted by the staff at the Midi Festival:

The root [that I insist on my dream of the music in America] is that I believe in the power

of Chinese culture. The Chinese culture in my perspective is simple. The first is the

Chinese people. As a Chinese, Chinese culture is always embodied by me. This is a

subtle influence. The second is Chinese language and character, including Chinese

and aesthetics. In America and even in China, few people realize that the

most attractive feature of Chinese culture is diversity. Mongolian culture, Tibetan culture,

Muslim culture, and so on all play important roles in Chinese culture in general. I think

32 Li Nan is the core leader of the Chinese folk and black metal band Voodoo Kungfu, the first Chinese metal band to perform at WAO. In 2011, Li Nan received an offer from Berklee College of Music and became the first extreme metal to be accepted by this institution. Voodoo Kungfu disbanded in 2012, but in 2014 it was reunited by Li Nan in Los Angeles.

62

Chinese culture is more diverse than American culture. So, this is my motivation and the

root for me to realize the dream. (Midi, para.18, 2015)

Thus, no matter which parts of Chinese culture Chinese metal bands present and which strategies they apply in their music and performance, Chinese metal bands show their national identity since they stand on the stage as Chinese metal players.

In addition to the representation of “Chineseness”, cosmopolitan features are also significant for Chinese metal bands if they hope to keep the authenticity of metal as a western music genre and be involved in the global scene. Most metal bands in China have both Chinese and English names to ensure accessibility to audiences outside China. Even though only a few bands have used English lyrics, more and more bands are starting to try using several sentences of English in their lyrics, which has benefited from the popularization of English education in the last 20 years. Many bands have Facebook and YouTube accounts, introducing their bands in

English and sharing their music with metal fans from other countries. Moreover, some bands have started to print English translations of their lyrics in their lyrics books or publish English versions of the album along with the original Chinese versions. Thus, based on the evidence mentioned above, I argue that Chinese metal bands practice the strategy of combining national and cosmopolitan identities at the same time (White, 2002) to reach their goals of being successful in the local scene and also involved in the global scene.

However, how to balance the national characteristics and the cosmopolitan features in music, performance, and overall practice is an important issue for many bands that hope to be active in both the local and the global metal scenes. A few Chinese metal bands have worked hard to develop their careers in Western countries but they met some difficulties in the language

63 and cultural differences. Li Nan explained the difficulty he met when persisting in his national identity in America:

The most difficult thing Voodoo Kungfu met in America is that I insist on singing

original songs in Chinese even though other band members are American and even

though I missed numerous producers and managers. I knew many Chinese bands singing

in English, although their English is worse than me but I insist that more than 90% of

lyrics are Chinese. Chinese could not beat foreigners in Hollywood movies 40 years ago.

But, [I believe] something will eventually change. (Midi, para.17, 2015)

Another issue when balancing national and cosmopolitan features is the contradiction between the perception of modernity and tradition among Chinese metal fans. In China, for most new generation youths, vernacular and traditional culture is seen as rustic or out of fashion while metal subculture is cool, modern, and avant-garde. Dream Spirit has encountered this issue; some metal fans have complained that their songs are old fashioned and like the theme songs of mainstream martial arts TV series when leaving comments under their songs in music websites such as Xiami and Wanyi Yun Yinyue (Wangyi Cloud Music). In spite of that, some bands in

China have tried to solve this issue. Some Chinese black metal bands, such as Zuriaake, Black

Kirin, and Deep Mountain (Shen Shan) use Chinese instruments and ancient Chinese as their lyrics while practicing growled vocals in their music, which is welcomed by Chinese metal fans.

Additionally, The Samans (Sa Man), a Chinese folk metal band, became a pioneer in combining

English lyrics with Chinese traditional instruments and melodies on the basis of metal structure.

We expect to see more attempts to find a good balance to distribute “Chinese Metal” around the globe.

64

In conclusion, along with the development of metal in China, the representation of

“Chineseness” in metal was realized by many bands long before Chinese metal went abroad.

Chinese people, culture, and the unique Chinese ideology have never been ignored by young

Chinese metal players. Therefore, metal bands in China have been comprehensively localized in a natural way in terms of the content and the aesthetics. However, Chinese metal bands still need to explore various ways to balance the national and international, traditional and modern features while they keep practicing on both domestic and global stages.

The decisions made by metal bands are always affected by the and attitudes of their fans. Therefore, the next chapter will explore the structure of metal fans in China and their contributions to the development of the Chinese metal scene.

65

CHAPTER THREE “WE STILL STAND HERE”: METAL FANS IN CHINA AND THEIR INTERPRETATIONS OF CHINESE METAL MUSIC

We still stand here, bodies inserted in the earth like dry tree branches. We still stand here, breathing the foul air. We still stand here, how can we face you? We still stand there, how can we face ourselves？ —— 641, “We Still Stand Here”

On March 11th, 2015, I conducted a face-to-face interview with Liu Zheng in the afternoon and attended Arch Enemy’s concert at Yu Gong Yi Shan33 at 8 p.m. When I finished the interview at around 4 p.m. and thought I had just enough time to have dinner before the concert, Liu Zheng recommended that I go directly to the venue and stand in the front row, otherwise I would not even be able to see the stage. I was surprised at first but it was later apparent that he was absolutely right. When I arrived at the venue at around 5:30 p.m., there were already many people waiting to exchange their tickets.34 I exchanged mine and went to a store beside the venue for a sandwich. When I came back at around 6:20 p.m., which I thought was early enough, the lobby had become very crowded. I tried my best to find a corner where I would be able to observe most of the waiting audience. Around 6:50 p.m., the small lobby was filled with more than 100 people waiting to enter the venue. I saw some people who couldn’t get in, so I guessed there were even more people waiting outside. Looking around the crowd, I was surprised that the audience of a metal concert could be so diverse, ranging from young to middle-

33 Yu Gong Yi Shan Bar is one of the top live houses for metal performance in Beijing. In recent years, many foreign metal bands have performed here, such as Epica from The , Destruction from Germany, Behemoth from , and Suffocate from the USA. This venue has a 5-meter-wide stage and can accommodate 500-700 people. 34 This is a common way for the gig promoter to arrange the ticket check-in for people who buy electronic tickets online. In order to save transportation costs, everyone who purchases a ticket online receives a code, which is exchanged for a paper ticket on the day of the performance.

66 aged. Even though most were male, there were also some female audience members accompanying some of the male fans. From their attire, I could see there were some college students. Some people looked like insiders with band shirts, long hair, tattoos, and piercings, but a few people came without even changing out of their business suits. I heard a group chatting with each other, saying that they had travelled from other provinces just for this concert. Many people bought souvenir T-shirts and immediately put them on. At around 7:15 p.m., the audience started to enter the venue. In order to estimate the attendance, I went in with one of the last groups. By my count, there were more than 500 people crowded into the venue. The concert started at 8 p.m. While the crowd headbanged in the front, I watched the screen in the back with around 50 other people for the entire concert. Yes, I didn’t see anything on the stage myself but even the audience in the back enjoyed this concert.

It is hard to know how many metal listeners there are in China. However, what we cannot ignore is the fact that metal fans from all over the country filled the venue for most of the big metal events, such as the 330 Metal Festival, and big foreign bands’ concerts in China.

Meanwhile, we should admit that many Chinese metal fans contribute to the development of the

Chinese metal scene by acting as various roles. Thus, this chapter pays attention to the localization of metal fans in China and explores:

(1) the demographic structure of the Chinese metal audience

(2) the expansion of metal fans in China

(3) the transition of behaviors in three generations of metal fans

(4) metal fans’ interpretation of Chinese metal music

This study of Chinese metal fans relies on data from 745 valid online surveys, 32 e-mail interviews, and participant observation. Through analyzing metal fans in China, I aim to realize

67 not only the distinctive characteristics of this fan group compared with Western metal fans but also the functions of fans in the formation and development of the metal scene in China.

Demographic Position of the Metal Audience in China

Because of the unique characteristics that the metal scene developed in China, such as limited resources and an autonomous nature, the demographic structure of metal fans in China is complicated. In order to realize what kind of people are metal fans in China, this section illustrates the demographic position of Chinese metal fans by evaluating common demographic features, such as gender, age, place of residence, occupation, educational level, and income level.

In addition, I plan to analyze several factors that influence the demographics of this community in China compared to the Western metal audience.

Gender. Like the metal audience in Western countries, most metal fans in China are male.

The survey of the Chinese metal audience that I conducted online indicates that 76.78% are male while 23.22% are female. In my observations of both domestic and foreign bands’ concerts and gigs35, the majority of the audience is male. Although women are not rare, female audience members generally accompany male audience members. It is common to see young couples or groups of boys and girls come into the venue with beers or cigarettes in their hands. However, single female audience members and female groups are uncommon. Therefore, males are in a dominant position among metal fans in China and behave actively in the scene. In comparison, female fans are in a more subordinate position: many of them may enjoy metal music every day and are quite active online. But, without being accompanied by male fans, they may not feel comfortable showing up at an event dominated by males.

35 In this thesis, gig is used to describe small performance held in small venues, such as in bars, with less than 200 audiences, while concert is used to describe performance held in large venues, such as arena and big live house, with more than 200 audiences.

68

Figure 4: The Age Distribution of the Metal Audience

100 78 80 68 71 62 50 49 60 47 48 43 35 40 28 Age 25 23 21 18 16 14 20 11 7 6 1 0 4 5 4 1 2 2 1 1 0 2 1 0 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

Age. The metal audience in China is young. Among the survey participants at the end of

2014, the youngest was only 13 years old while the oldest was 45 years old. Most were in (or about to enter) their twenties. Only 14.4% were in their thirties and even fewer were in their forties. This distribution of age may be affected by I selected to collect the survey data: since the survey was conducted online, young people were more likely to participate than older people who less frequently use the Internet. However, I should admit that rock music including metal belongs to young, energetic people. With the popularity of computers and the

Internet and the development of the metal scene in the last 10 years, more and more youth in

China have access to diverse metal music through diverse channels, then started to like this music style because it is cool and suitable for their states of mind, which directly led to the large number in the 18-to-30 age range. Moreover, the emergence of metal music in China was almost twenty years behind the West. Due to limited resources, only a few young people in China were able to access Western metal music in the 1990s. Even though Tang Dynasty was hugely influential in the early 1990s, it didn’t create a deep commitment to heavy metal among the minds of first generation mainstream metal listeners. Thus, those listeners didn’t actively seek other domestic or Western metal bands. When they grew up, most of them gave up listening to metal. Most research participants in their late thirties or forties are insiders working in the music

69 industry. This is the reason why this distribution missed the number of first generation audience members and the age range is so wide.

Figure 5: The Geographical Distribution of the Chinese Metal Audience

Zhejiang, 28 Anhui, 5 Xinjiang, 8 , 6 Macao, 2 Yunan, 23 HongKong, 3 Tianjin, 19 Taiwan, 1

Sichuan, 33 Beijing, 171

Shanghai, 71

Fujian, 12 Shan3xi, 25 Gansu, 12 Shan1xi, 5 Guangdong, 78

Shandong, 36 Guangxi, Qinghai, 1 14 Guizhou, 7 Jiangsu, 38 Jilin, 8 Henan, Overseas, 18 Hainan, 3 Hunan, 12 Huibei, 16 Heilongjiang, 7 7 Hebei, 20

Region. Geographically, the metal audience is distributed widely in China. Except for

Tibet and Ningxia, two national autonomous regions, every province has a metal audience group represented in the survey results. However, most metal fans live in big cities. Among 609 valid responses reporting the specific city, 73.4% of metal listeners live in the first-tier cities36 while only 13% of audience are from 3rd tier small cities or below. Big cities with highly developed

36 First Finance and Economics Weekly, a major business magazine in China, ranked Chinese cities into six tiers in 2013 depending on their comprehensive strengths of politics, economics, and culture. The criteria are based on a series of indices, such as GDP scale, residents’ per-capita income, the number of Fortune 500 companies located in the city, the number and density of premium brands entered, the number of key universities, the number of international airlines, and the airport’s handling capacity, which reflect a city’s economic development level, residents’ consumption levels, educational resources, and economic activities (Zhang, 2013).

70 economies and complete infrastructures provide fertile soil for the development of metal scenes: abundant resources, a number of active local bands, good quality venues and events, and high cultural tolerance levels all benefit the expansion of local fan groups. In contrast, small cities have neither good facilities nor atmospheres. A quarter of metal listeners in this sample are from

Beijing, which verifies the status of this city as the “holy land” of rock in China and the birthplace of the Chinese metal scene. Guangdong province and Shanghai take the 2nd and 3rd spots due to their advanced economies, coastal locations, and international atmospheres.

Additionally, unlike the geographic distribution of metal bands, there is no difference in size between the metal audience in the north and in the south. Based on 713 valid responses reporting the province, 356 participants are from northern provinces and 357 participants from the south.

Therefore, from the audience perspective, youth from the northern and southern parts of China have the same opportunities to enjoy metal music, which overturns the assumption that metal music is more suitable for people from the north.

Figure 6: The Distribution of Metal Audience in Various Levels of Cities

1% 1% 3% 1st Tier City 7% 2nd Tier City 15% 3rd Tier City 4th Tier City 73% 5th Tier City 6th Tier City

Social Strata. In Western countries, heavy metal had a long and significant blue-collar origin, so the metal audience is mainly composed of the working and lower-middle classes

(Weinstein, 2000). However, metal in China first emerged among the cultural elite, then

71 gradually reached to lower strata. Thus, the social strata that the Chinese metal audience belongs to needs further exploration by evaluating its educational level, income level, and occupation.

Educational level is a significant component in a person’s social position. In China, the majority of the metal audience is well educated. From the survey results, 74.1% of the Chinese metal audience members have or are working on bachelor’s degrees, 8.2% have master’s degrees and 1.2% have doctoral degrees. Additionally, another 12.4% of metal listeners have associates’ degrees. Only 13.42 % of participants lack any college level education.37 It is particularly worth mentioning that the gross enrollment ratio (GER) of higher education in China was around 5% before 1999 when Chinese colleges started to expand enrollment. In 2002 the GER increased to

15%, which represented higher education in China shifting from elite education to mass education (Xia, 2008). However, 91% of the 45 participants who started to listen to metal in

1999 or earlier had received higher education, which confirms again that metal fandom emerged among the top stratum of Chinese society.

With respect to income level, which directly reflects social strata, 65% of the 391 participants who have worked have incomes approximately equal to or higher than the national urban residents’ average income38. 17.1% of the surveyed audience earns more than 10,000

RMB each month, which is regarded as a high income in Chinese society. 35% of participants get less than 4,000 RMB every month. 2,000 RMB to 4,000 RMB and 4,000 RMB to 6,000

RMB are two ranges containing the largest numbers of the surveyed metal audience members, which account for 26.3% and 27.9% of the total, respectively. Thus, the metal audience mainly lives at the middle-income level.

37 Readers may be aware that this group of participants who lack college education includes 44 participants (between the age of 13 to 17), who are too young to enroll into the college. 38 According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics, the average annual income of urban residents in 2014 was 56,339 RMB; thus, the average monthly income was 4,694.97 RMB.

72

Another essential factor that determines social status is occupation. Members of the metal audience engages in different occupations and most of them have decent jobs. Excluding the 355 participants who are still students, 93% of the metal fans are white-collar workers. According to the 388 participants who reported their occupations, 108 of them work as editors, account executives, media operators, designers, musicians, or other occupations in media, art, design, and music-related fields; 88 are employed by business companies working as salespeople, accountants, or managers; 62 are engineers or have technology-related jobs; 40 work in the government or public institutions; and 35 are instructors or researchers in schools or academic organizations. In addition, 9 participants are self-employed and 5 work in catering services. Only

12 surveyed metal listeners reported that they are blue-collar workers working in factories, which indicates that blue-collar/working class is not the main stratum of the metal audience in China.

When analyses of the educational level, income level, and occupation are combined, the social stratum of the metal audience in China becomes clear. I admit the existence of uneducated metal fans that are in the lower stratum of society. However, in general, the metal audience in

China exists across most social strata, but the majority are from the middle stratum and above, with good educational backgrounds, appropriate salaries, and respectable jobs.

Overall, the metal audience in China is dominated by young males in big cities, from at least the middle stratum of contemporary Chinese society. This demographic structure has been built by the short history of the metal scene, external conditions such as economic level and infrastructure, and the genre of metal itself as a strong, tough, dark, modern, and unique music style. However, this demographic position is also dynamic. In the next section, I briefly explain the expansion trends of the metal audience, but a detailed analysis of these dynamics in terms of the movement of each demographic factor remains a topic for further study in the future.

73

The Expansion of the Metal Audience in China

Since metal music came to China, the number of metal listeners has grown continuously in several ways. According to Weinstein’s (2011) study of metal globalization, the establishment of the fan group is the initial stage in the process of a country stepping on the journey of metal globalization. Thus, this section explores the trajectory and characteristics of the growth of the metal fan community in China and analyzes factors that influence the shape of this trajectory.

Through the online survey, 735 participants reported the year they started to listen to metal music. Based on this data, I illustrate three stages of growth.

The initial stage is from the emergence of the Chinese metal audience group to 1996. At this stage, a tiny metal fan group was established. Only a few people really knew Western metal music and its culture. Although Tang Dynasty had a huge fanbase in the early 90s, not many people had stayed in metal music for a long time because of the reason mentioned above: most mainstream listeners hadn’t established the concept of metal music before the mainstream metal period ended. An e-mail interview response mentioned that many Tang Dynasty listeners during that time even didn’t know it was a heavy metal band (personal communication, 2015). However, some fans of Tang Dynasty, attracted by this music genre, went back to explore its origin in

Western countries, and became contributors to the development of the metal scene in China. This tiny group of die-hard metal fans laid a significant foundation for the later stages.

Next, 1997-2005 is the developing stage: The metal fanbase in China slowly expanded through various underground channels. Starting from 1997, the number of new fans joining in the scene slowly increased due to the contribution of the Dakou market, local underground metal bands, and the development of other contributors in the scene, such as magazines, indie labels,

74 and live performances. However, since distribution was mainly based on word of mouth, the growth rate was not fast.

Benefiting from the popularization of the Internet and events such as music festivals, concerts, and tours, the growth of the metal audience reached a peak in 2010. Nonetheless, from what we recorded in this sample, since 2013, the number of metal fans has decreased. This may be caused by recent changes to the social environment in China: “fast-food” and the entertainment culture most people currently enjoy is opposite to serious and insightful metal music. However, since this phenomenon has only lasted for the last two years, I would argue that it is too early to draw the conclusion that fewer youth in China like this music genre.

As Weinstein (2011) explained, the first step for the development of a metal scene is the establishment of a fanbase; the second step is the formation of local bands. Metal audiences and local bands are two significant contributors in the scene and they have a reciprocal relationship.

By comparing the dataset of Chinese metal fans presented in this chapter with the dataset of

Chinese local bands used in the first chapter, I found a positive correlation between the number of new local bands and the number of new metal fans each year. The formation of new bands is always accompanied by an increase in the metal audience, and the expanding metal fanbase, on the other hand, provides more opportunities for new local bands. Local bands and fans promote each other and work together to contribute to the expansion of Chinese metal music.

Additionally, this correlation may also show that the development of bands and fans are affected by similar external factors and changes in their environments. Thus, they have similar responses when facing those factors that significantly shape the trajectory of the development of the metal scene.

75

Figure 7: Correlation between Bands and Fans Increase

12.00% 10.00% 8.00% 6.00% 4.00% 2.00% 0.00% 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

"Bands" "Audience" 39

While the size of the metal audience increased each year, the metal audience also expanded in terms of its diversity. In the last 10 years, more female fans have joined this community. Since the metal subculture was distributed from Beijing to the entire country, metal fans are currently from hundreds of cities located in different parts of China, from north to south and east to west, bringing their different dialects, living habits, cultures, and occupations into this group. The diverse metal audience brings various Chinese characteristics into metal subculture and helps this Western culture get closer to the comprehensive social environment in China, which greatly benefits the localization of Chinese metal.

The Practice of Metal Fans in the Scene

After describing the demographics of the metal audience in China and exploring the trajectory of fan expansion, this section illustrates how metal fans actively participate in the scene and practice in Chinese metal subcultures, including through which channels metal fans first access metal music; how they access metal music in general; their daily practice in the scene,

39 The line shows the annual metal audience increase in China appears to contain three peaks in 1995, 2000, and 2005. However, I did not find any special events within the scene or any significant changes in external factors that drove these large increases. This result may be related to inaccuracies in participants’ self-reports: generally, when a person doesn’t remember the specific year they did something, years like 1990, 1995, 2000, and 2005 are more likely to be selected.

76 such as visiting record stores, reading magazines, and attending live performances; and, how deeply involved they are in the scene. By presenting various metal fans’ habits, I argue that there is a generational difference in these practices due to the rapid social changes in China in the last

30 years and the development of the Chinese metal scene. Then, I provide specific examples to explore the idea that metal fan groups in China are active audience members who contribute to the metal scene in different ways.

Metal Fans’ Behavior and Generational Differences. Depending on the stages of audience growth and various social development periods in China, I divide metal fans into four generations:

(1) pioneer generation (late 1980s - before Tang Dynasty was nationally known)

(2) mainstream generation (1992-1996)

(3) underground generation (1997-2005)

(4) indie generation (2006-present)

Since I discussed the pioneer generation at the end of my Introduction, here I mainly explore the last three generations.

Let’s start from the beginning of a metal fan’s journey. Metal fans in China have different stories of their first contact with metal music. In general, Chinese youth are introduced to metal in four primary ways:

• Introduction by friends

• Listening to it in record stores

• Learning from popular music magazines

• Learning from the Internet

77

“Introduction by friends” is the most common way for metal fans in each generation to first access metal music. 31.7% of the surveyed audience was introduced to the world of metal music by their friends. Encountering metal on the Internet became the primary way for the younger generation (30.34% participants in general and 39.4% of the 4th generation fans). In addition, the older generations of youth rely more on traditional channels than the new generation. 23.1% of the surveyed 2nd generation and 19.3% of 3rd generation audience accessed metal music from seeing or listening to it in the record store, but this percentage dropped to only 2.9% among the

4th generation. The same situation happened through the channel of popular music magazines and TV/radio. Even though live performance is a significant component in metal subculture, only a few participants first got to know metal music through live performance. Moreover, beyond the list of possible access channels on the survey, two other ways were frequently reported by participants: playing video games (since the background music is metal) and learning instruments (mostly guitar and bass).

However, no matter how metal fans first accessed this music genre, many fans interviewed believe their interest in metal music is innate. Some recalled in the interview that they liked metal music after listening to it for less than one minute. Some didn’t know it was metal when they first liked it and many of them could not tell a specific reason why they like metal. A 29 year-old female fan recalled her experience when first accessing metal music:

I accidentally found this music style and it extremely shocked my young soul even

though I didn’t even know it was called heavy metal, not to mention its origin, culture,

sub-genres, etc. It was during high school, I randomly took some [of] Overload’s

cassettes from my friends and put them in my Walkman. Then, I was shocked and

attracted by the voice, the music, and the lyrics. How deeply was I shocked? I made a

78

similar tattoo to the tattoo on Overload’s album cover. [...] So, why did I like this music

style? This question makes me remember the scene where Sam [Dunn] interviewed Varg

Vikernes. I just want to say: it is innate. I was naturally attracted. Some people tend to

like heavy metal. I listened to it and love it. So easy. (personal communication, Apr. 6th

2015)

Therefore, each generation of metal fans differs in terms of the ways they access metal music and its culture due to the improvement of technology and the characteristics of the Chinese metal scene, such as limited resources and its underground nature. However, most metal fans have at least one thing in common: they all discovered metal music in a specific time, place, and situation, listened to it, love it, and made it part of their lives.

With more and more time listening to metal music, metal fans gradually developed certain listening behaviors, but these behaviors also present a generational difference. In general, metal fans have a stable time and place to listen to metal music. According to the survey, around

85% of listeners prefer listening to metal music in the evening. In addition, 57.8% of the 3rd generation and 59.5% of the 4th generation fans also listen to metal music in the afternoon while this percentage drops to 36% for the 2nd generation. Similarly, only 25.6% of the 2nd generation listeners listen to metal music in the morning but the number increases to 53.4% for 3rd generation fans and 42.3% for 4th generation. This result also reflects the amount of time that

Chinese metal fans listen to metal music. 71.3% of the 3rd generation and 70.9% of the 4th generation of metal fans listen to this genre of music one to four hours per day. However, 79.5% of the 2nd generation of metal fans listen to metal less than two hours each day, including 43.6% who listen for less than one hour. This generational difference is most likely caused by different life stages. The 2nd generation metal fans are mostly in their late thirties or forties and the heavy

79 responsibilities of work and family don’t allow them much time for their personal hobbies.

Compared to them, younger generations of metal fans have more time to enjoy their favorite music.

In addition, in terms of where they listen to metal music, 85.3 % of the surveyed audience prefers to listen to metal music at home, while 78% of fans reported they usually enjoy metal on their way to other places, such as on the bus or when driving. Other places mentioned by the participants include in the study room, in the office, and in the gym, but they all use earphones.

Some participants reported that they listen to metal music everywhere. It’s significant to realize that most listeners enjoy metal music in private places and mostly use headphones/earphones.

The fact that metal in China is a small minority sub-culture and relatively active in the underground hugely affected metal fans’ listening behavior. Some participants mentioned that some of their friends didn’t understand what they listened to everyday and they sometimes had conflicts with parents and other relatives because of listening to metal music (personal communication, 2015). Thus, most listeners choose to enjoy metal music themselves in their private places or by using earphones not only to avoid disturbing others but also because of the reception of metal among the majority.

Apart from the channel through which metal fans first accessed metal music, all fans have typical ways to acquire and listen to metal music. Along with the development of technology, the process of obtaining music changed, which was embodied in the generational difference when reporting how Chinese metal listeners get to the music. The survey results show that the Internet has become the most popular channel for each generation of fans. 72.6% of participants download mp3 files online and 70.1% of fans listen to metal music from music websites, such as Douban and Xiami. Additionally, 46% of the surveyed audience buys albums

80 through online record stores. In contrast, only 36.4% of metal fans get albums from physical record stores. However, some of the 2nd generation and the 3rd generation metal fans still insist on visiting local record stores and buying physical albums. 56.4% of the 2nd generation and

47.1% of the 3rd generation of survey participants buy albums from record stores, but only 29.4% of the 4th generation surveyed listeners do the same thing. Other ways that metal fans get music are from friends or other metal fans and buying albums at venues after bands’ performances.

The daily practice of metal fans in the scene also includes their active participation and interaction with various metal mediums, such as record stores, magazines, and live performance.

Even though these all contribute to the scene of metal music in China and benefit Chinese metal audiences, their statuses are different for each generation of fans. Record stores and physical albums used to be the most significant components in metal fans’ daily lives. However, the physical form was gradually displaced by electronic versions. According to the survey, the majority of 3rd and 4th generation of metal fans collected fewer than 50 metal albums. 60% of the

2nd generation metal fans have more than 100 metal albums, while only 5.5% of those who started to listen to metal music after 2006 has the same number of albums. In 2014, only 8.6% of metal fans bought more than 30 albums and most fans bought fewer than 10 albums; 28.86% of the metal audience didn’t buy any albums at all. Moreover, the frequency of visits to record stores has decreased in recent years. The majority of metal fans visit record stores less than once per month. 21.5% of the 3rd generation and 36.1% of the 4th generation of metal fans never go to the record store. Thus, the record store has become less important in metal fans’ daily practice in the local scene.

Heavy metal magazines face the same situation. Metal magazines were one major channel to get the information about metal subculture in the early . However, print media

81 has suffered the shocks of the Internet. 97.4% of 2nd generation and 87.9% of 3rd generation metal fans have read metal magazines but this number decreases to 65.6% for the 4th generation metal audience. Nowadays, fewer and fewer metal fans still choose to buy paper magazines.

Instead, e-magazines, micro blogs, BBS, etc., have become primary ways for metal fans to gain information about metal music and the related subculture.

Live performances are developing better than record stores and magazines in China.

Many fans attend various metal concerts and gigs. Among the surveyed metal fans, 93.2% of them have seen live metal performances including gigs, concerts, and music festivals, provided by both domestic and foreign bands. Each generation of metal fans in China enjoys participating in live performance equally. The frequency of attendance highly depends on the location, condition of the live performance market, and local cultural policy. Metal fans who live in big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai have more opportunities to watch live performances than those who live in small towns. The condition of the live performance market and cultural policy determines how many live performances are offered in certain places, especially foreign bands’ performances. However, in general, most metal fans attend metal live performances 2-12 times per year. Another 13.3% of metal fans reported that they would try to watch every performance organized in their areas. Furthermore, Chinese metal fans have preferences about attending the performances of either domestic or foreign bands or both. 43.6% of the 2nd generation, 44.8% of the 3rd generation, and 30.4% of the 4th generation of surveyed metal fans report that they watched more gigs of foreign metal bands than domestic bands. Around 37.6% of metal fans don’t prefer either domestic or foreign bands. This percentage keeps increasing from the early to later generation: only 28.2% of 2nd generation metal fans don’t care whether the band is domestic or not, while this number increases to 41.7% for the 4th generation. 9.5% of metal fans only

82 attend foreign bands’ gigs, and only 0.5% of fans exclusively watch domestic bands. This result demonstrates that, on the one hand, metal fans have a xenocentric idea that Western metal is better and more authentic, but on the other hand, Chinese metal bands have developed and have been gradually accepted by Chinese metal fans.

In short, various daily practices of Chinese metal fans are shaped by the expansion of metal resources, the improvement of technology, and the general development of the metal scene.

Metal fans’ changing behaviors reflect not only the current condition of the metal scene in China but also affect the adjustment and development of Chinese metal mediators. In the next chapter, I discuss in detail how mediators respond to metal fans’ behavioral changes and the condition of external environments.

Metal Fans, Active Audience. In studies of popular culture, audiences are always divided into two groups, passive and active. Weinstein (2000) argues that the heavy metal audience in general is not a mass audience but actively devoted to the music and its subculture.

In contrast to simply consuming the music, Chinese metal fans also actively present their identities as metalheads and greatly contribute to the development of the metal scene.

Chinese metal fans call themselves “Jinshu Dang” (“metal party” in English), which represents the distinctive and united features of this fan group. Like metal fans all around the world, “Jinshu Dang” also practice a similar dress code to show their identity. During interviews, many of them mentioned that one of the impacts of metal music in their daily lives is the change of their appearance. Some male interviewees have long hair and wear black T-shirts with the logos of their favorite bands, while a few female fans mentioned they started to wear make-up, black clothing, and try some goth styles after they listened to metal. Their appearance is also one significant feature for insiders to judge whether a person belongs to their group. When I visited

83 the 666 rock store40 to conduct an observation wearing jeans and a BGSU hoodie, I was questioned by the staff there why I didn’t dress up like a real metal fan wearing a black band T- shirt and metal accessories. From my outfit, they directly assigned me to the outsider group.

In China, the majority of professional metal band players and related practitioners started their journey of metal music by being devoted metal fans. Because they enjoy metal music, some people decided to work in this field. Influenced by metal music, some youngsters learned guitars and other instruments, formed their own amateur bands, and hoped to be professional in the future. Others found jobs in related fields, like working in studios, record companies, magazines, record stores, instrument stores, and venues. A fan mentioned in the interview:

My occupation now is as the vocalist and guitarist in a metal band. Metal music changed

my life track in the future. If I hadn’t encounter heavy metal, I would have worked as

factory worker or had some ordinary jobs. It’s a huge impact. (personal communication,

Apr. 5th 2015)

Additionally, the online survey showed a certain participation rate in the Chinese metal audience.

More than half of the metal fans surveyed are not only ordinary listeners but also play the roles of either amateur or professional players or practitioners in the scene. Along with the development of technology and the changes of external environment, fewer metal fans work as professionals in this field but more and more participate by playing in bands. 13.8% of the 2nd generation metal fans work full time in the scene, while this percentage for the 4th generation drops to 8%. However, the percentage of amateur players among the audience has increased from 23.08% to 45.07% in the last 10 years. The development of social media and the indie

40 666 rock store is a tiny shop located in Beijing selling various metal albums and an array of metal merchandise, such as T-shirts, patches, flags, and accessories, since 2006. It is the biggest physical store for metal products. For metal fans in China, 666 is not only a store but also a physical base to get together and share information.

84 atmosphere presently provide more opportunities for metal fans in China to actively contribute to the Chinese metal scene and function in various roles in addition to just listeners.

Although around 50% of the audience report that they are just listeners, many of them still do their best to support and contribute to the Chinese metal scene. Many metal fans like sharing resources with others. They upload their collections of albums to network disks like

Dropbox and various videos to major video websites for other fans to enjoy for free. One listener mentioned during the interview that once he had tried to find an album of an unknown indie band for a long time and, finally, he got it from another metal fan through social media. Also, some metal fans use their own resources to promote Chinese metal music. One college student I interviewed helped his favorite bands to set up their Facebook pages and upload their music videos to YouTube when he studied in as an exchange student, since these two websites are blocked in China. Furthermore, some metal fans have led and organized local or national grass roots organizations in order to support the metal subculture and serve the metal audience. For example, some metal fans in universities established the National College Student Metal Fans

Association. This organization gathers metal fans in colleges all around the country and plans activities to promote a metal subculture on campus, such as lecturing about metal music and its subculture, providing performance opportunities for college bands, and offering student tickets for some gigs or events. Student metal fans all benefit from this voluntary organization.

No matter whether they have the resources or ability to directly contribute to the development of the Chinese metal scene, every single metal fan has power in the scene and everyone’s small power can be magnified when metal fans are united. On Mar. 28th, 2015, the

14th 330 Metal Festival in Beijing was stopped in the middle by the local police due to overcrowding of the venue and other safety issues. Over 1,400 fans were asked to leave the

85 venue and wait to check-in again later. The audience all positively responded to the arrangement and followed the directions to the venue. After negotiating with the police, the promoter had to announce that the event was cancelled and the tickets would be refunded later. Even though the audience members left disappointed, no one behaved inappropriately during the whole process. The 330 Metal Festival in 2015 ended with a huge disappointment, but various ways of support after this accident provided even bigger hope for the future of Chinese metal. In order to help the promoter reduce the losses caused by this incident, some fans called on a movement in

Weibo (Chinese micro-blog) not to refund their tickets but to keep it for memory. Many fans responded to this idea and uploaded pictures of their tickets as evidence. Also, many fans bought the merchandise of the organizing band, Suffocated, and 330 Metal Festival souvenirs, such as towels, bags, key rings, and T-shirts, to show their support for this event and the overall Chinese metal scene. The souvenir T-shirts sold out in a few days after the incident. The metal fan group in China is not huge, but thousands of loyal and supportive Chinese metal fans greatly motivate practitioners to take risks to organize diverse metal events. Each metal fan did their tiny part to support Chinese metal so that the entire fan community greatly contributed to the scene.

The Interpretation of Chinese Metal Music

Metal music, for fans, is not only their favorite music genre but also a significant component of their lives. However, from the perspective of Chinese metal fans, how is metal music different from other popular music genres? Which features or elements of metal music primarily attracted the Chinese audience? And, how does metal music influence the personalities of the Chinese metal audience and their attitudes toward life and society? In order to answer these questions, the last part of this chapter briefly discusses Chinese metal fans’ reception and interpretation of metal music.

86

No matter how music experts or critics define metal music, metal fans have their own image and understandings of their favorite music genre. Robert Walser (1993) set a question in the heavy metal questionnaire for his book, Running With the Devil: Power, Gender, and

Madness in Heavy Metal Music, asking the participants “what do you like about metal compared to other music?” (p. 176). This question was also applied to investigate those elements that

Chinese metal listeners perceive in metal music. Among ten listed items41, “powerful” is the one most participants chose as the answer to this question. 69.4% of surveyed metal fans indicate that metal music is powerful and makes them feel powerful. “Power” is also the most common word metal fans used to describe metal music in their mind during the interview. Other features of metal music that Chinese metal fans like include intense and imaginative (57.9% of surveyed fans chose the word “intense” while 54.4% of them chose the word “imaginative”). These perceptions of metal music correspond with certain metal sub-genres Chinese metal listeners enjoy. In the on-line survey, fans were asked to report three of their favorite metal sub-genres and the top five results were thrash metal, death metal, melodic death metal, folk metal, and black metal, which are the most powerful, intense, and imaginative types of music compared to other sub-genres in the family of metal, such as nü-metal, , and pop metal. In addition, guitar solos, superior techniques, and complicated arrangements that make the music powerful and intense are also mentioned by Chinese metal fans as their favorite parts of metal.

52.7% of surveyed metal listeners feel guitar solos in metal music are amazing and metal players are great musicians. One fan who started to listen to metal in 1995 mentioned in his e-mail response: “For its techniques and complexity, metal is beyond most of the popular music genres”

41 The ten items were directly translated from Robert Walser (1993)’s heavy metal questionnaire.

87

(personal communication, Apr. 6th 2015). Therefore, most basic but essential sonic features, such as power, complexity, and guitar solos, are recognized and liked by metal fans in China.

While the characteristics of the music are commonly realized, fans’ understanding of metal music in terms of its themes, contents, meanings, and emotions are not always the same.

People indicate certain preferences and provide different interpretations of the content of metal music. When answering Walser’s (1993) question, 49.3% of participants reported that they enjoyed metal because metal is true to life and talks about “real important issues” (p. 176), while

28.4% of surveyed fans thought metal “is not true to life; it’s fantasy better than life” (p. 176).

Moreover, a few metal fans stated in the interview that they like metal because it constructs a unique spiritual world, while some other listeners were attracted by various cultures behind metal.

Some felt inspired and optimistic from listening to metal music while others used metal as a tool to release negative emotions.

Because of these various understandings, metal music provides different levels of influences on fans’ daily lives. For those who pay more attention to the meanings of metal and its culture, metal music gradually influences the development of their personality and the construction of their worldview. Fans who participate in the e-mail interview reported a variety of changes of personality after listening to metal. Some of them became tough, straightforward, extreme, and cold, while others felt more optimistic, hard-working, honest, and helpful.

Moreover, one interviewee said that he is tolerant to many things he could not tolerate before, while another metal fan felt he had become more calm and confident when dealing with various issues every day. Except for one informant who experienced a negative effect, the others all believed that metal music positively changed their personalities. Furthermore, metal all around the world with diverse themes and cultures guides Chinese metal fans in terms of ways of

88 thinking and attitudes to nature, society, and personal life. A metal listener wrote about how metal influences his outlook on life in his e-mail response:

First, I’m interested in history. So, I really like those and epic cultures in some

. And these metal songs, in turn, lead me to learn more about European

history and mythologies. This is a field I hadn’t accessed before. Extreme metal,

especially the culture of black metal also gradually influenced my view of life. It’s

difficult to consider the issue of life and death. But, I listene to metal with these relevant

themes and study some issues like time and the universe. So, I have a broad perspective

when considering life’s problems. (personal communication, Apr. 5th, 2015)

Another participant saw metal as the most valuable component in his mind and tried to work hard to be a qualified metal fan:

If regular and trivial daily life is like a house, metal for me is a secret garden, a place to

let my soul rest. And, [we can] not only enjoy the scenery of this secret garden alone but

also share it with friends, receive resonance, and gain a sense of security and identity.

People who own this secret garden always feel they own a precious thing. We must

maintain independent thoughts, free spirits, and toned bodies to guard this secret garden.

(personal communication, Apr. 6th, 2015)

For those who love metal and accept the deeper meanings of this music genre, metal is a spiritual wealth. However, even though most e-mail interview participants have their own interpretations of their favorite music genre, I still recognize that the content of metal music is sometimes ignored. For many Chinese metal fans, lyrics are not that important compared to the sonic and visual elements of metal music. Among all surveyed metal fans, only 36.1% of them

89 reported that they could relate to the lyrics. Liu Zheng, who takes the responsibility to write lyrics in Suffocated, also presented his concerns about this issue:

From the perspective of the musical form, in general, it’s [almost the same]. However, for

the detailed arrangement, there are some differences between each song from the lyrics to

the music developing, like the connection and peak... It’s like watching a good film.

Finally, (the music) directly links to listeners’ hearts. We are very [serious]... But, we felt

frustrated and helpless because no one cares. Those kids just listen to it for fun. ‘It’s so

Zao [passionate, intense, crazy].’ That’s all. [They think] Suffocated is awesome and our

gigs are crazy. And that’s it. ... Our songs also have meanings. You need to think about it.

[They] are just feeling intense and crazy... Yes, heavy metal songs are all crazy. We also

want our audience to have such feelings from our gigs. But, we cannot only have this.

(Liu Zheng, personal communication, Mar. 10th 2015)

The phenomenon introduced by Liu Zheng exists on-line as well. I observed metal fans’ behavior on three popular music websites, Xiami, Douban, and Wangyi, and found there are few meaningful comments under metal songs. Most short comments are only a few words, such as

“Zao”. From the e-mail interview, participants who reported that they only focus on and enjoy the sonic parts of metal usually don’t think metal influences their daily lives except the influences of taste and the practice of listening to music. Therefore, although most metal fans in

China realize and accept the sonic features of metal, there’s still a gap between the production and consumption, delivering and interpreting metal music in terms of its culture and deeper meanings.

This issue is mainly caused by two things. On the one hand, we should admit that there’s a limitation for Chinese metal fans to understand Western metal songs because of the language

90 barriers and cultural differences. One metal listener explained in the interview that he only listens to the rhythms, riffs, and solos because he really doesn’t understand the lyrics. On the other hand, as I mentioned in the first chapter, people nowadays seems not to like and have no time for thinking deeply about a certain thing. Thus, for many young fans, metal is not a spiritual friend but just a music style they listen to, like other music genres, or a tool to release stress and emotions.

In sum, this chapter discussed various topics related to the Chinese metal audience.

Through analyzing survey data and e-mail interviews, I explored the demographic position of the metal fan group in China, illustrated the trajectory of the expansion of the metal audience all over the country, demonstrated the changes in metal fans’ behavior through various generations, and examined metal fans’ interpretation of their favorite music genre. There’s no doubt that

Chinese metal fans are one of the most active fan groups in China and they greatly contribute to the development of the local scenes. However, metal fans’ practice of metal subculture can hardly be maintained without various metal mediators who promote diverse metal activities and integrate various resources into the scene.

91

CHAPTER FOUR “PERILOUS JOURNEY”: METAL MEDIATORS IN CHINA AND THEIR NEGOTIATIONS IN THE SCENE

Come on! Against the wind, full speed ahead. Never doubted. I believe that I won’t enter any unknown branch road. That road has no obstacle. So wide that we almost see the image of the end. Yes, I need such a perfect journey. It’s ready to set off. But, the scenery is so attractive. Isn’t my decision the best result? Whether I should continue to venture or give up? There’s been no time to change my mind. It comes all at once. —— “Perilous Journey”, Suffocated

On Mar. 4th 2015, when I had almost given up conducting a face-to-face interview with

Jiang Wei, the CEO of Guitar China42 (because he were extremely busy preparing Arch Enemy’s

China tour on Mar 10th and 11th in Beijing and Shanghai), he sent me a QQ message and asked me if I could come to the company at 2:00 p.m. the day after tomorrow. Thus, we sat in the lounge of his guitar educational center on the afternoon of Mar. 6th 2015. The interview only lasted for around forty minutes but he answered three phone calls during this period. After answering the third call, he told me that Alissa White-Gluz, the vocalist of Arch Enemy, had obtained her Chinese visa at the last minute. It wasn’t until two weeks later when he posted the summary of this event on the Guitar China forum that I realized how much pressure he had been under dealing with the visa issue. Four days after the interview, I attended Arch Enemy’s Beijing concert and met Jiang Wei again. He recognized me and came to say hello, but after that, he was too busy to talk to me anymore. I saw him go in and out of the venue several times to maintain order until everyone had entered. The concert went very well. Before the end of the concert, I

42 Guitar China (GC) is a comprehensive music group focused on guitar and related music genres. GC started as a professional guitar website (www.guitarchina.com) and online forum in 2000, then gradually became the best-known guitar online media and music website. GC also developed into an instrument sales agency, performance agency, musician promoter, and music education company. Beside Painkiller, Guitar China is another main promoter that organizes gigs and concerts for foreign metal bands in China.

92 saw him again beside the exit and came to tell him the performance was excellent but he told me that he was really tired. Six hours later, he would fly to Shanghai with the band. On the way back home, I kept recalling the details of the concert and, suddenly, the words he had said during the interview came to my mind:

We actually lose money in most metal concerts. However, we like some metal bands.

And because of metal gigs, we meet some friends, who still continue to buy tickets to

support us. So, I still take some money from my profit to do this.” (Jiang Wei, personal

communication, Mar 6th, 2015)

Metal mediators are the most significant contributors to the construction of local and national scenes and the distribution of the metal subculture in China. After discussing the localization of the Chinese metal scene from the perspectives of metal musicians and fans, this chapter illustrates the developmental trajectory for major metal mediators in China in the context of contemporary Chinese society. Then, I explore the way in which mediators incorporate resources and negotiate with various stakeholders in and out of the scene to not only survive in the scene but also contribute to the development of the metal scene in China.

In studies of popular music, scholars usually apply Pierre Bourdieu’s (1984, 1991, 1993) theory to analyze various social dynamics of music scenes. In Bourdieu’s theory, the “cultural field” emphasizes the relationship and interactions between people’s practices and the context, including institutions and rules, while capital represents the resources that can be converted into types of power within the specific field. The conversion of power from capital varies in different fields but forms of capital within the field of power are primarily and inclusively reflected in multiple subordinate fields. By applying Bourdieu’s analytical framework to the study of extreme metal scenes, Kahn-Harris (2007) argues:

93

The key questions in accessing how the scene refracts power and capital are how far

participation in the scene’s institutions requires resources from outside the scene and how

far capital accrued within scene institutions is convertible into forms of capital outside

the scene. (p. 78)

Moreover, Bourdieu coined the concept of cultural capital to specify those forms of capital gained from cultural practice, which create a hierarchy in society depending on the ability to understand dominant cultures. Sarah Thornton (1995) developed Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital in her research about and raised the concept of subcultural capital, “a form of cultural capital that is far less readily convertible into economic capital and to positions within the field of power” (Kahn-Harris, 2011, p. 210). The concept of “subcultural capital” is particularly useful in studies of music scenes. In this chapter, these theories are applied to help in understanding the developmental trajectory and the current situations of Chinese metal mediators and how they reflect the social dynamics represented in the Chinese metal scene.

The Development of Metal Mediators

Except for the short period of Tang Dynasty, Chinese metal mainly developed in the underground scene. Thus, most metal mediators in China are funded and operated by senior musicians and metal fans. For example, the founder and CEO of Mort Production, Chen Xi, is also the guitarist of the Chinese death metal band Narakam (Ming Jie), and Liu Lixin, the owner of 13 Club, a famous metal venue in Beijing, is the guitarist of the Chinese nu-metal band

Ordnance (Junxie Suo). They are full of passion about the field they love but most of them lack professional education in media management and marketing. By recognizing their working patterns, I argue that the metal scene in China has developed with a high degree of autonomy and until five years ago, long lacked the accumulation of capital from the outside. This situation has

94 made it difficult for metal mediators to survive in China. However, they continue to explore ways to develop and incorporate multiple resources into scene construction. In this section, I aim to illustrate the development of three forms of mediators in detail to explore their contributions to the metal scene in China.

Indie Labels. A is an indispensable component in the scene. As Yuan Wang

(2015) explains the term in his article about Chinese extreme metal, indie labels represent those which follow an independent and flexible operating mode compared to mainstream record companies. After the Scream Club closed in 1999, its owner, Lu Po, brought his plan for the

Scream Label to the Jing Wen Record Company and founded the sub-label Jing Wen Scream, which was the first label focusing on heavy music, such as , punk, hardcore, and metal, in mainland China. Two years later, the first indie label focusing on metal, Mort Productions

(Haojiao Changpian) was founded in Beijing and gradually become the top metal label in China.

Since Jing Wen Scream was founded, 49 Chinese indie labels were founded between 1999 and

2015 and have been recorded at metal-archive.com43. This dataset helps illustrate the features that indie labels have developed in China.

First of all, the number of metal indie labels has increased every year since 1999.

Following Jing Wen Scream, some other major metal labels, such as DyingArt Productions,

AreaDeath Productions, and Productions, have gradually contributed to the development of the Chinese metal scene. Between 2001 and 2005, 12 indie labels were founded in China. After

2005, the growth rate of metal labels in China increased because of the development of the

Internet and the accumulation of metal subculture in China: 17 labels joined the scene between

2006 and 2010 and 18 labels were founded between 2011 and 2015. From the perspective of

43 This data was collected in April 2016. Any labels entered to the database of metal-archive.com after that was not included.

95 their location, 49 indie labels are located in large cities (mostly provincial capitals) in 16 provincial regions. 73% of labels are located in northern China including 37.5% of them in

Beijing, while only 27% are in the south. Thus, Beijing is still the most significant place for the development of the Chinese metal subculture; Northern China has a better metal atmosphere than the south; and the foundation of indie labels relies on the modern infrastructure and both cultural and economic resources in large cities. Moreover, along with the expansion of metal sub-genres in China, many new labels have chosen a more exclusive strategy and pay more attention to one or two specific sub-genres or even sub-sub-genres in order to highlight their brands and attract specific groups of fans. For example, Slam Guttural Productions, founded in 2011, focused on only brutal death metal; Hepatic Necrosis Productions, founded in 2013, is a grindcore label.

Presently, it is also easy for metal bands to found their own labels, release their albums independently, and promote their bands via various channels.

Because of the foundation of these labels, hundreds of local metal bands have had opportunities to release their albums. Unlike major record companies, indie labels are freer when signing and managing bands, spend much less to record and produce albums, and have smaller groups of consumers. Instead of planning the entire career of the band and considering the market, most metal labels sign one band with only one album. This strategy not only reduces the risk of signing bands, which encourages labels to sign more new bands and explore various innovative styles, but also enhances the flexibility of both the development of the bands and labels. The features of flexibility and low cost lowers the entry threshold to found and manage an indie label. However, due to the impact of the Internet, the mode of operation of indie labels and the way they distribute musical productions has gradually changed. In 2006, Scream Records separated from Jing Wen Record Company and pursued a more independent and inclusive mode

96 of development. Like Scream Records, many other indie labels started to expand the scope of their businesses, transitioning from record production and distribution to comprehensive music services, including artist management, gig production and promotion, and online sales. For example, by taking advantage of rich resources of bands and good relationships with venue owners, Mort Productions has organized diverse metal events, including tours and music festivals. Moreover, metal labels have given up the traditional methods of distribution. Instead they sell their products through their own online shops or work with limited local agencies.

Furthermore, metal bands have gradually come to play a significant role in distributing their own albums. On the one hand, they set up their own online shops, selling their own albums, t-shirts, and so on. On the other hand, they sell their products during their tours in various cities. These new methods of distribution help metal labels decrease costs but increase efficiency in album promotion, and the participation of metal bands in album distribution helps target more specific fan groups.

Meanwhile, Chinese metal labels continue exploring ways to become involved in the global scene by signing foreign bands, releasing their albums, and arranging their tours in China.

Among these 49 indie labels, 25 of them had signed a foreign band or released at least one piece of music production (demo, single, EP, video, or album). Mort Productions released a live performance DVD of from the USA in 2002 and a full-length album of Obscenity from Germany in 2013, becoming the pioneer for Chinese indie labels exploring their opportunities on the global level. According to the data from metal-archive.com, 228 foreign bands from 43 countries and regions have worked with Chinese indie labels in the past 14 years.

These international cooperations have helped Chinese indie labels rapidly develop and gradually accumulate the strength to compete with international peers.

97

Magazines. Before the Internet was popularized, magazines were one of the most significant channels to share information about metal. However, Chinese metalheads didn’t have their own metal magazines until 2000, when Jiduan Yinyue (Xmusic) and Zhongxing Yinyue

(Painkiller) published their initial issues in February and September. The former focused on extreme metal while the later inclusively covered various styles of metal. These two magazines are significant in the history of Chinese metal, not only because they are the only two magazines that were distributed through mainstream channels and have published more than 30 issues, but also because they comprehensively contribute to scene development: the founder of Xmusic also runs the 666 record store and Painkiller promotes concerts of foreign bands. In 2007, Xmusic gave up the traditional method of distribution and went underground, only distributing through the 666 Rock Store and various agencies (mostly record stores) located all around the country, then discontinued after publishing its 30th issue in 2011. As a result, Painkiller has become the only metal magazine in China that still keeps publishing and distributing through mainstream and underground channels. The next chapter will present an in-depth case study of Painkiller to discuss how this magazine survived in China and connected Chinese metal to the global metal scene.

Image 10: Cover of Xmusic Image 11: Cover of Painkiller (the 30th issue) (the 54th Issue)

98

Inspired by these two magazines, some other magazines published underground but none of them lasted long. For example, Metal Thrash, organized by some die-hard thrash metal fans, overall published four issues, and Under FM (Dixia Tiaopin), the first Chinese black metal / dark music magazine, ended after its initial issue. With the popularization of the Internet in China, some e-magazines have come out but they have also been short-lived. The owner of the biggest website and forum for guitar and related music, Guitar China, started to published their own metal e-magazine, Metal Music (Jinshu Yinyue), in 2008; however, it stopped after uploading the

6th issue in 2010. Compared to publishing an e-magazine every two months, metal fans seem to prefer a more convenient and fast way to distribute information, such as publishing one blog a day or frequently updating a microblog.

In general, due to the underground feature of metal scene development, metal magazines in China share some similar characteristics during their operation. First, all these magazines were founded and operated by metal fans. In other words, most Chinese metal magazines have been fanzines. Even the chief editor of Painkiller, Han Ning, admitted that the magazine was a fanzine at the beginning, then became more and more professional. Moreover, metal magazines in China are not news-based. Weinstein (2000) indicated three functions of western metal magazines: publishing reviews of newly-released records, emphasizing the importance of concerts, and mediating fans’ interaction. However, the main function of Chinese metal magazines is to introduce metal culture and western metal bands and albums. This is primarily due to two reasons. On the one hand, metal fans in China lack resources and channels to learn about western metal, so this arrangement of content is both necessary and in demand. On the other hand, domestic news about metal is too limited to fill a bi-monthly magazine. Also, the long production and publishing period also affected the timeliness of the magazine. Metal magazines

99 in China look more like books than real magazines. Finally, Chinese metal magazines are never commercial. to say that the magazine is free, but magazines get very little sponsorship from advertisements. Their limited sponsorships are from instrument companies and agencies.

Most metal bands in China are self-sponsored and most indie labels don’t have the budgets to do promotion. Thus, news about newly-released albums and notices of activities are always published for free. The sales revenue could cover the cost, but it’s really difficult to profit from operating a metal magazine. Therefore, metal magazines in China are highly autonomous and get no support from resources outside of the scene.

Live Performances. Compared to indie labels and magazines, live performance is the most energetic part of the Chinese metal scene and has been rapidly developing during the past

10 years. Live performance has existed since metal emerged in China. In the first few years after

Chinese metal went underground, most gigs were held in bars with tiny stages and various bands with different styles played together just for fun. It was not until 2004 that Labyrinth, a metal band from Italy, was invited to perform in Beijing, which became the first concert offered by a foreign metal band in China. After that, with more and more foreign metal bands coming to perform in China, metal live performance ushered in a new stage of development. Foreign metal bands not only presented their energy, refined techniques, and understandings of metal to thousands of Chinese metal fans, but also brought numerous experiences of professional performance production into China, which made domestic bands and producers realize their deficiencies.

In order to investigate the circumstances of the development of foreign bands’ performances in China, I tracked the information of all the concerts and gigs given by foreign

100 metal bands in China since 2004.44 Up to 2015, there were overall 187 bands from 26 countries that provided 564 gigs / concerts in 76 cities in China. Figure 8 presents the number of concerts / gigs held in China, the number of foreign bands that came to China, and the number of cities where foreign metal bands performed each year. As figure 1 shows, more and more metal bands came to perform and even tour in China, especially in the most recent three years, which made the number of concerts / gigs rapidly increase. In 2015, 36 bands from 13 countries gave 198 performances in 61 cities, which brought the development of this industry to a peak. In this year,

Megadeth first came to China and played two fantastic arena concerts in Beijing and Shanghai.

This year was also the third time for and Arch Enemy, and the fourth time for Lacrimosa to give concerts in China. Since 2013, fans living in small cities have had chances to enjoy live music provided by foreign metal bands without traveling to Beijing and Shanghai.

In 2013, The Mort Productions arranged an 18-stop tour for Coprolith from Finland in China, and two years later, Mysteria Mortis, a Russian folk metal band, toured in 21 cities including

Figure 8: The Number of Foreign Bands Performing in China Each Year

250

200

150 Num. of Gigs

100 Num. of Bands Num. of Cities 50

0 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

44 The data of foreign metal bands’ concerts / gigs was collected from official websites of organizers and the Douban Event website. Performances of all metal sub-genres were collected into this dataset including metalcore, , and grindcore. However, other kinds of “core” such as hardcore and electronic core, , and concerts/gigs were excluded.

101 some 3rd tier cities and cities smaller than that, such as Cangzhou, Zaozhuang, and Wuwei. From the first foreign metal band performing in China to having more than one performance given by foreign bands each month only took 11 years.

Such a huge achievement in introducing foreign metal bands to China would never have happened without the contribution of those performances’ organizers and promoters. Generally, three mediators, Painkiller, Guitar China, and Mort Productions, shared the market of foreign metal bands’ performances but each of them has had a different focus. Painkiller and Guitar

China mainly organize performances of major foreign metal bands. Most concerts they organize are held in large venues able to contain at least 500 to 1,000 people, such as large live houses, in

Beijing, Shanghai, and a few other big cities. In contrast, Mort Productions focuses on organizing gigs in bars and small live houses performed by young bands or underground bands and arranging their tours in multiple small cities. In China, none of the domestic concert / gig organizers treat performance organization as their sole duty. Most of them started their business as indie labels, magazines, and music websites, then took advantage of various resources gained in the scene, such as connections to bands and good relationships with venues, to organize live performances, and regarded it as a significant part of their business because through organizing live performance one can obtain both subcultural capital and real capital. However, mediators have their own emphases. For example, Painkiller may care more about the actual earnings in order to maintain the distribution of the magazine, while Guitar China would like to convert real

(economic) capital to subcultural capital to promote their instrument business. Since mediators are usually run by metal fans in China, these performance organizers are always full of passion and know the Chinese metal scene very well; however, most of them lack professional

102 knowledge and experiences in performance management. Even though Chinese mediators have learned a lot by doing, this may become a restriction for future development.

Starting in 2011, foreign entertainment companies came to operate some arenas in China and bring both abundant financial resources and advanced concert management and marketing strategies. In 2013, AEG organized Metallica’s concert in Shang Hai Mercedes-Benz Arena.

More than 10,000 Chinese metal fans attended this biggest metal concert so far and celebrated this significant day in the history of Chinese metal. After that, AEG produced concerts for ,

Avenged Sevenfold, and . The foreign entertainment company entering the live performance market in China benefits Chinese metal fans and mediators. Resources from the foreign entertainment company are indeed the limited outside resources that contribute to the development of the Chinese metal scene.

Accompanied by the flourishing foreign bands’ performances, live performance given by local bands are also well developed and presents good potential. Although it is difficult to track every metal gig in China, there are still many ways to confirm this. Firstly, Chinese local bands made much progress by learning from foreign bands and gaining experiences from each performance. Many metal bands, such as Suffocated, Yaksa, Ego Fall, and Nine Treasures, are able to hold their own concerts and arrange tours in more than ten cities. For example, Nine

Treasures toured in 24 cities and Suffocated in 26 cities in 2015. Secondly, indie labels and local performance organizers have produced various metal festivals and a number of themed joint performances, which have greatly enriched the market of local bands’ performances. The 330

Metal Festival organized by Suffocated and Pilot Music (Feixingzhe Changpian) has been well known by metal fans for many years. Mort Metal Carnival organized by Mort Productions is the first outdoor metal festival in China. Other previous successful joint performances have included

103

West Wind Legend Indoor Festival, Thrash China, and Oriental Black Storm. Finally, metal bands have more and more opportunities to perform at large and comprehensive outdoor music festivals. Midi Festival always welcomes metal bands with various styles and Strawberry

Festival has a particular stage for metal and other heavy music styles. Beside these two major music festivals in China, metal bands have also been invited to perform at many other music festivals all around the country. Thus, with the rapid growth of local metal bands and the development of the entire live music industry including performing clubs, live houses, and music festivals, live performances of local bands also has a bright future.

After introducing three significant institutions in the scene – Indie labels, magazines, and live performances, the way in which Chinese metal mediators have developed in China and constructed the scene becomes clear. There is no doubt that each metal mediator in China has worked very hard to build a better scene; however, their developments are also affected by various external factors outside of the scene. In the next section, I will analyze these external factors in detail.

External Elements Affecting the Development of the Scene

External factors and stakeholders outside of the scene can bring both benefits and challenges for Chinese metal mediators and can influence the construction of the Chinese metal scene. After illustrating the contribution of metal mediators as the internal factors that have shaped the trajectory of metal scene development, this section evaluates the external environment of the Chinese metal scene by exploring how three significant external factors – infrastructure, market, and policy – have affected the development of the metal scene in China.

In order to understand the localization of Chinese metal mediators, I also discuss the interaction

104 between mediators and outside stakeholders, for example how mediators respond to changes in these external factors and negotiate with various stakeholders for a better outcome.

Infrastructure. With the rapid progress of urbanization and modernization in China, the construction of public infrastructure, especially the development of domestic public transportation and wide-band networks, and various entertainment facilities, such as clubs, bars, and live houses, comprehensively benefits the development of metal scene and the distribution of metal subculture nationwide.

Weinstein (2011) states in her chapter in Metal Rules the Globe, “The advent of widespread Internet use is one of the defining features of the second phase of metal’s globalization.” (p. 51) In China, the rise of the Internet played a decisive role in constructing the metal scene; it changed the way that metal was distributed and broke the geographic restrictions on involvement in the scene. It provided numerous opportunities for people who didn’t belong to the rock community in Beijing or have any of the resources mentioned in the last section of the

Introduction to access the world of metal.

Internet development in China moved to a new stage in 2005, when the number of broadband network users first exceeded dial-up Internet users and major portal sites started to promote the business of personal blogging (“Five Years Journey on Broad Band Network”,

2008). On the one hand, the rapid increase in Internet speed made the sharing of metal resources, such as full albums and videos, much faster and easier. The application of P2P systems provided a huge platform for metal fans to share their resources online. VeryCD.com45 was the biggest

Chinese media-resource sharing website using eMule as its client software, and fans could find

45 VeryCD.com was created by individuals in 2003, then has been maintained by a newly- founded company since 2006. In January 2011, VeryCD.com stopped providing the service of music downloading because of copyright issues.

105 any album they wanted at VeryCD.com for free. This channel not only helped Chinese metal musicians improve themselves by learning from western bands but also opened fans’ eyes to western metal music. On the other hand, senior metal fans and metal mediators started their own blogs and published articles to introduce the metal subculture and share personal understandings about metal. Demogorgon, a famous music critic and writer for Xmusic magazine, began blogging in early 2005. Through reading and writing blogs, metal fans were able to interact with other members in the scene and gain a lot of knowledge about the history of western metal and metal subcultures in general. The data analysis in previous chapters indicates that 2005 is a particular year when the number of newly-formed metal bands and fans rapidly increased. Since there weren’t any important events that could be seen as a milestone in the history of Chinese metal scene development, the breakthrough in the development of the Internet may be the main factor that led to this rapid increase.

Moreover, the Internet offered metal bands and mediators a more convenient, efficient, and inexpensive way to promote themselves and interact with fans. In August 2009, Sina

Weibo46, the most popular Chinese micro blog, came online. Within 3 years after it came out, almost all metal bands and mediators had their own Weibo accounts. Two years later, WeChat

(Weixin), a comprehensive instant messaging mobile application, was brought out and rapidly occupied the entire market. Bands and mediators created public accounts so that they could share messages with all users who followed their accounts. By using these two forms of new media, bands and mediators began pushing images, news, at no cost. Self-mediating raised the efficiency of promotion and helped metal bands in China step into a more independent approach to development.

46 Sina Weibo is similar to in the U.S.

106

Another aspect of basic infrastructure that relates to metal scene development is public transportation, a crucial factor when bands tour in China. As Suffocated recalled their experiences on tour in the first chapter, the 5th and 6th railway speed-up in 2004 and 2007 and the construction of high-speed rail drastically shortened their time on the road, which provided metal bands a more flexible schedule when arranging tours or allowing them to book more stops within a given time limit. Moreover, in addition to air transportation, high-speed rail is another option for foreign bands when touring in China, which may reduce both costs and the risk of delays.

When HIM came to perform in 2014, the band members themselves proposed to take high-speed rail from Shanghai to Beijing, which only took 5 hours but provided a unique experience.

Live metal performances in China have also benefited from the construction of venues all around the country and the overall improvement of facilities. According to the data on live performances given by foreign bands, from 2004 to 2015, Chinese metal mediators collaborated with a total of 149 venues, mostly clubs, bars and live houses, in 76 cities (including 22 2nd tier cities, 18 3rd tier cities, and 21 4th tier and below cities). Although there is no systematic study exploring the development of various venues for music live performance in China, the rapid increase in the number of cities in which foreign metal bands performed is a good representation of the achievement of venue development.

In addition, the condition of venues is always a main concern for tour bookers and performance organizers. In the first several years, the poor condition of venues was one of the restrictions that prevented foreign bands from touring in China. In his personal blog, Jiang Wei told the story of Skylark’s unsuccessful tour of 8 Chinese cities in 2008, and part of the bad experience was from the terrible venue’s condition:

107

We arrived at Guangzhou at noon and went straight to the bar. We were shocked after

seeing the so-called “stage” with only two square meters, it looked like it was just for a

DJ. We’d predicted the bad result but had to make some remedies: renting the equipment

to reform the stage. However, when the band came to the venue, they immediately stated

that the performance should be cancelled because of the poor venue condition. In order

to make the performance happen, we found another venue at the last minute, but since we

had no time to set up and test the equipment, the band only performed 4 unplugged songs

to respond to the fans’ support. (Jiang, 2008)

Due to this bad experience, Chinese metal mediators didn’t arrange any foreign band tours in more than 4 cities until 2011. After that, because the condition of venues gradually improved and organizers learned to do extra preparation, foreign band tours have become more and more common. However, venue conditions in many small Chinese cities still need a lot of improvement to reach international standards.

Market. Even though China has the largest population of any country in the world, the metal market and subculture is tiny and immature. Impacted by the rapid popularization of the

Internet and the unsound copyright system in China, the market for albums and magazines has shrunk dramatically. However, with the development of the infrastructures above, the emerging market for foreign bands’ live performances over the past 10 years is an appropriate channel to investigate the marketing circumstances of metal in China. Except for a few commercial performances organized by professional performance companies, most concerts / gigs are similar to underground performances, which means the box office is their only revenue source. Thus, the capacity of the market and fans’ purchasing power become two significant factors determining

108 market conditions, which highly influences performance organizers’ decisions on when and where to schedule performances, and which bands to invite.

How large, then, is the market capacity in China? Although no one has done marketing analysis in the field of live metal performance, Metallica’s concert in 2013 may give us a general approximation of this answer. Due to the importance of this band in the history of heavy metal and the fact that it was their first performance in China, it was a concert few Chinese metal fans wanted to miss. Around 10,000 tickets sold out in ten minutes; then, the concert organizer, AEG, decided to add a second concert on the next day, but only around 60% of the tickets were sold.

Based on this situation, Jiang Wei (2013), the CEO of Guitar China, estimated on his blog that the total capacity of the metal audience in China is around 14,000, which would be a reliable reference for mainstream metal concerts.

Compared to Metallica’s arena concerts, most foreign bands’ performances held in live houses or bars had much smaller audiences. Based on Jiang Wei’s journals about various concerts / gigs he worked on in his blog, performances given by bands like Arch Enemy and

Children of Bodom in Beijing or Shanghai normally have audiences of around 600 – 800 on average, but for the majority of bands like , POD, , and , the expectations for ticket sales are only 200 – 300. Foreign bands that have thousands of fans in western countries may only draw hundreds of audience members in China. This is the reality the performance organizers have to face. This situation not only requires organizers to take a risk of low box office but also directly prevents some major bands from performing in China. For example, Aerosmith cancelled its 2013 Shanghai concert partly because the number of presale tickets was far below the band’s expectation (Jiang, 2013).

109

One reason for the limited market is that many foreign bands are not well known among

Chinese metal fans. However, fans’ purchasing power is another significant limiting factor.

According to an analytical report on live house performances in 2014, among all music genres, metal has the highest price (Beebeetop, 2015), especially performances given by well-known foreign bands. The price for Metallica’s concert in Shanghai was from 480 to 1680 RMB47.

Tickets for Arch Enemy, Dark Tranquility, HIM, and Children of Bodom are 480RMB, while the price range of other performances is from 100 to 380 RMB in Beijing and Shanghai, and from 40 to 100 RMB in other smaller cities. As I discussed in the 3rd chapter, most metal fans in China live at the middle-income level. Evaluating purchasing power by using the average monthly income of a Beijing resident in 2014 (6463 RMB) (China’s National Bureau of Statistics [CNBS],

2014), purchasing a single concert ticket for a band at the level of Children of Bodom would cost

7.5% of an average monthly salary, while the top ticket for Metallica’s concert would take 26%.

Younger fans and those who work in smaller cities may have much lower purchasing power.

Thus, the lack of purchasing power in general was the main reason why most performances after

Metallica’s concert didn’t achieve their box office goals: metal fans’ pockets were almost empty after enjoying Metallica (Jiang Wei, 2013). Thus, if mediators offer too many concerts in a short period of time, they might lose money.

After generally investigating market capacity and purchasing power, it’s easy to understand why the majority of foreign bands’ performances are held in Beijing and Shanghai and why most of these metal performances lose money. The high cost48 of producing performances, the low box office value, and the lack of sponsorship from commercial interests

47 1 Dollar ≈ 6.5 RMB 48 Generally, the cost of producing a foreign band performance includes performance fee, transportation and accommodation fees, lease rent for equipment, and fees for performance application and visa application for all band members.

110 outside of the scene make metal performance organizers in China keep losing money, although they have seen numerous fans smiling with satisfaction and gained fame in the scene. This cruel reality has made Chinese mediators realize that being full of passion is far from enough to achieve this career and there’s still a long journey for the industry of metal performance to be professional and profitable.

Policy and Censorship. As the facilitator for the entire cultural industry and the policy and censorship authority, the Chinese government works as a double-edged sword in the development of the metal scene.

On the upside, the Chinese government promotes the development of cultural and creative industries, which provides opportunities and resources for metal bands and mediators.

For example, many music festivals were held in different cities after 2007 and supported by local governments. Groenewegen-Lau (2014) mentioned in his research about the transition of

Chinese cultural policies which caused the boom of Chinese music festivals: “After 2007, music festivals became an additional means for local governments to establish a brand or ‘city name card’.” (p. 8) Thus, local governments see those musical events as their contribution and achievement for responding to the policy about the recommendation and promotion of cultural industries assigned by the central government. The policy and capital support offered by local governments helped related events proliferate, especially music festivals. Both musicians and mediators benefit from it; musicians can get paid for performing in those events, and mediators can get both bureaucratic and financial support from the local government when planning musical events.

However, on the downside, strict censorship and complicated bureaucratic systems also bring barriers and risks for bands and mediators. In China, the government may prohibit any

111 content if it is considered to go against the theme of social harmony promoted by the Chinese

Communist Party (CCP), such as violence, sexuality, paganism, and negative representations of social issues. Since the metal subculture contains various values opposite to dominant cultural ideals, censorship becomes a significant concern when releasing albums, publishing magazines, and producing concerts / gigs. Because of the critique of negative social issues and parodic interpretation of socialist values promoted by the central government, Ordnance’s album, Rock

City, was prohibited by the government and the band was not allowed to perform in public.

Live performances, especially concerts / gigs given by foreign bands, are also strictly censored. A performance organizer needs to provide the list of songs and all the lyrics (including

Chinese translations) to the local cultural department to apply for approval of the performance. If the band has any content that the cultural officials think evokes disharmony or is related to any kind of paganism, the performance application will have a high risk of being rejected. Lamb of

God’s Shanghai concert in 2010, Equilibrium’s Shanghai concert in 2015, and many other performances have been cancelled for this reason. Even worse, if foreign bands have any opinion about the sovereignty of the nation-state, such as supporting the independence of Taiwan and

Tibet, it is a non-negotiable situation for the Chinese government, so those bands never have any opportunity to perform in China.

Except for the non-negotiable situation above, record publishers and performance organizers have gradually discovered some useful tactics during numerous negotiations with the government. “Linguistic camouflage” is the most common tactic they have used to avoid censorship (de Kloet, 2010). Usually, they use some characters that have similar pronunciations to replace the prohibited words. For example, in order to perform in the Midi Festival, Ordnance changed its name from Jun Xie Suo to Ju Xie Zuo (“Cancer” in English) on application forms and

112 all printing materials. Performance organizers for foreign bands would do some similar tricks when translating the lyrics or even eliminating the vocal part. Due to censorship issues,

Megadeth just played instrumental versions of some songs during its China tour in 2015.

Other restrictions on the organization of live performances result from complicated

Chinese bureaucratic systems and policies because, in some cases, officers in the government may not follow the established rules and process for the approval of a specific event. Mediators have to depend on experience to do the application. Sometimes, a relationship works well for this paperwork while, in other cases, money works. Moreover, the Chinese government has the power to reject any event application due to the central policy, some political events, or the entire political atmosphere in a certain period of time. The chief editor of Painkiller magazine mentioned in the interview that all the live performances they had planned had to be cancelled in

2008 since the government wouldn’t issue any working visas for foreigners because of the

Beijing Olympic Games (personal communication, Mar 4th 2016). These unstable factors in the application process indeed provide a high risk for these mediators who plan and execute metal activity, especially when a certain event has foreign bands perform.

In a word, metal mediators in China have overcome a number of difficulties from both inside and outside of the scene and have greatly contributed to the scene’s development. With the development of Chinese mediators, there’s no doubt that each of them has gained a great amount of subcultural capital and they have become the backbone of the scene. However, due to their autonomous status and overall external environment, such as market and policy, it’s still difficult for them to bring in and utilize outside resources to construct the metal scene in China and transform their subcultural capital into real capital. Thus, as Hang Ning mentioned to Nouvelles

D’Europe, the metal industry in China is still at an initial stage (Yu Yang & Shan Yang, 2011).

113

In order to better construct the scene, Chinese mediators have to face a number of challenges, and still have a long journey ahead.

114

CHAPTER FIVE CHINESE METAL INTO THE GLOBAL SCENE: A CASE STUDY OF PAINKILLER MAGAZINE

Flying high on rapture Stronger free and brave enraptured They've been brought back from the grave

With mankind resurrected Forever to survive Returns from Armageddon to the skies

He is the Painkiller This is the Painkiller Wings of steel Painkiller Deadly wheels Painkiller —— “Painkiller,”

On Nov.10th, 2006, more than one thousand Chinese metal fans crowded in the Star Live

House to enjoy the loudest and the most aggressive music, heavy metal. Starting at 8 p.m., seven of the best Chinese heavy metal bands, Last Successor (Moyi), Zuoyou, Voodoo Kungfu (Lingyi),

Ritual Day (Shijiao Ri), Hades, Spring & Autumn (Chunqiu), and Suffocated (Zhixi), performed on stage in sequence. With the fast and heavy drums and distorted guitar riffs, fans stood under the stage in the dark, crazily banged their heads, shouted, or waved their metal fingers. It was the biggest gathering of Chinese headbangers since the golden age of Chinese metal in the early

1990s. This extremely successful concert, called “Recording Metal”, was organized by

Zhongxing Yinyue (“Painkiller”), one of the most popular heavy metal magazines in China, to record the Chinese portion of the documentary Global Metal (2009). , the director of

Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey (2006), broadened his perspective to the entire globe to introduce the international heavy metal scene. Through this documentary, the Chinese heavy metal scene and its significant mediator, Painkiller, were first presented to headbangers all over the world.

115

Since it began publication in 2000, Painkiller has been contributing to the development of the heavy metal scene in China. On the one hand, Painkiller introduces international metal bands to Chinese metal fans by publishing their interviews in its magazine and organizing performances of foreign bands in China. On the other hand, this mediator also promotes Chinese heavy metal at the global level by organizing the Metal Battle band competition in China and supporting domestic bands to compete at the Wacken Open Air (WOA) finals in Germany.

Painkiller has gradually become an important platform in bringing resources from the global scene to China while helping involve Chinese metal bands in the global scene.

Thus, in this last chapter, I proposed to analyze the development of Painkiller magazine and its contribution to the scene as a specific case study in order to explain strategies that metal mediators in China use to survive in the underground and contribute to the scene development.

Particularly, I aim to emphasize the function of Painkiller magazine as a significant bridge connecting the local and global metal scenes and making efforts to promote Chinese heavy metal to the globe.

“Zhongxing Yinyue”: The Creation of Chinese Metal Magazine

In the context of the emerging underground scene, Painkiller was first published in 2000.

At the beginning, this bimonthly magazine was just a fanzine organized by four Chinese headbangers because of their passionate interest in metal subculture. However, as the first

Chinese heavy metal magazine, Painkiller soon became well known by metal fans all around the country. Han Ning still clearly remembered the publication of the initial issue: “It shocked the rock community and fans because it was almost impossible to publish a professional magazine about heavy metal during that time” (Yu Yang & Shan Yang, 2011, para. 8). As Han Ning recalled, the first three issues were rapidly sold out after publication and became extremely

116 valuable in the second-hand magazine market (Yu Yang & Shan Yang, 2011). After the successful start, Han Ning, one of the four co-founders and the chief editor, decided to quit his original job and work full-time for the magazine. This magazine succeeds in occupying such a niche market among Chinese metal fans because of accurately positioning the fanbase, covering inclusive genres, setting diverse content, and using various distribution strategies.

As Weinstein (2011) highlighted in her essay in the book Metal Rules the Globe, the magazine is one of the most important mediators responsible for creating fans. Indeed, Painkiller has contributed enormously to creating and gathering Chinese metalheads, since it was first published when the Internet was not so prevalent in China. Before Painkiller, the way to expand the fan base was interpersonal: a metal listener introduced some records or gigs to his friends and his friends introduced them to others. Small record shops or pubs were their gathering places.

Painkiller gave those metal fans and potential fans an opportunity to know more information related to heavy metal through a public channel. Thus, the mode of communication in the scene went beyond the interpersonal level. Chinese youth could easily get this magazine from newsstands, which made clarifying the fanbase and expanding fans possible. Support from metal fans is significant for the magazine. In order to celebrate the first publication as well as promote this magazine, Painkiller organized a gig in Beijing, inviting some famous local metal bands to play. This event received an extremely positive response; most metalheads around the country became aware of this new source of metal information and started to look forward to this metal magazine in China. The acceptance of a specific metal fanbase laid a foundation for the success of this magazine.

Although members of the tiny community of metalheads in China might have had their own preferences in different metal subgenres, “heavy” was the most important feature they all

117 enjoyed. Therefore, all the co-founders of Painkiller decided that the of this magazine would be Zhongxing Yinyue, which means “heavy types of music”, to symbolize that this magazine covered inclusive genres of heavy music, such as thrash metal, death metal, gothic metal, metalcore, hard rock, etc. The market expanded due to this decision since many different groups of readers could find their favorite styles in the magazine. Compared to XMusic which only focused on extreme metal, the inclusiveness of Painkiller was considered by some metal fans to be a threat to its credibility. A metal fan complained in the Region in Metal forum49 that

Painkiller was too inclusive to be an authentic metal magazine. However, although some fans may have argued against it, most readers like the diverse genres covered by the magazine because metal fans in China understand how difficult it is for such a magazine to survive in such a niche market in a complicated cultural environment in China. Thus, being inclusive has been the best strategy for Painkiller as a subcultural music magazine.

Similar to the strategy of inclusive genres, the editors of Painkiller considered variety when choosing contents as well. Presently, the content of this magazine includes: interviews and articles about famous foreign and domestic bands, indie label interviews, introductions of new bands, reviews of instruments, album reviews, pictures of festivals and events, fashion photos, and reviews of related movies or games. This diverse range of content has three purposes. Above all, articles introducing western metal bands and related subculture take up the majority of space of the magazine, which has helped metal fans know more details about their favorite western bands and the western history and subcultures of metal. Secondly, Painkiller has followed the primary functions of heavy metal magazines mentioned by Weinstein (2000) in her book Heavy

Metal – “connect the audience to the music by letting its members know what recordings have

49 Region In Metal is an online forum about extreme metal in China created by AreaDeath Productions in 1999. The website of this forum is www.areadeath.net/forum/index.php

118 recently been released and which ones they might like and underscore the centrality of concerts in the metal culture” (p. 176) – with album reviews, introduction of new bands, and pictures of music festivals and events. Thirdly, the editors of this magazine consider readers with different roles in the scene. For example, musicians may be interested in instrument reviews and introductions to new bands; producers would focus more on indie label interviews and album reviews; fans like interviews with their favorite bands; readers who enjoy horror films and video games could also find their interests represented in the magazine. That Painkiller tries to include different readers’ preferences and expectations is another successful strategy.

Finally, the success of this magazine is also due to its particular distribution strategy: the combination of traditional distribution and online reservation. Like other regular magazines,

Painkiller was distributed through numerous newsstands. However, for a niche magazine targeting a specific community, sales can differ significantly between different newsstands. The owners of newsstands may stop ordering the magazine if they are not able to sell it. Thus,

Painkiller can only be found at newsstands near colleges, cultural facilities, and venues in large cities. Sometimes, this magazine sold very well at newsstands in those areas. Introduced by the owner who operated a newsstand near the Central Conservatory of Music for many years,

Painkiller has sold well and some readers even reserved this magazine at the newsstands and picked up the magazine there every time when it arrived (personal communication, Mar. 5th

2015). In contrast, fans in some small cities may not buy it easily. Thus, Painkiller also accepts reservations online through its official website and Taobao shop (a popular e-commerce website in China). Fans can choose to purchase published issues or pre-order the upcoming issue, and they can order either a single issue or five issues as a package with a small discount online. The combination of both traditional distribution and online reservation has helped this magazine

119 reach as many metalheads as possible so that it could survive in such a competitive publication market and become well-known in the field of Chinese metal.

As the only heavy metal magazine that still published presently in China, Painkiller has published 54 issues in 16 years. As Han Ning indicated, Painkiller set a sales record of 50,000 copies per issue from 2004 to 2005 (Yu Yang & Shan Yang, 2011). The creation of a fanbase, contents with inclusive genre and readers, and an appropriate distribution strategy are significant factors that have helped this magazine set a fanbase foundation and collect enough resources to take the next step into the global periphery.

Global Metal Comes to China

While Painkiller continued accumulating numerous resources in the global metal scene and influence among metal fans in China, it gradually played a significant role as a liaison between the heavy metal scene in China and the rest of the globe, to construct and promote

Chinese heavy metal culture. The primary function of Painkiller is to introduce metal from around the world to China through published interviews with foreign musicians and organized performances of foreign bands in China, which brings various resources from the global metal scene to China.

The main section in Painkiller, interviews of foreign bands, is a significant medium that introduces excellent metal bands from various subgenres all around the world to the Chinese metal audience. From the 10th issue to the 48th issue50, Painkiller interviewed more than 300 musicians from 25 countries (figure 9), which covered many genres and subgenres of metal music, such as thrash metal, death metal, progressive metal, and metalcore. Among these interviews, the was the country that the most musicians interviewed by Painkiller

50 The data about magazine content from the 49th issue to the 54th issue was incomplete. Thus, I didn’t include them in this database.

120 came from. The interviews included many famous bands, such as Testament, Megadeth, and

Cannibal Corpse. Additionally, around 180 bands from 18 countries in Europe were interviewed, such as from Sweden, Emergence Gate from Germany, from Finland, and

Within Temptation from The Netherlands. Thus, Europe became the continent where the most interviewed bands come from. Other countries included , Brazil, Japan, and South

Korea. The content of these interviews contained recent news about the bands, their musical styles, their own stories about the foundation of the bands and the creation of songs, and some personal information, like hobbies and life stories. Following the interviews, Painkiller also provides the official websites of the interviewed bands, which provides an extra source for

Chinese readers to learn more about these bands and listen to some of their songs. Through reading the published interviews in Painkiller, Chinese metal fans have the opportunity to learn more information about both their favorite bands and numerous new bands all around the world.

Moreover, starting with the 18th issue, each magazine was sold with a sample CD provided by an interviewed western indie label, containing around 15 songs from the bands signed under this label, which gave Chinese metal fans a chance to directly get in touch with music around the world. Therefore, by introducing foreign bands and labels, Painkiller has helped Chinese metal audiences expand their sights to the globe without going abroad.

Figure 9: The Number of Bands from Each Country Interviewd by Painkiller 84

37 41 33 25 16 19 3 3 1 1 4 6 8 6 2 1 3 9 8 5 1 1 1 2

121

With the development of this magazine, Painkiller gained numerous resources about foreign metal bands, which made it consider a more comprehensive strategy of operation.

Beginning in 2004, Painkiller began to work as a performance organizer introducing many foreign bands to play in China, which gave Chinese metal fans a more real and direct experience of metal bands and music from all around the world. Weinstein (2011) states: “It was magazines and recordings that were most responsible for creating fans in the periphery, which only then led promoters to book the tours of international metal bands” (p. 48). However, Painkiller itself is a primary promoter of foreign bands performing in China. Because of the interviews and cooperation with other metal magazines in western countries, Painkiller has had many opportunities to connect with different bands and their managers, which brings a huge advantage to Painkiller as a promoter. Seventy foreign metal bands from 16 countries gave 106 performances in China promoted by Painkiller from 2004 to 2015 (figure 10). Among these,

America, Germany, and Finland were the three main countries, while other bands came from

Australia, , Brazil, Canada, , Israel, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, ,

Poland, Sweden, and the . By organizing foreign bands’ performances in China,

Painkiller has been contributing to bringing global metal to China in four ways: expanding the

Figure 10: The Number of Concerts / Gigs Organized by Painkiller Each Year

50 42 40

30

20 10 12 6 7 8 10 5 3 3 1 0 2 0 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

122 geographical range of the metal scene, encouraging more promoters to join this career, providing communication opportunities between foreign and domestic bands, and introducing international resources to the Chinese metal scene.

Firstly, the Chinese metal scene geographically expanded from big cities to some smaller cities and from north to south. Originally, foreign bands usually chose to play in big cities in

China considering the fanbase, purchasing capability, and stage quality. Beijing, the capital as well as the rock center of China with millions of rock fans, became their first choice. Among 106 performances, 52% of them were in Beijing. As the biggest commercial and international metropolitan area, Shanghai became the second-choice location for Painkiller to organize performances by foreign bands. However, with the development of heavy metal culture in China, local scenes in some other smaller cities have emerged; subsequently, some foreign bands started to add some of these cities in their tours. In 2011, promoted by Painkiller, The Ocean from

Germany toured in 9 Chinese cities: Shanghai, , , Chongqing, Guangzhou, Hong

Kong, Zhenjiang, , and Beijing. Additionally, the metal atmosphere has moved from north to south. Heavy metal is not monopolized by the northern Chinese any more. In southern cities, such as Wuhan, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, metalheads can also enjoy the most exciting metal performances played by foreign bands. The emerging metal scene in different parts of

China has allowed Painkiller to arrange more performances in various Chinese cities; meanwhile,

Painkiller has brought excellent performances to those cities, exploring potential metal fans and contributing to the development of the local scenes.

As the pioneer of organizing concerts / gigs performed by foreign metal bands, Painkiller took the first step of this career in China. Attracted by the potential of this performance market, more and more organizations, such us Mort Production and Guitar China, joined in this business

123 and gradually recognized their own advantages in this field. Performance organizers cooperated and competed with each other to bring various excellent performances to China, so that Chinese metal fans have had more opportunities to enjoy the highest-level live performances given by metal bands all around the world.

Moreover, not only fans but also Chinese metal musicians benefit from those exciting performances promoted by various organizers. To observe the performances of foreign bands and share the same stage with them provides a great opportunity for local bands to communicate with and learn from the best metal bands all around the world. Many excellent Chinese bands have been invited to open for these famous international bands. In this way, local bands gained performing experience as well as improving their skills by learning from different foreign bands face to face.

After successfully organizing several foreign bands’ performances, Painkiller not only accumulated experience in producing performances but also gained a great reputation in the metal scene both inside and outside of China. Attracted by its abundant subcultural capital, some foreign organizations outside of the metal scene have sought cooperation with Painkiller on organizing cultural events related to metal music. For example, the Goethe Institute in Beijing collaborated with Painkiller as the co-sponsor to execute the concert given by as a part of the cultural communication event between Germany and China – “Germany and China in the

Peer, Berlin Music Night” from 2008-2009. Additional, Painkiller worked with the Finland

World Expo Committee for “HELFEST2010”, the first music festival in China, inviting four Finnish metal bands to perform at the Shanghai World Expo site in May 2010. Taking advantage of resources from these international institutes, Painkiller was able to provide more exciting performances to metal fans in China.

124

Chinese Metal Goes Global

When more and more foreign bands were introduced to China, Painkiller also tried to offer opportunities for excellent Chinese bands to perform on a global stage. The most attractive and valuable opportunity for every Chinese metal band is to win the WOA Metal Battle China and get a ticket to perform at this biggest metal festival on the globe. In 2008, Painkiller was authorized by the WOA Metal Battle committee to host the Metal Battle in China, which was the first official Metal Battle competition held in . The winner of this competition plays in the global finals, on behalf of China, on the WOA stage. Up to 2016, this competition has been held for eight years. Every year, more than 50 Chinese metal bands compete for this opportunity. It is not only a great chance for bands to communicate with each other but also a big event for

Chinese metal fans. Eight winners have been invited by the WOA committee to compete in the finals. Voodoo Kungfu, as the winner of the metal battle competition in 2008, became the first

Chinese band stand on the Wacken stage. The Falling (Duo Tian), Nine Treasures, Evocation

(Zhao Hun), Dream Spirit, and Ritual Day performed in Wacken from 2012 to 2016. Three other bands gave up their opportunities because of schedule, visa, or financial problems.

Image 12: Poster of WOA Metal Battle China in 2015

125

Furthermore, besides the winners of Metal Battle China, Midi School, China’s first specialized school for rock music, was authorized by the Chinese Ministry of Culture to select another two bands, Yaksa and Suffocated, to play in WOA in 2012 as part of a cultural communication program for “The Year of Chinese Culture in Germany.” It was the first time that the Chinese government officially supported Chinese metal bands performing in another country.

Hanggai and Spring Autumn were also invited to perform on the WOA stage in 2010 and 2014.

To perform abroad is a huge step for Chinese metal bands and the development of the overall metal scene in China. All these bands had an excellent experiences at WOA and got a good responses from the audiences. Some bands also achieved good results in the WOA Metal

Battle Finals. Nine Treasures narrowly lost to Crimson Shadows, finishing in second place in

2013, which was the highest position for any Chinese metal band, and Evocation obtained the fourth position one year later. Based on the results and responses from foreign audiences, the advantages of Chinese folk metal bands became more and more obvious when performing on a foreign stage, which made Painkiller focus more on the representation of Chinese characteristics when selecting and promoting domestic bands. After Nine Treasures, winning bands all had more or less Chinese elements either in music or performance or both.

Organized and promoted by Painkiller, Chinese metal bands performed in Germany again after Tang Dynasty went to play in Germany during the golden age of Chinese heavy metal in 1994. Promoting Chinese metal bands to the globe held great benefits for both the domestic and the global scenes. On the one hand, the experiences of performing abroad would help

Chinese bands rapidly mature and explore their careers on a larger stage. On the other hand, with more and more Chinese folk metal bands accepted by foreign listeners, Chinese metal gradually became a significant member in the global scene and contributed to the diversity of global metal.

126

Challenges and Future

Promoted by Painkiller and other organizations, the metal scene in China has significantly developed; at the same time, the external environment has greatly improved due to the process of modernization and cultural development in general. However, Painkiller still encountered many challenges in the process of its development.

First of all, as a traditional publication, Painkiller was strongly impacted by new media.

Sales have been consistently decreasing in recent years. As I mentioned in the last chapter, making money by publishing advertisements is impossible. Thus, lack of funds has become a major concern. As Han Ning stated during an interview by Nouvelles d’Europe, they have paid much more attention to the organization of performances and care more about the box office of performances than the income from magazine distribution (Yu Yang & Shan Yang, 2011). Two years later, Han Ning mentioned when he was interviewed by me that they may consider stopping the print edition of the magazine in two years if they can’t deal with the financial problems (personal communication, Jan. 20th 2013). However, the magazine is still being published currently, which may indicate that the revenue gained by performance promotion is supporting the publication of the magazine. Other challenges have come from peer competition and various inevitable risks due to censorship and other issues related to the Chinese government discussed in the last chapter when organizing performances. Although it is difficult to persist and survive in such a competitive and complicated environment, Painkiller will still work hard to bring more information and good performances to Chinese metal fans.

In conclusion, as the best heavy metal magazine in China, Painkiller was a pioneering contributor to the development of the Chinese metal scene. This magazine has provided a platform to share information and gather metal fans in China; also, it acts as an intermediary

127 between the local and global scenes, bringing global metal to China while sending excellent

Chinese metal bands to the global stage. After three co-founders formed this magazine thirteen years ago, they can be proud to say that Painkiller has been the best Chinese metal magazine all around the world and one of the greatest promoters focused on metal performance. Even though they continue to encounter numerous difficulties, they still believe a tough road called metal is what they will keep walking along.

128

CONCLUSION

Since 1988 when the first Chinese metal band was formed, metal has entered and been localized in China for almost 30 years. However, the Chinese metal scene was rarely known in the . This is why this research project was conducted. In this thesis, I have illustrated an image of the Chinese metal scene, presented the characteristics and the development of metal musicians, fans, and mediators in China, discussed their contributions to scene’s construction, and analyzed various internal and external factors that influence the localization of metal in China. At this point, it is time to answer the primary question: what is the trajectory of the metal scene development in China?

While exploring the development of three significant roles, I divided the trajectory of the metal scene into three stages. The emerging stage represents the initial period, which is also the period of mainstream metal. After Tang Dynasty lost significant members and Overload’s first album failed in the mainstream market, the Chinese metal scene moved to the underground starting in 1997. Then, the underground condition of the scene gradually transformed, influenced by the rapid popularization of the broadband network and social networks starting from 2005.

The changes in producing, distributing, and promoting metal music and subculture brought the scene of metal into a more flexible and diverse status. From this point, the metal scene development stepped to the indie stage. In order to present a clear description of each stage, I conclude the characteristics of three significant roles and the scene in general in each stage below:

129

The Emerging Stage (1988-1996)

• Musicians: A few young rockers in Beijing formed the pioneer metal bands inspired by

very limited resources of western metal music. Whether they succeeded or not, most

bands pursued a mainstream and commercial way to develop their careers.

• Fans: The earliest metal fans are mostly rock elites, and then, more fans joined the scene

because of Dakou cassette; but the distribution of metal was highly based on the word of

mouth. of Tang Dynasty brought a number of youngsters into the scene but

many of them didn’t stay long due to the lack of the establishment of metal as a particular

music genre in their minds.

• Mediators: There was no mediator particularly for metal. Bands were promoted by

mainstream record companies. Other mediums were shared with the media of rock and

pop music.

• Scene: The metal scene in China was in its embryonic type within the rock scene.

The Underground Stage (1997-2005)

• Musicians: More bands covering most of the major subgenres were formed underground.

Cities outside of Beijing started to have their local bands and the number of bands outside

of Beijing was increasing. Most bands had financial issues and could not play metal to

make a living. Bands usually played in small bars with tiny earnings and had limited

opportunities to release albums.

• Fans: The metal fanbase was gradually expanding in big cities. The channel for

distributing metal was still through word of mouth but magazines became another way to

know information about metal since they were founded. Dakou cassettes and CDs were

popular resources for fans to listen to western metal. Compared to the emerging stage,

130

fans gained more knowledge about western metal music and culture. Fans increasingly

became involved in the scene by visiting underground record stores, purchasing records

and magazines, and attending small gigs.

• Mediators: This was the development period of Chinese metal mediators. Musicians and

senior fans found various metal mediators including record stores, indie labels,

magazines, and metal venues. Most mediators were at their primal stage with amateur

and autonomous status, but magazines have beenwell accepted by fans since they were

founded.

• Scene: The scene was developed underground. All necessary components of a metal

scene had emerged in China. The structure of the Chinese metal scene was constructed.

Local scenes in some big cities outside of Beijing gradually emerged.

The Indie Stage (2006-present)

• Musicians: Many more bands with diverse metal sub-genre and sub-sub-genres are

formed nationwide. More Chinese folk metal bands are formed and some bands realize

the necessity to add Chinese culture and characteristics into their music. Some bands start

to create their own metal styles. Bands have more opportunities to release albums and

perform on various stages, such as at bars, live houses, and music festivals. Bands are

more independent when managing their careers. A number of major metal bands are able

to play metal full-time and earn enough money. Some bands go abroad and play metal on

the global stage.

• Fans: The fanbase is rapidly expanding nationwide including into many small cities and

towns. The internet is the most common way that fans access to metal music and

abundant related information. Fans are involved more deeply into the scene construction

131

through creating their fan works, organizing fan activities, and promoting their favorite

bands on social media.

• Mediators: The number of mediators keeps increasing. More and more local mediators

emerge in various cities, especially in many small cities. The modes of operating various

institutes are more comprehensive and professional although the outside resources used

for the development of mediators are still limited. Most mediators use new media to run

their business and promote metal. Bands are able to promote themselves by using various

social media. Chinese mediators pursue various corporations with foreign bands and

mediators in order to develop their careers on a global scale.

• Scene: Metal scenes in big cities are well developed with a free, vital, and international

atmospheres. Local scenes in many small cities and towns are emerging. The metal scene

in China gradually becomesinvolved in the global scene and interacts with scenes abroad.

In general, the formation of this trajectory is influenced by various factors. First of all, the distribution of metal in China is highly dependent on the accessibility of metal resources. The reformation of the way of distribution from the word of mouth to the Internet enriches resources about metal, helps fansaccumulate fans’ knowledge about metal history and culture, and enlarges the metal fanbase in China. Moreover, benefitting from the rapid economic growth, urbanization, and the progress of modernization in China in the past 30 years, the improvement of overall living standards and the construction of modern infrastructures offer a better condition for metal scene development. Finally, the development of the culture industry and international culture communication in China leads to better metal subculture development and brings Chinese metal to the global stage.

132

Although the climate of metal in China has become better and better, metalheads in

Chinas still need to encounter a number of challenges to better develop the metal scene in China in the future. Presently, Chinese metal is also in what Weinstein (2015) stated in the metal conference in Finland, “metal’s third wave in the era of post-globalization” (p. 14). How to respond to the changes of the global metal climate is a new question Chinese musicians and mediators need to consider. Despite earning money to make a living, metal bands need to consider the balance of national and cosmopolitan features in their music and performance to represent “Chineseness” on the global stage; while, metal mediators need to deal with the impact of new media and find ways to attract an increasing number of omnivores, who are not loyal to metal music and subculture like traditional fans (Weinstein, 2015).

Moreover, there are some particular challenges in the Chinese scene. On the one hand, the contributors of the scene have to solve the legacy issue due to rapid development in a short period of time. The development of metal in China was too fast to accumulate enough resources, experiences, and culture. Thus, Chinese metal mediators have to deal with some misinterpretation and lack of deep understandings of metal subcultures, the immature industry of metal, and unprofessional operation of various metal institutes. On the other hand, the metal scene development is impacted by the unstable environment and policies. Ning Han, the chief editor of Painkiller introduced: “We’ve learned how to deal with accdients and survive in some difficult situations, but no one could guarantee that the situation tomorrow will be the same as today or yesterday” (personal communication, May 4th 2015). Metal mediators need to react quickly to the external changes and take the risk of accidents due to these changes.

Therefore, it seems hard to predict the future of the metal scene in China. However, while

I typed this thesis on my laptop, Iron Maiden came to China and gave two arena concerts in

133

Beijing and Shanghai; Nine Treasures finished its first European Tour; Suffocated successfully had one 330 metal stage at Midi Festival; and Tomahawk released a new album after more than ten years of near-silence. All these achievements make me believe that no matter how difficult it is, Chinese metal will have a bright future.

After almost four years’ adventure in the scene of Chinese metal, this research project reaches its the end. However, it is definitely not the end of studying Chinese metal. A thesis- length project is too small to cover the entire metal scene in China. A number of topics were briefly mentioned in this thesis but I didn’t have time or space to go into them deeply. For example, what are the points of intersection for heavy metal and Chinese traditional culture in terms of ideology? How do Chinese metal listeners respond to Chinese folk metal bands’ attempts to balance modernity and tradition in their music and performances? How have local scenes outside of Beijing, even in big cities, developed, and what’s the difference between the scenes in big and small cities of China? And, what exactly is the market capacity of metal in

China? Therefore, I hope this thesis is not the end but a start for further investigation of metal in

China, inspiring more and more scholars who have interest in Chinese metal to go into this small community in the biggest country on earth.

134

REFERENCES

Books / Journal Articles

Baranovitch, N. (2003). China's new voices: popular music, ethnicity, gender, and politics, 1978-1997. University of Press.

Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. : Routledge.

Bourdieu, P. (1991). Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Bourdieu, P. (1993). The Field of Cultural Production. Oxford: Polity Press.

Campbell, J. (2011). Red Rock: The Long, Strange March of Chinese Rock & Roll. Earnshaw Books.

Groenewegen-Lau, J. (2014). "Steel and Strawberries: How Chinese Rock Became State- Sponsored." Asian Music 45.1: 3-33.

Greene, P. D. (2011). Electronic and Affective Overdrive: Tropes of Transgression in Nepal’s Heavy Metal Scene. In Wallach, J., Berger, H. M. & Greene P. D. (Eds.), Metal Rules the Globe: Heavy Metal Music Around the World (pp. 109-134). Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Guo, F. (2007). Shackles and Dashing: Observing the Attitude of Chinese Rock Music and Independent Culture, 1980-2005 [Jiasuo yu Benpao: 1980-2005’ Zhongguo yaogunyue duli wenhua shengtai guancha]. Wuhan, China: Hubei People’s Press [hubei renmin chubanshe].

Jones, A. (1992). Like a knife: Ideology and genre in contemporary Chinese popular music. Ithaca, NY.

Kahn-Harris, K. (2006). Extreme metal: Music and culture on the edge. Berg.

Kahn-Harris, Keith. (2011). “You Are From Israel and That Is Enough to Hate You Forever” Racism, Globalization, and Play within the Global Extreme Metal Scene. In Wallach, J., Berger, H. M. & Greene P. D. (Eds.), Metal Rules the Globe: Heavy Metal Music Around the World (pp. 200-226). Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Kawano, K. & Hosokawa, S. (2011). Thunder in the Far East: The Heavy Metal Industry in 1990s Japan. In Wallach, J., Berger, H. M. & Greene P. D. (Eds.), Metal Rules the Globe: Heavy Metal Music Around the World (pp. 247-269). Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

135

Kloet, D. J. (2010). China with a Cut: Globalisation, Urban Youth and Popular Music. Amsterdam University Press

Lu, L. & Li, Y. (2003). Screaming for the Once Chinese Rock [Na Han, Wei le Ceng Jing de Zhong Guo Yaogun]. Guilin: Guangxi Normal University Press [Guangxi Shifan Daxue Chubanshe].

Thornton, S. (1996). Club cultures: Music, media, and subcultural capital. Wesleyan University Press.

Wallach, J. (2011). : Metal Music, masculinity, and “Malayness” in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. In Wallach, J., Berger, H. M. & Greene P. D. (Eds.), Metal Rules the Globe: Heavy Metal Music Around the World (pp. 86-107). Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Wallach, J., Berger, H. M., & Greene, P.D. (2011). Affective Overdrive, Scene Dynamics, and Identity in the Global Metal Scene. In Wallach, J., Berger, H. M. & Greene P. D. (Eds.), Metal Rules the Globe: Heavy Metal Music Around the World (pp. 3-33). Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Walser, R. (1993). Running with the devil: Power, gender, and madness in heavy metal music. Wesleyan University Press.

Wang, Y. (2015). Formation, Industries, and Identities: Observations on Extreme Metal in Mainland China 2000-2013. In Karjalainen, T. & Kärki, K. (Eds.). (2015). Proceedings from Modern Heavy Metal: Markets, Practices and Cultures – International Academic Research Conference. Helsinki, Finland.

Weinstein, D. (1991). Heavy metal: A cultural sociology. Lexington Books.

Weinstein, D. (2011). The Globalization of Metal. In Wallach, J., Berger, H. M. & Greene P. D. (Eds.), Metal Rules the Globe: Heavy Metal Music Around the World (pp. 34-61). Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Weinstein, D. (2015). Metal’s Third Wave in the Era of Post-Globalization. In Karjalainen, T. & Kärki, K. (Eds.). (2015). Proceedings from Modern Heavy Metal: Markets, Practices and Cultures – International Academic Research Conference. Helsinki, Finland.

White, B. W. (2002). “Congolese Rumba and other cosmopolitanisms.” Cahiers d'études africaines, (4): 663-686.

Wong, C. P. (2011). “A Dream Return to Tang Dynasty”: Masculinity, Male Camaraderie, and Chinese Heavy metal in the 1990s. In Wallach, J., Berger, H. M. & Greene P. D. (Eds.), Metal Rules the Globe: Heavy Metal Music Around the World (pp. 63-85). Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

136

Yan, J. (2006). Gone Up in Smoke: A Personal Observation of Rock Music [Huifeiyanmie: Yige Ren De Yaogunyue Guancha]. China, Guangzhou: The Flower City Press [Huacheng Chubanshe].

Yang, Y. & Yang, S. (2011). “Han Ning: the Business of Operating a Metal Magazine [Jinshu Zazhiren Han Ning De Shang Dao].” Nouvelles D’Europe 546: 172.

Thesis / Dissertations

Chen, W. (2010). From “Tang Dynasty” to Chinese Mainland Heavy Metal Music: A Case Study of Chinese Heavy Metal Music [Cong “Tangchao Yuedui” Kan Zhongguo Dalu Zhongjinshu Yaogunyue: Zhongguo Dalu Zhongjinshu Yaogunyue Gean Yanjiu] (MA thesis). Nanjing Art Institution.

Fu, B. (2008). Cathartic Ritual: The Anthropological Study on Chinese Rock Music [Xuanxie De Yishi: Zhongguo Dalu Yaogunyue De Yinyue Renleixue Yanjiu] (Doctoral dissertation). Chinese National Academy of Arts.

Ivanova, M. C. (2009). Limning the jianghu: Spaces of appearance and the performative politics of the Chinese cultural underground (Doctoral dissertation). University of California, Berkeley.

Liu, M. H. (2012). Rephrasing Mainstream and Alternatives: An Ideological Analysis of the Birth of Chinese Indie Music (MA thesis). Bowling Green State University.

Ma, J. (2013). The Research of “Underground Music” Communication: Focuses on Lanzhou Area [“Dixia Yinyue” Chuanbo Fangshi Yanjiu: Yi Lanzhou “Dixia Yinyue” Weili] (MA thesis). Lanzhou University.

Wong, C. P. (2005). Lost lambs: rock, gender, authenticity, and a generational response to modernity in the People's Republic of China (Doctoral dissertation). Columbia University.

Xiao, P. (2012). Marginal Musicians of Beijing Rock and Roll [Beijing Shucun Bianyuan Ren] (MA thesis). Chinese National Academy of Arts.

Yi, R. (2008). Research of the Localization of Subculture: Take the Rock Music With “Chinese Characteristics” as an Example [Yawenhua de Bentu Yanjiu: Yi “You Zhongguo Tese” de Yaogunyue Weili] (MA thesis). Capital Normal University.

Online Database / Articles

BeeBeetop. (2015, Mar 16) Thirty Pictures Interpreting Live Performance in China – The Analytical Report for the Chinese Live House Performance Industry in 2014 [30 Zhang Tu Jiedu Zhongguo Yinyue Xianchang – 2014 Zhongguo Live House Yanchu Hangye Fenxi Baogao]. Retrieved from http://www.aiweibang.com/yuedu/17844404.html

137

China’s National Bureau of Statistics. (2014). The Average Annual Income of Urban Resident [Data file]. Retrieved from http://data.stats.gov.cn/adv.htm?m=advquery&cn=C01

Jiang, W. (2008, Mar 22) A Note of Skylark Tour [Skylark Xunyan Jishi]. [Web log comment]. Retrieved from http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4e0631b301008v9g.html

Jiang, W. (2013, Aug 19) The Unofficial Truth for Aerosmith’s Cancellation and Talking about the Performance Cancellation Again [Aerosmith Quxiao De Feiguanfang Zhenxiang Yiji Zaici Tantan Yanchu De Quxiao]. [Web log comment]. Retrieved from http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4e0631b30101ce5t.html

Jiang, W. (2013, Sep 04) Performance By-Talk: The Discussion of Watching and Organizing Performance, and Talking about the “Metal Melee” in August and the Outlook of “Metal Match” in October [Yanchu Zatan: Tantan Kanyanchu Banyanchu, Jiantan Bayue Jinshu Luanzhan Yu Zhanwang Shiyue Jinshu Zhulu]. [Web log comment]. Retrieved from http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4e0631b30101cowj.html Midi. (2015, Sep 9) Li Nan from Voodoo Kungfu: Something Will Eventually Changed [Lingyi Linan: Youxie Shiqing Zhongjiang Gaibian]. Retrieve from https://www.douban.com/group/topic/79454335/?type=like

Xia, F. (2008, Dec 10). Reasoningly and Objectively Looking Upon the Expansion of University Enrollment [Lixing Keguan Kandai Daxue Kuozhao]. Guangming Daily [Gangming Ribao]. Retrieved from http://www.gmw.cn/01gmrb/2008-12/10/content_867560.htm

Zhang, Y. G. (2013, Dec 09). The Classification of Chinese Cities [Zhongguo Chengshi Fenji]. First Finance and Economic Weekly [Diyi Caijing Zhoukan]. Retrieved from http://www.cbnweek.com/v/article2015?id=6245

“Five Years Journey on Broad Band Network” [Zhongguo Kuandai Wunian Lu]. (2008). Retrieved from http://tech.163.com/special/00092OGQ/broadband.html#3

Motion Pictures / Video Podcasts

Ci, L. G. (producer). (unkown time). Oral Story: Gaoqi – Overload, During It’s Life [Koushu: Gaoqi – Chaozai Shengming Zhi Shi]. Liaoning Broadcasting and TV Station. Podcast retrieved from http://baidu.ku6.com/watch/9068724947745500297.html http://www.56.com/u89/v_ODkwMDMxOTA.html

Dunn, S., McFadyen, S. & Wise, J. J. (Director). (2006). Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey [Motion picture]. United States: Warner Home Video.

Dunn, S. & Wise, J. J. (Director). (2009). Global Metal [Motion picture]. United States: Warner Home Video.

Suffocated [Zhixi]. (Producer & Director). (2010). On the Road. Podcast retrieved from http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTU1MzU5MjQ0.html

138

Music Recordings51

641. (2005). We Still Stand Here [Women Hai Zhanzai Nali]. On Who’s there? [Shi Shui Zai?] [CD]. Beijing: Mort Production [Haojiao Changpian]

Black Kirin [Heiqi]. (2013). Nanking [Nanjing]. On Nanjing [CD]. : Coldwoods Production.

Black Kirin [Heiqi]. (2014). Qinyuanchun Xue. On Qinyuanchun Xue [CD]. Changsha: Coldwoods Production.

Black Kirin [Heiqi]. (2015). National Trauma [Ai Ying] [CD]. Self-Released.

Cui J. (1989). I have Nothing [Yi Wu Suo You]. On Rock and Roll on the New Long March [Xin Changzheng Lushang de Yaogun] [CD]. Beijing: China’s International Radio Audio & Vidio Press [Zhongguo Guoji Guangbo Yixiang Chubanshe].

Distorted Machine [Niuqu Jiqi]. (2003). We Are From the Underground [Women Laizi Dixia]. On Return to the Underground [Chongfan Dixia] [CD]. Bejing: Jingwen Scream [Jingwen Haojiao].

Dream Spirit [Mengling]. (2014). Restore Our Lost Territory [Huanwo Heshan]. On Territory [Jiangshan] [CD]. Self-Released.

Nine Treasures [Jiubao]. (2012). Hero [Yingxiong]. On Arvan Ald Guulin Hunshoor [Shizhang Tongzui] [CD]. Beijing: Mort Productions [Haojiao Changpian]

Ordnance [Junxiesuo]. (2008). By No Means Stay Temporarily in My Motherland [Wo Jue Buzai Ziji de Zuguo li Zanzhu]. On Rock City [Yaogun Chengshi] [CD]. Beijing: DIME- Records.

Overload [Chaozai]. (1992). The Shadow of Ancestor [Zuxian de Yinying]. On Rock Beijing [Yaogun Beijing] [CD]. Beijing: International Cultural Communiciation Audio & Video Press [Guoji Wenhua Jiaoliu Yinxiang Chubanshe].

Overload [Chaozai]. (1996). Overload [Chaozai] [CD]. Beijing: China’s Musician Audio & Video Press [Zhongguo Yinyuejia Yinxiang Chubanshe]

Spring Autumn [Chun Qiu]. (2006). Between Mountain and Sea [Shanhai Jian]. On Spring and Autumn [Chun Qiu] [CD]. Beijing: RHC Records.

51 All listed songs are able to be found in Music Library & Sound Recordings Archives at Bowling Green State University as an affliated CD of this thesis. Also, most albums in this list are also available in Music Library at BGSU.

139

Suffocated [Zhixi]. (2006). Dead Wind Rising [Nifeng Feiyang] [CD]. Beijing: Jiuzhou Audio & Video Press [Jiuzhou Yinxiang Chuban Gongsi]

Suffocated [Zhixi]. (2010). World of Confusion [Fenrao Shijie] [CD]. Shanghai: Xinhui Group Shanghai Audio & Video Press [Xinhui Jituan Shanghai Shengxiang Chubanshe Youxian Gongsi]

Suffocated [Zhixi]. (2015). Perilous Journey [Weixian Lucheng]. On Perilous Journey [Weixian Lucheng] [CD]. Beijing: The Pilot Music [Feixingzhe Changpian]

Tang Dynasty [Tangchao]. (1992). Dream Return to Tang Dynasty [Menghui Tangchao]. On Tang Dynasty [Tangchao] [CD]. Beijing: Jingwen Record Company [Jingwen Changpian].

Tang Dynasty [Tangchao]. (1992). Legend [Chuanshuo]. On Tang Dynasty [Tangchao] [CD]. Beijing: Jingwen Record Company [Jingwen Changpian].

Tang Dynasty [Tangchao]. (1992). The Sun [Taiyang]. On Tang Dynasty [Tangchao] [CD]. Beijing: Jingwen Record Company [Jingwen Changpian].

Tang Dynasty [Tangchao]. (1992). Soaring Bird [Feixiang Niao]. On Tang Dynasty [Tangchao] [CD]. Beijing: Jingwen Record Company [Jingwen Changpian].

The Last Scucessor [Moyi]. (2010). A Hundred Million Years of Love [Yi Qiannian zhi Lian]. On Moyi [CD]. Beijing: Mai’ai Music [Mai’ai Yinyue].

The Last Scucessor [Moyi]. (2010). See Jasmine Flower Again [Youjian Molihua]. On Moyi [CD]. Beijing: Mai’ai Music [Mai’ai Yinyue].

Yaksa [Yecha]. (2010). Responsbility [Zeren]. On You Are Not The Loser [CD]. Beijing: China’s Science and Culture Audio & Video Press [Zhongguo Kexue Wenhua Yinxiang Chubanshe].

Yaksa [Yecha]. (2010). Stand Up, Stand Up, You Are Chinese [Qilai, Qilai, Ni shi Zhongguoren]. On You Are Not The Loser [CD]. Beijing: China’s Science and Culture Audio & Video Press [Zhongguo Kexue Wenhua Yinxiang Chubanshe].

Zuriaake [Zangshi Hu]. (2007). Afterimage of Autumn [Yi Qiu] [CD]. : Pest Production.

Interviews

Musicians: • Ashan, vocalist in Nine Treasures, June 28th, 2014 • Liu Zheng, vocalist and bassist in Suffocated, March 10th, 2015

140

Fans (E-mail Interview): 1. Male, 23 years old, undergraduate student, March, 14th, 2015 2. Male, 24 years old, master student, March 31st, 2015 3. Male, 29 years old, office worker, March 31st, 2015 4. Male, 29 years old, PHD student, March 31st, 2015 5. Male, 29 years old, employee in music company, March 31st, 2015 6. Male, 26 years old, accountant, April 1st, 2015 7. Male, 32 years old, engineer, April 1st, 2015 8. Male, 34 years old, purchaser, April 1st, 2015 9. Female, 22 years old, undergraduate student, April 1st, 2015 10. Female, 21 years old, undergraduate student, April 1st, 2015 11. Male, 40 years old, engineer, April 1st, 2015 12. Male, 19 years old, undergraduate student, April 1st, 2015 13. Male, 20 years old, undergraduate student, April 1st, 2015 14. Male, 25 years old, retail salesman, April 1st, 2015 15. Male, 32 years old, office worker, April 1st, 2015 16. Male, 39 years old, performance organizer, April 1st, 2015 17. Male, 25 years old, company staff, April 1st, 2015 18. Female, 19 years old, undergraduate student, April 2nd, 2015 19. Male, 31 years old, blue-collar worker, April 2nd, 2015 20. Male, 29 years old, layer, April 2nd, 2015 21. Male, 32 years old, blue-collar worker, April 2nd, 2015 22. Female, 29 years old, PHD student, April 4th, 2015 23. Male, 36 years old, information technology staff, April 4th, 2015 24. Male, 19 years old, undergraduate student, April 5th, 2015 25. Male, 29 years old, computer programmer, April 6th, 2015 26. Male, 32 years old, staff in utility industry, April 6th, 2015 27. Male, 25 years old, real estate agent, April 7th, 2015 28. Male, 25 years old, bank staff, April 8th, 2015 29. Male, 25 years old, business manager, April 9th, 2015 30. Female, 19 years old, undergraduate student, April 11th, 2015 31. Male, 31 years old, human resource staff, April 15th, 2015 32. Male, 33 years old, instructor, April 17th, 2015

Mediators: • Han Ning, the founder and chef editor of Painkiller magazine, January 20th, 2013 & March 4th, 2015 • Jiang Wei, CEO of Guitar China, March 4th, 2015

141

CHINESE GLOSSARY

English Pinyin52 Chinese Characters

“Between Mountain and Sea” Shanhai Jian 《山海间》 “By No Means Stay Temporarily in My Wo Jue Buzai Ziji de Zuguo Li 《我绝不在自己的祖国 Motherland” Zanzhu 里暂住》 “Dance of the Yao Tribe” Yaozu Wuqu 《瑶族舞曲》 “Gada Meiren” Gada Meilin 《嘎达梅林》 “I Have Nothing” “Yi Wu Suo You” 《一无所有》 “Jasmine Flower” Moli Hua 《茉莉花》 “Legend” Chuanshuo 《传说》 “Nanjing” Nanjing 《南京》 “Perilous Journey” “Weixian Lucheng” 《危险旅程》 “Restore Our Lost Territory” Huanwo Heshan 《还我河山》 “See Jasmine Flower Again” Youjian Moli Hua 《又见茉莉花》 “Soaring Bird” “Feixiang Niao” 《飞翔鸟》 “The Dream Return to Tang Dynasty” “Menghui Tangchao” 《梦回唐朝》 “The Shadow of Ancestor” Zuxian De Yinying 《祖先的阴影》 “The Sun” “Taiyang” 《太阳》 13 Club 13 Julebu 13 俱乐部 1990 Modern Concert 90 Xiandai Jinyuehui 90 现代音乐会 330 Metal Festival 330 Jinshu Yinyuejie 330 金属音乐节 666 Rock Store 666 Yaogun Dian 666 摇滚店 Afterimage of Autumn Yi Qiu 弈秋 AreaDeath Productions Siyu Changpian 死域唱片 Baidu Network Disk Baidu Wangpan 百度网盘 Barque of Dante Danding zhi Zhou 但丁之舟 Beijing International Camp Park Beijing Guoji Diaosu 北京国际雕塑公园 Gongyuan Beijing Light Music Ensemble Beijing Qingyinyue Tuan 北京轻音乐团 Beijing Nu-Metal Movement Beijing Xinjin Yundong 北京新金运动 Beijing Song and Dance Troupe Beijing Gewu Tuan 北京歌舞团 Black Kirin Heiqi 黑麒 Black Lake Heihu 黑湖 Black Panther Heibao 黑豹 Cangzhou Cangzhou 沧州 Cave Have Rod Xue You Gun 穴有棍 Che Lie Che Lie 车裂 Chen Xi Chen Xi 陈曦 Chengdu Chengdu 成都 Chinese Culture Year Zhongguo Wenhua Nian 中国文化年 Chongqing Chongqing 重庆 Chthonic Shanling 闪灵 Chunqiu period Chunqiu Shiqi 春秋时期 City Name Card Chengshi Mingpian 城市名片

52 (“拼音”) is Chinese character written by using Romanization system based on the pronunciation of the character. 142

Cui Jian Cui Jian 崔健 Cultural Revolution Wehua Dageming 文化大革命 Culture and Art Organization Wenyi Tuanti 文艺团体 Culture Workers Wenhua Gongzuozhe 文化工作者 Dakou cassette Dakou Dai 打口带 Dakou CD Dakou Die 打口碟 Dead Wind Rising Nifeng Feiyang 逆风飞扬 Ding Wu Ding Wu 丁武 Distorted Machine Niuqu Jiqi 扭曲机器 Dou Wei 窦唯 Douban Douban 豆瓣 Dream Spirit Meng Ling 梦灵 DyingArt Productions Chuisi Yishu Changpian 垂死艺术唱片 Ego Fall Dianfu M 颠覆 M Epic Yanyi 演义 Erhu Er Hu 二胡 Ethnic autonomous region Minzu Zizhi Qu 民族自治区 Evocation Zhaohun 招魂 Explosicum Baojiang 爆浆 Fengtai District Fengtai Qu 丰台区 First tier-city Yixian Chengshi 一线城市 Five-character quatrains Wuyan Jueju 五言绝句 Four character idiom Chengyu 成语 Freesound Record Store Fusheng Changpian 福声唱片店 Gao Qi Gao Qi 高旗 Green carriage train Lupi Che 绿皮车 Gross enrollment ratio Mao Ruxue Lv 毛入学率 Guangdong New Year’s Eve Concert Guangdong Kuanian 广东跨年演唱会 Yanchanghui Guangdong province Guangdong 广东省 Guangzhou Guangzhou 广州 Guitar China Jita Zhongguo 吉他中国 Guocui Metal Guocui Jinshu 国粹金属 Han Ning Han Ning 韩宁 Hanggai Hanggai 杭盖 Happy Land Kaixin Leyuan 开心乐园 Healing Force Xuanhu Jishi 悬壶济世 Hepatic Necrosis Productions Gan Huaisi Changpian 肝坏死唱片 Huadan Huadan 花旦 Jiang Wei Jiang Wei 姜伟 Jiangxi province Jiangxi Sheng 江西省 Jingwen Record Company Jingwen Changpian Gongsi 京文唱片公司 Jingwen Scream Jingwen Haojiao 京文嚎叫 Jinzhou Jinzhou 锦州 Kou Zhengyu Kou Zhengyu 寇征宇 Li Nan Li Nan 李难 Liaoning province Liaoning Sheng 辽宁省 Lin Zhaohua Lin Zhaohua 林兆华 Liu Yijun Liu Yijun 刘义军 Liu Zheng Liu Zheng 刘铮

143

Lu Lu Bo 吕玻 Mao Zedong Mao Zedong 毛泽东 Metal Battle China Jinshu Zhanhuo Zhongguo 金属战火 中国 Metal Music Jinshu Yinyue 金属音乐 Metal party Jinshu Dang 金属党 Mianyang Mianyang 绵阳 Micro-blog Weibo 微博 Midi School Midi Xuexiao 迷笛学校 Midwinter Dongzhi 冬至 Miserable Faith Tongku de Xinyang 痛苦的信仰 Moderate Metal Zhong Jinshu 中金属 Morin Khuur Matou Qin 马头琴 Mort Metal Carnival Haojiao Jinshu Jianianhua 号角金属嘉年华 Mort Production Haojiao Changpian 号角唱片 Municipality Zhixiashi 直辖市 National College Student Metal Fans Zhongguo Gaoxiao Jinshu 中国高校金属党联盟 Association Dang Lianmeng National Trama Ai Ying 哀郢 Nine Treasures Jiubao 九宝 Ningxia Hui ethnic autonomous region Ningxia Huizu Zizhiqu 宁夏回族自治区 Old/New Haoyun Bar Lao/Xin Haoyun Jiuba 老/新豪运酒吧 Ordnance Junxiesuo 军械所 Oriental Black Storm Dongfang Hei Fengbao 东方黑风暴 Overload Chaozai 超载 Painkiller Zhongxing Yinyue 重型音乐 Pest Productions Wenyi Changpian 瘟疫唱片 Pilot Music Feixingzhe Changpian 飞行者唱片 PLA military Band Jiefangjun Junyuetuan 解放军军乐团 Provincial capital Shenghui Chengshi 省会城市 Punisher Panguan 判官 Qin (7 strings) Qin (7 Xian) 古琴 (七弦琴) Qinyuanchun Xue Qinyuanchun Xue 沁园春 雪 Red tassels Hongying 红缨 Region in Metal forum Siyu Luntan 死域论坛 Ren Chei Ren Chei 人彘 Resurrection of Gods Zhongshen Fuhuo 众神复活 Ritual Day Shi Jiao Ri 施教日 Rock circle Yaogun Quan 摇滚圈 Rock Holy City Yaogun Shengdi 摇滚圣地 Seven-character metrical verse Qiyan Lvshi 七言律诗 Shandong province Shandong Sheng 山东省 Shang Di Shang Di 上地 Shanghai Shanghai 上海 Shenzhen Shenzhen 深圳 Sichuan province Sichuan Sheng 四川省 Silent Resentment Jijing de Youyuan 寂静的幽怨 Sina Micro-blog Sinlang Weibo 新浪微博 Songci Song Ci 宋词 Soul Linghun 灵魂 Soul Liberty Shihun 释魂

144

South Luogu Alley Nan Luogu Xiang 南锣鼓巷 Special administrative region Tebie Xingzhengqu 特别行政区 Spring Autumn Chun Qiu 春秋 Suffocated Zhixi 窒息 Tai’an Tai’an 泰安 Taiwan province Taiwan Sheng 台湾省 Tang Dynasty Tangchao 唐朝 Tang Poem Tangshi 唐诗 Taobao Shop Taobao Wangdian 淘宝网店 Tengger Cavalry Tieji 铁骑 The Falling Duotian 堕天 The Last Successor Mo Yi 末裔 The Midi Music Festival Midi Yinyuejie 迷笛音乐节 The New Force of Chinese Rock Zhongguo Yaogun Xin Shili 中国摇滚新势力 The Samans Saman 萨满 The Scream Club Haojiao Julebu 嚎叫俱乐部 The Star Live Xingguang Xianchang 星光现场 The Year of Chinese Culture Zhongguo Wenhua Nian 中国文化年 Thrash China Jiliu Zhongguo 激流中国 Tianjin Tianjin 天津 Tomahawk Zhanfu 战斧 Tree Village Shucun 树村 Under FM Dixia Tiaopin 地下调频 VirusBase Bingdu Ku 病毒库 Vomit Outu 呕吐 Voodoo Kungfu Lingyi 零壹 Wangyi Cloud Music Wangyi Yunyinyue 网易云音乐 WeChat Weixin 微信 West Wind Legend Indoor Festival “Xifeng Liezhuan” Shinei “西风列传” 室内音乐节 Yinyuejie White Hada Hada 哈达 World of Confusion Fenrao Shijie 纷扰世界 Wu Gang Wu Gang 吴刚 Wu Peng Wu Peng 吴鹏 Wuhan Wuhan 武汉 Wuming Gaodi Bar Wuming Gaodi Jiuba 无名高地酒吧 Wuwei Wuwei 武威 Xiami Xiami 虾米 Xmusic Jiduan Yinyue 极端音乐 Xuzhou Xuzhou 徐州 Yaksa Yecha 夜叉 Yangzi River Changjiang 长江 Yinchuan Yinchuan 银川 Yu Gong Yi Shan Yu Gong Yi Shan 愚公移山 Yu Yang Yu Yang 于洋 Yuanqu Yuan Qu 元曲 Zao Zao 躁 Zaozhuang Zaozhuang 枣庄 Zhang Ju Zhang Ju 张炬 Zhao Mingyi Zhao Mingyi 赵明义

145

Zheng (21 strings) Zheng (21 Xian) 古筝（21 弦） Zhenjiang Zhenjiang 镇江 Zigong Zigong 自贡 Zuriaake Zangshihu 葬尸湖

146

APPENDIX A: SURVEY FOR THE CHIENSE METAL FANS

Preliminary Question:

Preliminary questions are set to determine if you are qualified to be the participant of this study. Please answer these three questions below. You need to correctly answer one of these questions to activate the actual survey page.

Which one is metal finger? \m/ V ______Thank you for participating to this project. Please answer the following questions depending on your personal experiences in the metal scene and click “” after finishing all the questions. You are free to withdraw anytime by clicking “Cancel”.

1. Gender: Male (76.78%) Female (23.22%)

2. Age (See Figure 4)

3. Place of residency (See Figure 5)

4. Education background: Elementary School (0.13%) Middle School (0.67%) High School (12.62%) College – Associate (12.48%) College – Bachelor (64.70%) Master Degree (8.19%) Doctoral Degree (1.21%)

5. Occupation: Student (335) Employee (388) — 93% of white-collar workers

6. Monthly Salary: (rmb/month) Less than 2,000 (37.71%) 2,0001 – 4,000 (18.66%) 4001 - 6,000 (18.26%) 6,000 – 8,000 (8.19%) 8,000 – 10,000 (5.64%) 10,000 – 20,000 (8.60%) More than 20,000 (2.95%)

7. When did you start to listen to heavy metal? Late 1980s (8.05%) 1990 – 1995 (5.23%) 1996-2005 (29.93%) 2006 later (64.02%)

8. How long have you been listening to heavy metal? (See Figre 7)

9. How did you get to know metal music? Introduced by friends (31.68%) Heard it from a record store (9.13%) 147

Heard it from a party / club (3.62%) Heard it from TV/ radio (7.11%) Read something about metal from a music magazine (8.19%) Heard it through internet (30.33%) Douban (7.96%) Xiami (33.19%) Baidu music (9.73%) Youku/Tudou (16.37%) Other (33.19%) Other ways (Please specify: ______) (9.93%)

10. What is the first metal band you’ve ever listened to? Is it a Chinese band or foreign band? Chinese band (15.70%) Foreign band (82.95%) Top 5 Chinese Band Top 5 Foreign Band Tang Dynasty Metallica (USA) Overload (USA) Black Panther (although it’s not metal) (Finland) Distorted Machine (Germany) Tomahawk (USA)

11. What are three of your most favorite metal subgenres? Top 10 Subgenres that Chinese Metal Fan Like 1 Thrash Metal 2 Death Metal 3 Melodic Death Metal 4 Folk Metal 5 Black Metal 6 Metalcore 7 Heavy Metal 8 Gothic Metal 8 Power Metal 9 Progressive Metal 10

12. What are three of your most favorite Chinese metal bands? Top 10 Chinese Bands that Chinese Metal Fans Like 1 Frosty Eve (Shuang Dong Qian Ye) 2 Suffocated (Zhixi) 3 Tang Dynasty (Tangchao) 4 Explosicum (Baojiang) 5 The Samans (Saman) 6 Ego Fall (Dianfu M) 7 Nine Treasures (Jiu Bao) 8 Die From Sorrow (Yu) 148

9 Overload (Chaozai) 9 Yaksa (Yecha) 10 Distorted Machine (Niuqu Jiqi)

13. What are three of your most favorite foreign metal bands? Top 10 Foreign Bands that Chinese Metal Fans Like 1 Metallica (USA) 2 Lamb of (USA) 3 Children of Bodom (Finland) 4 Arch Enemy (Sweden) 5 (USA) 6 Megadeth (USA) 7 Nightwish (Finland) 8 Iron Maiden (UK) 9 Rammstein (Germany) 10 Slipknot (USA)

14. How many hours do you listen to metal each day? (Hour) Less than 1 (17.69%) 1-2 (45.04%) 3-4 (25.07%) 5-6 (6.70%) More than 6 (5.50%)

15. When do you usually listen to metal? In the morning (45.31%) In the afternoon (57.37%) In the evening (84.72%) At night (35.79%)

16. Where do you usually listen to metal? At my private place (85.39%) On the way (77.75%) In clubs/bars (39.28%) Others (17.29%)

17. Where do you usually get metal music? Buy record in record store (36.33%) Buy record on-line (46.11%) Purchase mp3 file on-line (18.10%) Download mp3 file for free (72.65%) Listen to metal through music website (70.11%) Douban (40.80%) Xiami (89.08%) Baidu music (11.30%) Youku/Tudou (26.05%) Other (21.26%) Other ways (Please specify: ______) (6.84%)

18. How many records have you ever purchased? 0 (13.67%) 1-5 (23.46%) 6-10 (13.54%) 11-30 (16.22%) 31-50 (8.85%) 51-70 (4.42%) 71-100 (3.62%) More than 100 (16.22%) 149

19. How many album have you ever bought since last year? 0 (28.82%) Less than 5 (38.20%) 6-10 (14.48%) 11-20 (7.28%) 21-30 (2.68%) More than 30 (8.58%)

20. How often do you go to the local record store? More than once a week (1.88%) Once a week (2.41%) Twice a month (5.09%) Once a Month (9.65%) Less than 10 times a year (26.94%) Once a year (6.30%) Less than once a year (17.16%) Never (30.56%)

21. Have you ever read any metal magazines? Yes (73.99%) Painkiller (92.57%) X-Music (50.91%) Other fanzines (11.78%) No (26.01%)

22. Have you ever attended a metal live performance? Yes (93.16%) No (6.84%)

23. How often do you attend to a metal gig? Attend every performance (14.24%) 2-3 times a month (8.06%) Once a month (13.38%) 6-10 times a year (15.68%) 2-5 times a year (31.22%) Once a year (8.63%) Less than once a year (8.78%)

24. Do you prefer to attend more Chinese metal band performances or foreign metal band performances? Only Chinese band (0.58%) More Chinese bands than foreign bands (10.22%) More foreign bands than Chinese bands (37.99%) Only foreign bands (10.94%) No Preference (40.29%)

25. What do you like about metal compared to other music? (Check the ones you strongly agree with.) (Walser, 1993, p. 176) It’s the most powerful kind of music; it makes me feel powerful. (69.44%) It’s intense; it helps me work off my frustrations. (57.91%) The guitar solos are amazing; it takes a great musician to play metal. (52.68%) I can relate to the lyrics. (36.06%) It’s music for people like me; I fit in with a heavy metal crowd. (30.70%) It’s pissed-off music, and I’m pissed off. (24.26%) It deals with things nobody else will talk about. (34.18%) It’s imaginative music; I would never have thought of some of those things. (54.42%) It’s true to life; it’s music about real important issues. (49.33%) 150

It’s not true to life; It’s fantasy, better than life. (28.42%)

26. Are you a practitioner / musician working in the Chinese metal scene? Yes, I’m a professional metal player. (5.23%) Yes, I’m a metal mediator / practitioner. (4.83%) No, I’m an amateur player. (40.88%) No, I’m just a metal listener. (49.06%) 151

APPENDIX B: LIST OF CHINESE METAL BANDS

Name* Year of Location (City, Style Website Chinese English Formation Province)** 1 唐朝 Tang Dynasty 1988 Beijing Heavy Metal / Folk Metal http://tangchao.ent.163.com/index/ 2 轮回 Again 1988 Beijing Heavy Metal N/A 3 面孔 The Face 1989 Beijing Pop Metal http://site.douban.com/face/

4 超载 Name1 1991 Beijing Thrash Metal N/A 5 冥界 Narakam 1992 Beijing Death Metal http://site.douban.com/narakam/ 6 战斧 Tomahawk 1992 Beijing Post-thrash Metal / Groove Metal https://site.douban.com/TomahawkBandChina/ 7 铁风筝 Iron Kite 1993 Beijing https://site.douban.com/ironkite/ http://baike.baidu.com/view/2940981.htm?fr=ala 8 呕吐 Vomit 1994 Tianjin Death Metal ddin 9 紫环 Purple Ring 1994 Beijing Thrash Metal / Heavy Metal N/A 10 夜叉 Yaksa 1995 Zigong, Sichuan Nu Metal / https://site.douban.com/yaksa/ 11 梦魇中腐烂 1996 Xuzhou, Jiangsu Melodic Death Metal N/A 12 异端 Heresy 1997 Nanchang, Jiangxi Symphonic Black Metal http://site.douban.com/ncmetal/room/775778/ 13 窒息 Suffocated 1997 Beijing Thrash Metal https://site.douban.com/zhixi/ 14 苔藓 Thallus 1997 , Liaoning Melodic Death Metal https://site.douban.com/thallus/ 15 手术台 The Base 1998 Nanchang, Jiangxi Death Metal http://site.douban.com/ncmetal/room/775778/ 16 烟雾 1998 , Shandong Melodic Death Metal N/A 17 腐尸 Cankered Corpse 1998 Xian, Shanxi Brutal Death Metal N/A 18 葬尸湖 Zuriaake 1998 , Shandong Black Metal https://site.douban.com/zuriaake/ 19 陈尸 Stale Corpse 1998 Beijing Brutal Death Metal N/A 20 零壹 Voodoo Kungfu 1998 Beijing Extreme Metal / Folk Metal https://site.douban.com/voodookungfu/ *Most bands have both Chinese and English Name. However, some bands don't provide an official English name in their websites and some other bands don’t have a Chinese Name . ** The original city where each band was formed is reported in this form. However, readers need to be aware that a band formed in a city is not equal to this band is formed by people from this city. Thus, it's possible that a band is formed in a city but members are from different locations. 152

Doom Metal / Black Metal / Serious http://i.xiami.com/music206?spm=a1z1s.663956 21 206和思想者 206 and Thinkers 1999 Xian, Shanxi Metal 1.350708669.1.R09Jox 22 Falling 1999 , Zhejiang Black Metal / Gothic Metal http://site.douban.com/falling/ 23 渗透 Filter 1999 Beijing Thrash Metal http://site.douban.com/shentou/ 24 军械所 Ordnance 1999 Beijing Thrash Metal / Groove Metal https://myspace.com/ordnanceband 25 海市蜃楼 1999 Beijing Progressive Metal https://site.douban.com/mirage/ 26 炼狱 Purgatory 1999 , Yunnan Black Metal N/A 27 猝死 Sudden Death 1999 , Henan Death Metal / Grindcore https://www.douban.com/group/cusi/ 28 渡鸦残骸 Ravenwreck 2000 Beijing Heavy Metal http://site.douban.com/ravenwreck/ Avant-garde / Atmospheric Black 29 Varuna 2000 Xian, Shanxi http://site.douban.com/varuna/ Metal 30 施教日 Ritual Day 2000 Beijing Melodic Black Metal http://music.douban.com/musician/105321/ 31 春秋 Spring Autumn 2000 Beijing Progressive Metal / Folk Metal N/A 32 梦魇 Nightmare 2000 Tianjin Progressive Metal N/A Melodic Death Metal / Metalcore / 33 颠覆M Ego Fall 2000 Hailar, https://site.douban.com/egofall/ Folk Metal 34 病蛹 2000 Beijing Nu Metal http://site.douban.com/bingyong/ 35 瘢痕体质 2000 Jinzhou, Liaoning Indie Metal http://site.douban.com/bhtz/ 36 AK-47 2000 Beijing Industrial Metal http://site.douban.com/ak-47/ 37 恶刺 Evilthorn 2001 Beijing Black Metal http://site.douban.com/evil-thorn/ 38 冻结的月亮 Frozen Moon 2001 Jinzhou, Liaoning Black Metal http://site.douban.com/frozenmoon/ 39 裂刃 Iron Blade 2001 Beijing / Power Metal http://site.douban.com/IronBlade/ 40 殉难 Martyrdom 2001 Beijing Black Metal http://site.douban.com/martyrdom/ Symphonic Black Metal / Extreme 41 惊叫基督 Screaming Savior 2001 Shanghai http://site.douban.com/screamingchrist/ Metal 42 血惊 The Blood 2001 Shanghai Thrash Metal / Death Metal http://site.douban.com/THYBLOOD/ 43 哀嚎 Ululate 2001 Beijing Raw Black Metal http://site.douban.com/ululate/ 44 古蛇 2001 Qingdao, Shandong Thrash Metal / Death Metal http://site.douban.com/Pterosphenus/ 45 复活 Resurrection 2001 Nanjing, Jiangsu Thrash Metal / Death Metal http://site.douban.com/resurrection/ http://www.xiami.com/artist/64027?spm=a1z1s.3 46 幻世狂想 Illusion 2001 Beijing Symphonic Power Metal 061781.6856533.10.yoqghu 47 散杀 Scattered Killing 2001 Xian, Shanxi Deathcore / http://site.douban.com/sansha/ 153

48 郁 Die from Sorrow 2001 Beijing Melodic Death Metal https://site.douban.com/diefromsorrow/ 49 液氧罐头 2001 Beijing Nu Metal http://site.douban.com/yeyangguantouband/ 50 断弦 Broken 2001 Kunming, Yunnan Death Metal / Black Metal https://site.douban.com/dxyd/ Unknown city, 51 Heartless 2002 Depressive Black Metal http://site.douban.com/heartless/ Shandong 52 凌迟 2002 , Anhui Brutal Death Metal http://site.douban.com/lingchi/ http://baike.baidu.com/view/1917101.htm?fr=ala 53 弑主 Regicide 2002 Beijing Brutal Death Metal ddin 54 灵迹 Spirit Trace 2002 Beijing Black Metal http://site.douban.com/lingji/ 55 内脏缝合 Visceral Suture 2002 Unknown Death Metal http://music.douban.com/subject/6087643/ 56 暴君之狂怒 Wrath of Despot 2002 Beijing Black Metal http://site.douban.com/wrathofdespot/ 57 暗月冥 Moonless Acheron 2002 Changsha, Hunan Thrash Metal https://site.douban.com/moonlessacheron/ 58 末裔 The Last Successor 2002 Beijing Progressive Metal / Power Metal https://site.douban.com/moyiband/ 59 甲胄 Armour 2002 Beijing Melodic Death Metal N/A 60 英吉沙 Yngizarm 2002 Xian, Shanxi Black Metal https://site.douban.com/yngizarm/ 61 黑宇 Darkcosmos 2002 Kunming, Yunnan Nu-thrash Metal http://site.douban.com/darkcosmos/ 62 尸厨 Corpse Cook 2003 Beijing Brutal Death Metal http://site.douban.com/corpsecook/ 63 劓刖 Excruciate 2003 Tianjin Death Metal http://site.douban.com/excruciate/ 64 惊林 Fear Forest 2003 Shenzhen, Guangdong Metalcore http://site.douban.com/fearforest/ 65 Genocide 2003 Yuxi, Yunnan Black Metal http://site.douban.com/genocide/ 66 血腥高潮 Hyonblud 2003 Beijing Brutal Death Metal http://site.douban.com/hyonblud/ Melodic Death Metal / Black Metal 67 月蚀 Lunar Eclipse 2003 Unknown city, Fujian http://www.douban.com/group/yueshiband/ / 68 裸体切割 Naked Incise 2003 Beijing Death Metal / Grindcore N/A 69 腥臭体液 Rammish Succus 2003 Qingdao, Shandong https://myspace.com/rammishsuccus 70 冰封十字 Frozen Cross 2003 Beijing Melodic Power Metal http://site.douban.com/frozencross/ 71 天行健 Norcelement 2003 Unknown city, Hebei Melodic Death Metal http://site.douban.com/walnut/ 72 守夜者 Night Watcher 2003 Zhengzhou, Henan Melodic Death Metal http://site.douban.com/shouyezhe/ Raping Corpse to 73 祭月奸尸 2003 Tianjin Black Metal N/A Sacrifice the Moon 74 雪葬 Snow Funeral 2003 Beijing Thrash/Black Metal https://site.douban.com/SnowFuneral/ 154

http://i.xiami.com/luojishikong?spm=a1z1s.6639 75 逻辑失控 logic out of control 2003 Beijing Heavy Metal 397.350708669.1.uNcQCw 76 癫狂收音机 The Raving Radio 2003 Beijing Screamo / Hardcore / Metal http://site.douban.com/ravingradio/ 77 641 2003 Tianjin Nu Metal / Metalcore / Hardcore http://site.douban.com/metal641/ 78 但丁之舟 Barque of Dante 2004 Mianyang, Sichuan Power Metal http://site.douban.com/tbod/ 79 阴暗之泉 Dark Fount 2004 Taian, Shandong Black Metal http://site.douban.com/darkfount/ 80 霜冻前夜 Frosty Eve 2004 Beijing Melodic Death Metal http://site.douban.com/frosty-eve/ http://baike.baidu.com/view/2272880.htm?fr=ala 81 胜战 Victorious War 2004 Qingdao, Shandong Progressive Metal ddin 82 墓志铭 Epitaph 2004 Shanghai Black Metal http://site.douban.com/MZM/ 83 夜莺 Nightingale 2004 Beijing Melodic Heavy Metal http://site.douban.com/nightingale/ 84 天幕落 Terminal Lost 2004 Shanghai Melodic Black Metal http://site.douban.com/terminallost/ 85 降临 WiderFahren 2004 Chengdu, Sichuan Symphonic Black Metal N/A 86 肆伍 Fourfive 2004 Beijing Deathcore http://site.douban.com/fourfive/ 87 核聚变G 2004 Beijing Industrial Metal http://site.douban.com/nf-g/ 88 界限 Boundary 2004 , Fujian Melodic Death Metal / Emo https://www.douban.com/group/boundary/ 89 腐烂 Rot 2004 , Heilongjiang Industrial Metal / Nu Metal https://site.douban.com/rot/ 90 活性炭 Activated Carbon 2005 Shanghai Gothic Metal http://www.douban.com/group/202155/ 91 解剖 Autopsia 2005 Tianjin Death Metal http://site.douban.com/autopsia/ http://www.xiami.com/artist/profile/id/65170?sp 92 被迫害 Be Persecuted 2005 Nanchang, Jiangxi Depressive Black Metal m=a1z1s.6659509.6856549.2.iDSpKa http://i.xiami.com/burnmark?spm=a1z1s.663939 93 Burnmark 2005 Guangzhou, Guangdong Alternative Metal / Metalcore 7.350708669.1.L1kKJC 94 裂缝 Crack 2005 Beijing Thrash Metal http://site.douban.com/crackthrash/ 95 Dengel 2005 Beijing Gothic Metal http://site.douban.com/dengel/ Black Metal / / Folk 96 E.D.I.E.H. 2005 Unknown N/A Metal http://www.xiami.com/artist/59115?spm=a1z1s.3 97 爆浆 Explosicum 2005 Nanchang, Jiangxi Thrash Metal 521865.226669510.9.rBUDLa&from=search_po pup_artist Unknown city, 98 From Chaos 2005 Depressive Black Metal http://site.douban.com/fromchaos/ Shandong 99 向地狱 Hellward 2005 Xian, Shanxi Black Metal http://site.douban.com/hellward/ 155

100 Maniac 2005 Wuhan, Hubei Thrash Metal http://site.douban.com/maniac/ 101 冬至 Midwinter 2005 Xian, Shanxi Black Metal N/A 国际联合敲击 102 Raging Mob 2005 Beijing Thrash Metal http://site.douban.com/ragingmob/ 军团 The Dark Prison 103 暗狱戮尸 2005 Tianjin Brutal Death Metal https://myspace.com/thedarkprisonmassacre Massacre 104 黎明的幻象 The Illusion of Dawn 2005 Wuhan, Hubei Raw Black Metal http://site.douban.com/douban.comtod/ 105 伏羲 2005 Lanzhou, Gansu Folk Metal / Doom Metal http://www.songtaste.com/singer/83574/ 106 小雨 2005 Guangzhou, Guangdong Symphonic Power Metal http://site.douban.com/xiaoyu/ 107 梦灵 Dream Spirit 2005 Taian, Shandong Heavy Metal / Folk Metal https://site.douban.com/mengling/ 108 莫邪 2005 , Jiangsu Melodic Black Metal https://site.douban.com/moye/ Unknown city, Inner 109 车裂 2005 Thrash Metal N/A Mongolia http://i.xiami.com/lrband/profile?spm=a1z1s.663 110 左右 2005 Beijing Power Metal / Nu Metal 2057.350708669.2.DhLmKs 111 锯 S.A.W 2005 Beijing Nu Metal / Hardcore http://site.douban.com/saw/ 112 永无宁日 Chaotic Aeon 2006 Xian, Shanxi Death Metal http://site.douban.com/chaoticaeon/ 113 Mother Darkness 2006 Unknown city, Shanxi Atmospheric Black Metal http://site.douban.com/motherdarkness/ 114 隐喻 The Metaphor 2006 Beijing Black Metal / Thrash Metal http://site.douban.com/themetaphor/ 115 萨满 The Samans 2006 , Jilin Gothic Metal / Folk Metal http://site.douban.com/thesamans/ 116 痛殇 Tomb Sound 2006 Nanning, Guangxi Black Metal http://site.douban.com/tombsound/ 117 暗夜妖娆 Toreador 2006 Beijing Gothic Metal http://site.douban.com/toreador/ 118 人彘 2006 , Hebei Technical Brutal Death Metal http://site.douban.com/renzhi/ 119 原罪 Original Sin 2006 Chengdu, Sichuan Gothic Metal http://site.douban.com/OriginalSin/ 120 堕天 The Falling 2006 Beijing Metalcore / Deathcore http://site.douban.com/duotian/ 121 寄生前夜 Parasitic-Eve 2006 Kunming, Yunnan Melodic Death Metal http://site.douban.com/pe/ 122 Chaos Mind 2006 Shanghai Metalcore http://site.douban.com/chaosmind/ 123 坏妈妈桑 Bad Mamasan 2007 Beijing Heavy Metal http://site.douban.com/www.badmamasan.com/ 124 真相 Dinkumoil 2007 Beijing Heavy Metal http://site.douban.com/dinkumoil/ 125 Fearless 2007 Shanghai Melodic Death Metal http://site.douban.com/fearless/ 126 地狱火 Hellfire 2007 Wuhan, Hubei Thrash Metal http://site.douban.com/hellfire/ 156

127 撕裂 Lacerate 2007 Beijing Thrash Metal http://site.douban.com/lacerate/ 128 畸形仇恨 Misshapen Hatred 2007 , Henan Raw Black Metal N/A 129 刺眼光芒 Aglare Light 2007 Unknown city, Sichuan Black Metal N/A 130 塔罗圣徒 Tarot Saint 2007 Beijing Thrash Metal / Metalcore http://site.douban.com/taluoshengtu/ 131 腐尸爱美丽 2007 Chengdu, Sichuan Folk Metal https://site.douban.com/blackx/ 132 铁浮屠 2007 Beijing Melodic Death Metal https://www.douban.com/group/193537/ Screamo / Metalcore / Post- 133 伟大科学家 The Great Scientist 2007 , Hainan http://site.douban.com/scientist/ Hardcore 134 伍角星 5 Pointed Star 2007 Shanghai Nu Metal / Metalcore http://site.douban.com/fivepointedstar/ 135 灵戒 Limbo 2007 Xian, Shanxi Metal http://site.douban.com/limboband/ 136 Metal Wing 2007 Tianjin Melodic Death Metal N/A Gothic Metal / Melodic Death 137 Goneshadow 2007 Wuhan, Hubei N/A Metal 138 回归黑暗 2008 Nanchang, Jiangxi Black Metal N/A Black Metal / Depressive Rock / 139 Dopamine 2008 Nanchang, Jiangxi http://site.douban.com/dopamine/ 140 炽潮 Flamingstream 2008 Changchun, Jilin Thrash Metal http://site.douban.com/flamingstream/ 141 葬礼 Funeral 2008 Beijing Black Metal http://site.douban.com/funeral666/ 142 地藏冥王 Hell Savior 2008 Beijing Heavy Metal http://site.douban.com/python5/ 143 白血病 Leukaemia 2008 , Heilongjiang Black Metal http://site.douban.com/leukaemia/ Xilinhot, Inner 144 诺尔 Nower 2008 Metalcore http://site.douban.com/nower/ Mongolia 145 撒旦之瞳 Pupil of 2008 Lanzhou, Gansu Thrash Metal http://site.douban.com/sadanzhitong/ 146 骸骨占卜 Skeletal Augury 2008 Beijing Thrash Metal / Death Metal http://site.douban.com/skeletal666/ 147 单翼天使 Single Winged Angel 2008 Tianjin Gothic Metal http://site.douban.com/angel/ 148 合法武装 2008 Urumchi, Xinjiang Industrial Metal http://site.douban.com/hfwz/ 149 罪魇 EvilMare 2008 Guangzhou, Guangdong Black Metal / Viking Metal https://site.douban.com/evilmare_band/

150 败血症 Septicaemia 2008 Beijing Brutal Death Metal https://www.douban.com/group/SEPTICAEMIA/ 151 霾晦 Dark Haze 2008 Beijing Melodic Death Metal https://site.douban.com/darkhaze/ 152 玉麟军 Army of Jade Kirin 2008 Beijing Alternative Metal https://site.douban.com/ajk/ 153 释魂 Soul Liberty 2008 Beijing Moderate Metal https://site.douban.com/soulliberty/ 157

Screamo / Melodic Death Metal / 154 魇 2008 Changchun, Jilin http://site.douban.com/yan/ Metalcore 155 歪曲扮演 Forced Pose 2008 Beijing Metalcore http://site.douban.com/forcedpose/ 156 无争 None The Less 2008 Xian, Shanxi Metalcore http://site.douban.com/wuzheng/ 157 紧那罗 2008 Beijing Industrial Metal / Metalcore https://site.douban.com/kinnaraband/ 158 咒虐 Curse Rampant 2009 Beijing Black Metal http://site.douban.com/curserampant/ 159 精神错乱 Delirious 2009 Nanjing, Jiangsu Grindcore http://site.douban.com/delirious/ 160 惊蛰 Excited Insects 2009 Handan, Hebei Thrash Metal http://site.douban.com/insects/ 161 Peggod 2009 Luoyang, Henan Black Metal / Death Metal http://site.douban.com/peggod/ Gothic Metal / Doom Metal / Death 162 寂静的幽怨 Silent Resentment 2009 Beijing http://site.douban.com/silentresentment/ Metal 163 神经性呕吐症 Nervous of Disgorge 2009 Unknown city, Yunnan Brutal Death Metal / Grindcore http://site.douban.com/Nervous_Of_Disgorge/ Atmospheric Black Metal / Folk 164 深山 Deep Mountains 2009 Taian, Shandong https://site.douban.com/liuqiang/ Metal 165 虚空 Nihility 2009 Changchun, Jilin Melodic Death Metal / Black Metal https://site.douban.com/nihility/ Nu Metal / Alternative Metal / 166 神经抵抗 Never Resistance 2009 Beijing http://site.douban.com/n.r/ Industrial Metal 167 永恒之翼 2009 Beijing Nu Metal http://site.douban.com/fivepointzero/ 168 六道母 Luktomo 2009 Guangzhou, Guangdong Emo / Metalcore http://site.douban.com/luktomo/ 169 平均律 2009 Beijing Heavy Metal http://site.douban.com/pingjunlv/ 170 False Notice 2009 Guangzhou, Guangdong Metalcore / Alternative Metal http://site.douban.com/falsenotice/ 171 犯罪律师 sinful lawyer 2009 Lanzhou, Gansu Nu Metal http://site.douban.com/fzls/ 172 鬼节 GwaiZit 2009 Guangzhou, Guangdong Metalcore http://site.douban.com/gwaizit/ 173 发条傀儡 The Clockwork Puppest 2009 Xian, Shanxi Industrial Metal / Nu Metal http://site.douban.com/ftkl/ 174 罗刹 RAKASASA 2009 Hefei, Anhui New thrash metal http://site.douban.com/rakasasa/ 175 怒 Anger 2009 , Jiangsu Melodic Death Metal http://site.douban.com/anger/ 176 暗绽 Bloom In the Dark 2009 Beijing Gothic Metal https://site.douban.com/bitd/ 177 悬壶济世 Healing Force 2009 Chongqing Thrash Metal / Metalcore https://site.douban.com/xuanhujishi/ 178 集 Collect 2009 , Guizhou Metalcore https://site.douban.com/COLLECT/ 179 审判日 Judgement Day 2009 Beijing Thrash Metal / Metalcore https://site.douban.com/judgementday/ 158

180 愤怒的羔羊 Lamb of the Wrath 2009 Xian, Shanxi Metal https://site.douban.com/lambofthewrath/ 181 审美灾难 Esthète Sinistre 2010 Guangzhou, Guangdong Atmospheric Post-Black Metal http://i.xiami.com/esthetesinistre 182 多重人格 Multiple Personality 2010 Beijing Black Metal http://site.douban.com/multiplepersonality/ 183 九宝 Nine Treasures 2010 Beijing Folk Metal http://site.douban.com/ashan/ 184 晦涩梦境 ObscureDream 2010 Qingdao, Shandong Black Metal http://site.douban.com/obscure/ 185 Psycho Killer 2010 Xian, Shanxi Grindcore / Death Metal http://site.douban.com/psychokiller/ 186 判官 Punisher 2010 Jinzhou, Liaoning Technical Thrash Metal http://site.douban.com/Punisher/ 187 碎颅者 Skullcrusher 2010 Wuhan, Hubei Thrash Metal http://site.douban.com/skullcrusher/ 188 铁骑 Tengger Cavalry 2010 Beijing Melodic Death Metal http://site.douban.com/tenggercavalry/ Unknown city, 189 墓 Tomb 2010 Black Metal http://site.douban.com/tomb/ Shandong 190 拖拉机 Tractor 2010 Beijing Heavy Metal http://site.douban.com/tractor/ 191 精神粉碎 Mind Crush 2010 Xian, Shanxi Heavy Metal http://site.douban.com/mindcrash/ 192 硬石情绪 Stone Emotion 2010 , Liaoning Alternative Metal / Whatever Metal http://site.douban.com/yingshiqingxu/ 193 甜蜜大逃亡 Escape 2010 Beijing Electronicore / Metalcore http://site.douban.com/thesweetescape/ 194 信仰深渊 Chasm of Belief 2010 Tianjin Melodic Death Metal / Metalcore http://site.douban.com/CHASMOB/ 195 恶童 Evil Kids 2010 Harbin, Heilongjiang Nu Metal https://site.douban.com/nancy1/ 196 远途 Long Haul 2010 Beijing Heavy Metal / Hard Rock https://site.douban.com/longwayband/ 197 何言以对 Keep Silent 2010 Beijing Metalcore https://site.douban.com/keepsilent/ 198 噪音投诉 Complain Noise 2010 Urumchi, Xinjiang Metal https://site.douban.com/ComplainNoise/ 199 罗尼之愿 Ronnie's Will 2010 Beijing Metalcore / Hardcore https://site.douban.com/ronnieswill/ http://www.xiami.com/artist/122990?spm=a1z1s. 200 湮灭 Annihilation 2011 Beijing Brutal Death Metal 6659513.6856581.1.CevENf Unknown city, 201 阴差 Nagzul 2011 Black Metal http://site.douban.com/YinChai/ Shandong 202 Never Before 2011 Beijing Stoner Metal http://site.douban.com/neverbeforeband/ 203 PerfututuM 2011 Shanghai Raw Black Metal http://site.douban.com/pftt/ 204 紫冥 Purple Hell 2011 Beijing Melodic Death Metal / Metalcore http://site.douban.com/ziming/ Desecration of Hulun Buir, Inner 205 亵渎人性 2011 Depressive Black Metal http://site.douban.com/AgainstHumanity/ Human Nature Mongolia 206 异论 Dissident 2011 Shenyang, Liaoning Thrash Metal http://site.douban.com/sylcmetal/ 159

207 昏脱 2011 Wuchang, Hubei Death Metal / Grindcore http://site.douban.com/huntuo/ 208 黑色祈祷 Black Invocation 2011 Zhengzhou, Henan Black Metal https://site.douban.com/blackinvocation/ , Inner 209 潜逃 Abscond 2011 Nu Metal http://site.douban.com/qiantao/ Mongolia Melodic Death Metal / Groove 210 肆佰贰拾枪乐队Shot and Killed 2011 Baoding, Hebei http://site.douban.com/thirteen/ Metal http://i.xiami.com/cavehaverod?spm=a1z1s.7400 211 穴有棍 Cave Have Rod 2011 Beijing Cartoon Grindcore / Goregrind 858.1392350021.138.oqyyY0 212 禁果 Forbidden fruit 2011 Jiujiang, Jiangxi Post-Hardcore / Metalcore http://site.douban.com/jinguo/ 213 Shut Up! Shut Down! 2011 Beijing Hardcore / Metalcore http://site.douban.com/susd/ 214 踏界 2011 Changchun, Jilin Metalcore / Gothic Metal https://site.douban.com/tagie/ 215 敌徒 Rebels 2011 Beijing Industrial Metal https://site.douban.com/Rebel/ Industrial Metal / Thrash Metal / 216 Dark Promise 2011 Shanghai https://site.douban.com/promisemusic/ Death Metal 217 刻骨 Deep Rooted 2011 Shanghai Metal https://site.douban.com/deeprooted/ 218 秘法山羊 Arcanegoat 2012 Unknown city, Hunan Doom Metal / Heavy Metal N/A http://i.xiami.com/blackkirin?spm=0.0.0.0.BvDX 219 黑麒 Black Kirin 2012 Changchun, Jilin Melodic Death Metal / Folk Metal yF&from=search_popup_artist Symphonic Black Metal / Death 220 黑戒 Dark Ring 2012 Guangzhou, Guangdong http://site.douban.com/darkring/ Metal 221 Desolate Hills 2012 Beijing / Wuhan, Hubei Depressive Black Metal http://site.douban.com/DesolateHills/ 222 伊布里斯 Eblis 2012 Yinchuan, Ningxia Brutal Death Metal http://site.douban.com/Eblis/ http://www.xiami.com/artist/384829720?spm=0. 223 鬼浴 Ghost Bath 2012 Chongqing Depressive Black Metal 0.0.0.q7fbaU 224 六角之火 HexFire 2012 Guangzhou, Guangdong Thrash Metal http://site.douban.com/HexFire/ 225 Make You Hopeless 2012 Shanghai Deathcore http://site.douban.com/makeuhopeless/ 226 Zenariz 2012 Kunming, Yunnan Depressive Black Metal http://site.douban.com/zenariz/ 227 天火 2012 Beijing Thrash Metal / Death Metal http://site.douban.com/skyfire/ 228 肆分之叁死 2012 Chengdu, Sichuan Heavy Metal http://site.douban.com/si4_3/ 229 万重 2012 Beijing Nu Metal http://site.douban.com/wanzhongband/ 230 樟脑丸 Mothball 2012 Chengdu, Sichuan Metalcore / Thrash Metal http://site.douban.com/Mothball/ 231 灭亡 Perished 2012 Chengdu, Sichuan Thrash Metal http://site.douban.com/TMetal/ 232 狗牙 Incisors 2012 Beijing Alternative Metal http://site.douban.com/incisorsyuedui/ 160

233 雪人先生 2012 Beijing Symphonic Metal http://site.douban.com/snowman/ Kung Fu & Electronic Nuclear 234 病毒库 VirusBase 2012 Beijing Metal / Experimental Metal / Folk http://site.douban.com/VirusBase/ Metal Heavy Metal / Power Metal / 235 重獸 Heavy Duty 2012 Beijing http://site.douban.com/Heavyduty/ Thrash Metal 236 永无止境 Sisyphus 2012 , Shandong / Thrash Metal http://site.douban.com/sisyphus/ 237 圣殿骑士 Amor Force 2012 Beijing Folk Metal http://site.douban.com/AFBand/ 238 裸体注射 2012 Xian, Shanxi Hardcore / Metal N/A 239 不公开审判 Secret Trial 2012 Chengdu, Sichuan Power Metal https://site.douban.com/SHENPAN/ 240 X射线 X-Ray 2012 Beijing Alternative Metal / Nu Metal https://site.douban.com/xray/ 241 黑湖 Black Lake 2013 Beijing Melodic Death Metal http://site.douban.com/blacklake/ 242 不洁净注射 Impure Injection 2013 Zibo, Shandong Grindcore http://site.douban.com/IMPUREINJECTION/ 243 决裂 Rupture 2013 , Fujian Death Metal / Thrash Metal http://site.douban.com/rupture666/ Hulun Buir, Inner 244 枯萎 Wither 2013 Depressive Black Metal http://site.douban.com/Wither/ Mongolia 245 下水道繁殖 Sewer Reproduction 2013 Tianjin Goregrind http://site.douban.com/water/ 246 蛇咒 Pythonic Curse 2013 Chengdu, Sichuan Brutal Death Metal https://site.douban.com/snakecurse/ 247 弭乱 2013 Jinan, Shandong Hardcore / Metalcore http://site.douban.com/miluan/ 248 数莲 Mathlotus 2013 Shanghai Progressive Metal http://site.douban.com/mathlotus/ Progressive Metal / Metalcore / Post- 249 茧 Jenter 2013 Chongqing http://site.douban.com/jenter/ Hardcore Melodic Death Metal / Nu Metal / 250 岩浆 Lava 2013 Harbin, Heilongjiang http://site.douban.com/Lava_/ Thrash Metal 251 虚症乐队 Asthenia 2014 Beijing Post-Black Metal / Shoegaze http://site.douban.com/Asthenia_69/ 252 抑郁之眼 Eye of Depression 2014 Tianshui, Gansu Depressive Black Metal http://site.douban.com/EyeOfDepression/ 253 异构 Asymmetry 2014 Chengdu, Sichuan Progressive Metal / Metalcore http://site.douban.com/asymmetry/ Zhangzhou / Xiamen, 254 黑暗收割者 Black Reaper 2014 Melodic Death Metal http://site.douban.com/blackreaper/ Fujian Black Metal / Thrash Metal / Nu 255 殓 2014 Changchun, Jilin http://site.douban.com/lian/ Metal 256 天体崇拜 Astrolatry Unknown Unknown Black Metal http://site.douban.com/Astrolatry/ 257 野蛮之力 Barbarous Unknown Unknown Death Metal / Thrash Metal http://site.douban.com/Barbarous/ 161

258 刀锋 Edge Unknown Shenyang, Liaoning Thrash Metal http://site.douban.com/edge/ 259 驱逐 Expel Unknown Unknown Death Metal http://site.douban.com/expel/ 260 突发邪恶 Sudden Evil Unknown Suzhou, Jiangsu Black Metal / Thrash Metal http://site.douban.com/suddenevil/ 161

APPENDIX C: LIST OF METAL INDIE LABELS IN CHINA

Have signed Name Year of Location Style foreign bands or Website Formation Chinese English not? 1 嚎叫唱片 Scream Records Beijing 1999 Hardrock, Punk, Metal, etc. Yes http://site.douban.com/screamrecords/ 2 So Rock! Records Hebei 2000 No http://site.douban.com/sorock/ Black Metal / Dark Ambient 3 垂死艺术 Dying Art Production Beijing 2001 / Industrial Yes http://site.douban.com/dyingartprod/ Brutal Death Metal / 4 Limbogrind Production Jiangsu 2001 Grindcore Yes Website 5 号角唱片 Mort Productions Beijing 2001 Extreme Metal Yes http://www.mort-prod.com/ Melodic Dark Metal / 6 命运之匙 Keysmet Productions Sichuan 2002 Neoclass / No http://site.douban.com/keysmet/ 7 铁墟唱片 Steel Ruins Records Shandong 2002 No http://site.douban.com/steelruins/ 8 GoatowaRex Beijing 2002 Black Metal Yes http://site.douban.com/goatowarex/ 9 殇 Shang Shandong 2003 Chinese Metal No N/A 10 时音唱片 TimeString Records Shanxi 2003 Indie No N/A Thrash, Death and Heavy 11 死域 AreaDeath Production Beijing 2004 Metal Yes http://site.douban.com/adp/ Black Happiness 12 黑双喜 Productions Shandong 2005 Black Metal No http://site.douban.com/BlackHappiness/ 13 暗夜妖娆 Dunkelnacht Beijing 2005 Gothic Metal No N/A RHC International 14 Records Beijing 2005 Rock No N/A Factory 15 死灵 ProductionsAutumn Floods Hunan 2006 MetalExtreme Metal, Old School No N/A 16 秋水 Production Shandong 2006 Death Metal Yes http://site.douban.com/Autumnfloods/ Post-Black Metal, Shoegaze, Depressive Rock, Post- 17 瘟疫 Pest Production Jiangxi 2006 Rock, Neofolk Yes http://www.pest666.com/ 18 飞行者唱片 Pilot Music Beijing 2006 Yes http://site.douban.com/pilotrecord/ 19 冥唱片 Ghostdom Records Henan 2007 Black Metal No http://site.douban.com/ghostdom/ 不安躁动合 http://www.douban.com/people/Moving- 20 作社 Move Restlessly Fujian 2007 Rock No Restless/ 21 Rock in China Records Beijing 2007 No 162

Divine Massacre 22 神圣屠杀 Records Tianjin 2008 Extreme Metal No http://site.douban.com/divinemassacre/ 23 红石水 Red Stone Water Henan 2008 Rock No http://site.douban.com/rswrecords/

Black Metal / Dark Acoustic 24 雀十字 Sparrow Cross Beijing 2008 / Ambient / Experimental No http://sparrowcross.blogbus.com/

25 地狱唱片 Helvete Production Heilongjiang 2009 No Rotting Development 26 Productions Tianjin 2009 Extreme Metal / Grindcore No http://site.douban.com/rdp/ 27 残酷统治 Brutal Reign Production Jiangsu 2009 Death Metal Yes http://site.douban.com/brpchina/

28 冷寂森林 Cold Woods Productions Hunan 2009 Black Metal / Dark Ambient Yes http://site.douban.com/coldwoods/ Doom/Death/Black/Thrash 29 迷莲唱片 Psychedelic Lotus Order Beijing 2009 Metal Yes http://site.douban.com/plo/ 30 66 Production Hunan 2010 Black Metal No http://site.douban.com/dark66/ 31 戴姆唱片 BrutalDime Records Slam Guttural Beijing 2010 Metalcore No http://site.douban.com/dimerecords/ 32 Production Liaoning 2011 Brutal Death Metal No http://site.douban.com/bsgp/ http://site.douban.com/apocalypseproductions 33 天启唱片 Apocalypse Production Beijing 2011 Thrash, Death, Black Metal Yes / 34 宝丽水 PolyWater Production Jiangxi 2011 Yes https://site.douban.com/shr/room/2194489/ Stress Hormones 35 Records Jiangxi 2011 Thrash/Black/Death Metal Yes http://site.douban.com/shr/ 36 枯荣 Kurong Music Beijing 2012 Chinese Rock & Metal No http://site.douban.com/KRMUSIC/ Dete Nenavister 37 Production Fujian 2012 Black Metal Yes http://site.douban.com/detenenavister/ 38 死原论 Thanatology Production Beijing 2012 Yes http://site.douban.com/Thanatology/ 39 Thanatopsis Records Beijing 2012 Death Metal Yes http://site.douban.com/Thanatopsis/ Soul Cleanliness 40 Production Beijing 2013 No http://site.douban.com/S-C-P/ Hepatic Necrosis 41 肝坏死 Productions Shandong 2013 Grindcore / Goregrind Yes http://site.douban.com/hnp/ Depressive Black Metal / 42 Solitaire Productions Hubei 2013 -Folk / Neo-Classic Yes http://site.douban.com/solitaireprod/ Power Electronic / Harsh 43 Viva Angel Press Beijing 2013 Noise / Grindcore Yes N/A 163

World War Now 44 Production Beijing 2013 Yes http://site.douban.com/wwn/ Inner 45 Infected Blood Records Mongolia 2014 Extreme Metal No http://site.douban.com/IBR/ Kill the Light Inner 46 Productions Mongolia 2014 Yes http://site.douban.com/ktlp/ Inner 47 Lifeless Memories Mongolia 2014 Yes http://site.douban.com/LifelessMemories/ Punishment by Brutal Death Metal / http://site.douban.com/punishmentbycastratio 48 腐刑 Castration Beijing 2014 Grindcore Yes n/ 49 贪欲之海 Greedy Sea Records Guangdong 2015 Extreme Metal No http://site.douban.com/GSR/ 164

APPENDIX D: LIST OF FOREIGN BANDS PERFORMNG IN CHINA

The Number Year Band Name Country Performing Cities* of Performance Organizor Performance Xandria Germany Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai 3 Guitar China (GC) & XoundForce USA Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Shanghai, Chengdu, 10 Painkiller & The Hotpot Music Chongqing, Xian, Zhengzhou, Beijing, Shenyang Galneryus Japan Shanghai 1 Painkiller HAGGARD Germany Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Tianjin 4 GC & XoundForce Obey The Brave Canada Shenzhen, Shanghai, Wuhan, Beijing 4 Painkiller & The Hotpot Music Lacrimosa Germany Shanghai, Beijing 2 GC & XoundForce Starkiller USA Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Changsha, Zhengzhou, Wuhan, 11 Painkiller Xian, Chongqing, Chengdu, Shanghai, Beijing, Shenyang Dead Shape Figure Finland Tianjin, Zaozhuang, Huaibei, Shanghai, , Guigang, 12 Mort Production Liuzhou, Maoming, , Carcass UK Shanghai 1 Painkiller & Taihe Music Group 2015 Megadeth USA Shanghai, Beijing 2 GC & XoundForce Behemoth Poland Beijing 1 GC & XoundForce Children of Bodom Finland Beijing 1 Painkiller & Taihe Music Group Re-Armed Finland Guangan, , Wuwei, Jiayuguan, , , 13 Mort Production Tianjin, Luoyang, Nanchang, Wuhan, Changsha, Chengdu, Chongqing Funerus USA Tianjin, Xuzhou, Hohhot 3 Mort Production Cynic USA Beijing 1 GC & XoundForce UK Shanghai, Chengdu 3 The Hotpot Music DragonForce UK Beijing, Shanghai Guangzhou 3 Painkiller & Taihe Music Group Unleash The Archers Canada Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Changsha, 6 Painkiller Guangzhou Venom Inc. UK Beijing 1 GC & XoundForce * The performance data was collected from official websites of the organizers and Douban Event website. However, the author was not able to track whether the performance cancelled or not due to various reasons in the last minute. Thus, the reader should be aware that a few gigs (especially gigs scheduled in small cities) recorded in this form might not actually happen. 165

Our Last Night USA Beijing 1 Painkiller USA Beijing, Shanghai, Xian, Chengdu, Chongqing, Xiamen, 11 The Hotpot Music & Trinty Agency Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Zhengzhou, Shenyang Arcanum Sanctum Russia Beijing, Xian, Chongqing, Guangan, Chengdu, Xining, 12 Mort Production Wuwei, Jinchang, Lanzhou, Yinchuan, , Tianjin Belphegor+The Haunted Austria+Sweden Beijing 1 Painkiller

Hidden Intent Australia , Tianjin, Zhengzhou, Handan, Xian, Chongqing, 11 Mort Production Guangan, Chengdu, Kunming, Beijing Artillery Denmark Tianjin, Taiyuan, Yinchuan, Changji, Beijing 5 Mort Production USA Shanghai 1 Painkiller Scream Maker Poland Hefei, Nanning, Guigang， Liuzhou, Chongqing, Shiyan, 11 Mort Production Yongkang, Yiwu, Changzhou, Hangzhou Mysteria Mortis Russia Harbin, Changzhou, Binzhou, Liaocheng, Zibo, Linyi, 23 Mort Production 2015 Zaozhuang, Xuzhou, Xian, Chongqing, Wanzhou, Chengdu, Nanning, Wuwei, Hohhot,Yinchuan, Taiyuan, , Zhengzhou, Tangshan, Tianjin Suffocation USA Beijing 1 Painkiller Cypher 16 UK Chongqing, Chengdu, Yining, Bole, Changji, Urumchi, 18 Mort Production Yinchuan, Taiyuan, Jinan, Linyi, Rizhao, Qingdao, Zibo, , Binzhou, Changzhou, Tangshan, Tianjin Noctem Beijing, Taiyuan, Yinchuan, Wuwei, Yining, Bole, Changji, 17 Mort Production Urumchi, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, , Wuhan, Changsha, Kunming, Chongqing, Chengdu, Tianjin USA Beijing 1 Painkiller Arch Enemy Sweden Shanghai, Beijing 2 GC & XoundForce At The Gate Sweden Beijing 1 Painkiller USA Shanghai, Beijing 2 AEG Revocation USA Beijing 1 Painkiller Devourment USA Beijing 1 Mort Production Finland Beijing, Shanghai 2 Painkiller 2014 DGM Italy Beijing 1 GC & XoundForce Carcass UK Beijing 1 Painkiller Cypher 16 UK Tangshan, Taiyuan, Zhengzhou, Changzhi, Handan, Beijing 6 Mort Production 166

Therion Sweden Beijing 1 Painkiller Dead Shape Figure Finland Beijing, Chifeng, Taiyuan, Liaocheng, Binzhou, Zibo, Linyi, 21 Mort Production Xuzhou, Shanghai, Xinxiang, Baoding, Cangzhou, Tangshan, Chongqing, Chengdu, Xining, Yinchuan, Wuwei, Zhengzhou, Handan Bob Malmström Finland Handan, Changzhi, Taiyuan, Xuzhou, Urumchi, , 10 Mort Production Xihe, Lanzhou, Shijiazhuang, Beijing Morbid Saint USA Shanghai, Urumchi, Chifeng, Beijing 4 Mort Production Coprolith Finland Urumchi, Lanzhou, Xuzhou, Xinxiang, Handan, 15 Mort Production Zhengzhou, Zaozhuang, Liaocheng, Binzhou， Zibo, Beijing, Shijiazhuang, Langfang, Baoding, Chongqing HIM Finland Shanghai 1 GC & XoundForce Mr Pollack Poland Beijing, Xuzhou, Linyi, Xinxiang, Lanzhou, Urumchi, 11 Mort Production Jiayuguan, , Wuwei, Zhengzhou, Handan Sepultura Brazil Shanghai 1 Painkiller Vader Poland Beijing 1 GC & XoundForce 2014 Children of Bodom Finland Beijing, Shanghai 2 GC & XoundForce Italy Shanghai, Beijing 2 GC & XoundForce Israel Beijing 1 Embassy of Isreal & Painkiller Impiety Singapore Shanghai, Beijing 2 Mort Production Origin+Emergency Gate USA+Germany Beijing EMG & Painkiller Wolf Spider Poland Zhengzhou, Handan, Xuzhou, Jiayuguan, Lanzhou, 8 Mort Production Liaocheng, Binzhou, Beijing The Black Dahlia USA Shanghai, Beijing 2 GC & XoundForce Murder Dark Tranquility Sweden Shanghai, Beijing 2 GC & XoundForce USA Shanghai, Beijing 2 Painkiller & Holiday Music Condemned USA Shanghai, Linyi, Xinxiang, Lanzhou, Zhengzhou, 7 Mort Production Liaocheng, Beijing Periphery USA Shanghai 1 Painkiller HAVOK USA Beijing 1 Painkiller Her Name In Blood Japan Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Beijing 4 The Hotpot Music SIGN Japan Beijing 1 Mort Production 2013 The USA Beijing 1 Painkiller 167

Leaves Eyes + Atrocity Germany Shanghai, Beijing 2 Modern Sky, GC & XoundForce Beijing 1 Modern Sky, GC & XoundForce Spain Beijing 1 Modern Sky, GC & XoundForce Finland Beijing, Shanghai 2 Modern Sky, GC & XoundForce Germany Beijing 1 Painkiller Amorphis Finland Beijing, Shanghai 3 Modern Sky, GC & XoundForce Behemoth Poland Shanghai, Beijing 2 Modern Sky, GC & XoundForce Sweden Beijing, Changchun, Harbin, Shanghai 4 Modern Sky, GC & XoundForce Antagonist Zero Finland Taian, Zaozhuang, Zhengzhou, Nanjing, , Langfang, 9 Mort Production Tianjin, Shanghai, Beijing Dead Shape Figure Finland Shanghai, Suzhou, Nanjing, Ningbo, Zaozhuang, 9 Mort Production Zhengzhou, Xuzhou, Beijing P.O.D USA Beijing, Shanghai 1 Modern Sky, GC & XoundForce Omnium Gatherum Finland Shanghai, Beijing 2 Modern Sky, GC & XoundForce Finntroll Finland Changchun, Shanghai, Beijing 3 Modern Sky, GC & XoundForce 2013 Disgorge USA Shanghai, Beijing 2 Mort Production Metallica USA Shanghai 2 AEG At The Gate Sweden Shanghai, Beijing 2 Modern Sky, GC & XoundForce Persefone Andora Guangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing 3 Modern Sky, GC & XoundForce As Blood Runs Black USA Shanghai, Beijing 2 Modern Sky, GC & XoundForce Nauzea Finland Xian, Wuhan, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Nanjing, Shanghai, 16 Mort Production Shijiazhuang, Beijing, Yinchuan, Dalian, Shenyang, Changchun, Lanzhou, Zhengzhou, Hohhot, Coprolith+Bob Finland Xian, Dalian, Shenyang, Changchun, Langfang, Beijing, 18 Mort Production Malmström Tianjin, Shijiazhuang, Tianshui, Xining, Lanzhou, Zhengzhou, Nanchang, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Shanghai, Hohhot, Baotou Bob Malmström Finland Tianjin, Yinchuan, Xian, Dalian, Shenyang, Changchun, 16 Mort Production Shijiazhuang, Zhengzhou, Nanjing, Wuhan, Nanchang, Lanzhou, Xining, Tianshui, Baotou, Hohhot Finland Shanghai, Beijing 2 Modern Sky, GC & XoundForce Switherland Shanghai, Beijing 2 Modern Sky, GC & XoundForce 168

Slash USA Shanghai 1 AEG Before the Dawn Finland Beijing 1 Modern Sky, GC & XoundForce Destruction Germany Harbin, Beijing 2 Modern Sky, GC & XoundForce Obituary USA Beijing 1 Painkiller 2013 Epica Netherlands Shanghai, Beijing 2 Modern Sky, GC & XoundForce Lacrimosa Germany Shanghai, Beijing 2 Modern Sky, GC & XoundForce Graveworm Italy Beijing, Shanghai 2 GC & XoundForce USA Shanghai, Beijing 2 GC & XoundForce 2012 Sweden Beijing 1 Painkiller 's Super USA Shanghai, Beijing 2 Modern Sky, GC & XoundForce Band USA Beijing 1 Painkiller USA Shanghai 1 Painkiller Dead Shape Figure Finland Beijing, Changchun, Tianjin 3 Mort Production Greece Beijing, Shanghai 2 GC & XoundForce Amoral Finland Shanghai 1 Painkiller & Icon Production Sacred Mother Tongue UK Beijing, Shanghai 2 GC & XoundForce Finland Beijing, Shanghai 2 GC & XoundForce Kryperia Germany Shanghai 1 GC & XoundForce Swan Punch Denmark Guangzhou, Beijing 2 Painkiller USA Beijing, Shanghai 2 GC & XoundForce USA Dalian, Beijing 2 GC & XoundForce Dark Tranquility Sweden Shanghai, Beijing 2 GC & XoundForce Germany Beijing, Changchun, Harbin, Shanghai 4 GC & XoundForce Lamb of God USA Shanghai 1 Painkiller & Icon Production Opeth Sweden Beijing 1 Painkiller & Icon Production Lake of Tears Sweden Shanghai, Dalian, Shenyang, Beijing 4 GC & XoundForce The Haunted Sweden Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang 3 Mort Production & XoundForce Parkway Australia+Japan Beijing 1 Painkiller & The Hotpot Music 2011 Drive+ Trail Of Tears Norway Beijing, Xian, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Shanghai, 7 Mort Production & XoundForce Guangzhou 169

Moonsorrow Finland Beijing, Changchun, Harbin, Shanghai 4 GC & XoundForce UK Shanghai, Yinchuan, Lanzhou, Hangzhou, 5 Mort Production The Ocean Germany Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Chengdu, 7 Painkiller & NewNoice Wuhan, Shanghai Suicide Silence USA Beijing 1 Painkiller & Holiday Music To Die For+Vic Anselmo Finland+Lativa Guangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing 4 Mort Production & XoundForce 2011 Gotham O.D Finland Nanjing 1 Mort Production & XoundForce Ill Nino USA Beijing 1 The Pilot Music Private Line Finland Nanjing, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing 4 Mort Production & XoundForce Star Industry Baotou, Hohhot, Beijing, Suzhou, Shanghai, Guangzhou 6 Mort Production & XoundForce + Germany+Finland Beijing 1 GC & XoundForce Marduk Sweden Beijing 2 Painkiller & Icon Production Italy Shanghai, Beijing 2 GC & HBN Germany Beijing 1 Painkiller & Icon Production Dying Fetus USA Xian, Beijing 2 Mort Production & Icon Production Exodus USA Beijing 1 Painkiller & Icon Production Australia Beijing 1 Painkiller & Icon Production Born From Netherlands Guangzhou, Wuhan, Beijing 3 Painkiller & The Hotpot Music Stratovarius+Negative+B Finland Shanghai, Beijing 2 Painkiller & Icon Production 2010 efore The Dawn+Turisas

Mnemic Denmark Beijing 1 Painkiller Lamb of God USA Beijing 2 GC Assassin Germany Beijing 1 Painkiller In Flame Sweden Beijing 1 GC USA Beijing 1 Painkiller & Icon Production Ensiferum Finland Guangzhou, Xian, Shanghai, Beijing, 4 Painkiller & Icon Production Finland Shanghai 1 GC, Mirage & Rock Empire Sweden Beijing 1 GC 2009 Drone Germany Beijing 1 Painkiller Germany Beijing 1 Dezhong Tongxing2009 & Painkiller 170

Arch Enemy Sweden Beijing 1 GC & Mort Production Children of Bodom USA Beijing 1 GC & Mort Production Skid Row USA Beijing 1 Painkiller Terror USA Shanghai, Beijing 2 Painkiller & The Hotpot Music Kreator Germany Beijing 1 GC & Mort Production 2009 Stratovarius Finland Beijing 1 Painkiller & Icon Production Lacrimosa Switherland Beijing 2 GC Destruction Germany Beijing 1 Painkiller & Icon Production DragonForce UK Beijing 1 GC USA Beijing 1 The Pilot Music & GC 2008 Doro+Corvus Corax Germany Beijing 1 Goethe-Institut & Embassy of Germany Behemoth Poland Beijing 1 Painkiller Raunchy+Debauhery Denmark+German Beijing, Wuhan, Shenyang, Tianjin 4 Painkiller & Icon Production y In the Moment+Head USA+Japan Beijing 1 Painkiller Phone President Dreamtheater USA Beijing 1 Midi, GC, Modern Player & Rock Empire Nightwish Finland Shanghai, Beijing 1 Modern Player & GC Skylark Italy Shanghai, Beijing, Shenyang, Changchun, Harbin, 7 GC & Rock Empire Kunming, Shenzhen Dark Tranquility Sweden Beijing 1 GC 2007 Arch Enemy Sweden Beijing 1 Midi, GC & Rock Empire Metal Safari Japan Beijing 1 Painkiller Vision Divine Italy Shenzhen, Shanghai, Shenyang Beijing 4 Bailikang Group & Guitar China Testament USA Beijing 1 Painkiller +El Caco Denmark+Norway Beijing 1 Painkiller

Edenbridge+Vision of Austria Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen 2 Tenglian Culture & Painkiller Atlantis 2006 Lacrimosa Germany Shanghai, Beijing 2 GC & Rock Empire Germany Beijing 1 Painkiller 2004 Labyrinth Italy Beijing 1 Painkiller 171

APPENDIX E: HSRB APPROVAL LETTER

- 1 - Generated on IRBNet 172

- 2 - Generated on IRBNet