Maintaining the Rage

China Supplement 41 appearance. It should be noted, of the neighbourhood committees higher echelons of the party would however, that the mass-line in polic will aid the police in maintaining require a degree of political move ing was strengthened, not as a result social order in the community. What ment the current leadership is clear of the triumphant march forward of the mass line in policing is less com ly not willing to countenance. In socialism but, on the contrary, of a petent at doing—and in the present place of reform, the current leader crisis in policing brought on by political climate this is possibly a ship offers to resurrect Lei Feng and economic reform. fatal flaw— is policing middle and Mao. For all too many Chinese, how high ranking party and government ever, Lei Feng and Mao are not a Will such resurrections, then, lead officials who are involved in corrupt means by which China can go ‘back China ‘back to the future’, back to a practices. to the future' but are themselves popular/populist form of socialism? back in the past. For all too many Probably n ot, althou gh these The ultimate question, then, is not Chinese, it's now time to move for measures will continue to function whether we go ‘back to the future’ ward. adequately, to be maintained and but whether the mass line in polic even extended. Campaigns will ing is capable of doing anything lower—albeit temporarily—certain other than policing the masses. To MICHAEL DUTTON1 teaches in political science at Melbourne University. types of crime and the expanded role construct a means of policing the Maintaining the rage Central Television newsreader sang, commanding legions of screaming A small voice of dissent tears streaming down her face, “I fans. will find a way to cast off these ropes Cui Jian, China’s No. l rock star, a can still be heard in and take a hold of life; the sun will one-man phenomenon in faded shine down on me,” the crowd China, and, according to army fatigues and work boots who waved burning matches, cigarette writes songs with titles like “Rock Linda Jaivin, it's lighters and even flaming programs for the New Long March” was one of in response. becoming louder, the sparks that ignited the prairie without, it seems, the There’s no doubt about it, rock is hot fire of rock. A former trumpeter with in China. In a sense, yaogun (rock ’n the Beijing Philharmonic, the baby party cadres noticing. roll) is to young urban Chinese today faced Mr Cui appeared on Beijing's what ’misty poetry’ was to Chinese Central Television in November youth of the early 1980s; a secret here's nothing like rock 1985 singing what is still an endur- language defying comprehension by ingly popular tune, “Nothing to my 'n roll fever to warm up the adult establishment and a shared Name”. those cold Beijing code for self-expression that im nights. Last February, plicitly rejects the values of official I want to give you hope braving sleet and biting winds, culture. Even in its heyday, how 1 want to help make you free fans pocked the 18,000-seat ever, misty poetry enjoyed a limited But all you ever do is laugh at me, Workers' Stadium two nights in a audience at best; rock reaches the 'cause I’ve got nothing to my name. row for China's first rock festival. masses. And you can dance to it. Performing were six of the best of Rock in China has come a long way A trend was bom. Beijing quickly the capital's 30-odd focal bands: since April 1985, when British pop became the jinggangshan of Chinese ihe all-female Cobra, the heavy- group Wham staged the nation’s first rock, a revolutionary bass area, if metal Tang Dynasty, Breath, Cir rock concert and the few brave fans you will, from which the rock mes cumstances, ADO, and 1989. who tried to dance in the aisles were sage was spread. While rock has dragged off by police. Few observers reached many areas of the country, When Wei Hua, lead singer of Breath could then have imagined that, including Lhasa, it remains primari belted out her signature tune, “Don’t within a few years, China would ly an urban phenomenon. The secret Even Think of Stopping Me", the boast a fully fledged rock scene, of rock’s appeal was hinted at in the audience exploded. As the former complete with home-grown bands. 1988 short story “The Rock 'n Roll A IR : FEBRUARY 1991 42 China Supplement Generation” by the army writer Liu may be explicit, as in the raucous The lyrics are matched with images Yiran. The story encapsulates the "Official Banquet Song”, a witty representing a short history of high-spirited mood of anti description of cadre gluttony that Chinese communism: Marx (’’You’re authoritarian rebellion that suffused doesn’t miss a beat; a seed of fire...”), Lenin ("a the air one year later when the stu prophecy”), Mao ("a banner") and I’m a big official so 1 eat and dents of Beijing took to the streets Deng ("you spoke the truth...’’). Yeah, drink, eat and drink. under the banners of democracy and yeah, yeah. To the Mongolian restaurant we freedom. In the story, breakdancing, go for hot pot, As a result of this sort of thing, one sex and rock are the key to the young To Quanjude for Peking duck. Beijing punk rocker practically spits protagonist’s search for personal Anyway, it’s not my money, when he hears the word yaogun be liberation and fulfilment His ir So eat and drink and all be cause "they use it now”. He makes reverent antics at one point lead his merry! no compromises himself. Spewing relatively straight-laced girlfriend to beer over the heads of his audience ask him what was next—rocking The Communist Party of China and beating up on his bass player, into Zhongnanhai (the Communist hasn’t figured out what it thinks his head partially shaven and a snarl Party’s headquarters)? He never about the rock revolution. It’s done on his face, he sings songs like "We made it there, but the participants in the twist a number of times already Live in a Garbage Dump”: the 1989 protest movement did: on musical issues. Having banned during the protests, breakdancing, Beethoven and Debussy in the Cul The place where we live rock and sex were part of life on tural Revolution, it was forced to Is like a garbage dump. Tiananmen Square, at the doorstep rehabilitate them afterwards. In the We're all insects of Zhongnanhai. By day the early 80s it proscribed the sentimen Fighting and squabbling protesters chorused the Internation tal love songs of Taiwan’s Teresa We eat our conscience ale; by night, they grooved to Cui Teng, but a few years later attempted And shit our thoughts... Jian, to get her to play Beijing. By the time Is there anything we can do? Rock is, of course, a foreign import. disco became the rage in China in Nope. Several of the most popular Beijing the mid-80s—long after it was dead Tear it down. in the West—there was such bands, such as 1989, even have While Beijing remains the home of foreign members. (ADO, Cui Jian's ideological confusion that it was declared either spiritual pollution or Chinese rock, even Guangzhou, original band, recently disbanded where the mellower sounds of Hong when its foreign members left excellent exercise for the elderly, depending on the commentator. Kong Canto-pop dominate the China.) In the capital, expatriates scene, has produced a major rock may also play a major role in arrang Chinese disco reached its creative talent in Xie Chengqiang, composer ing gigs, such as open, multi-band, apex with the release of disco ver of ‘‘What’s the 90s Gonna Bring?”, I mixed-crowd dance parties staged at sions of the revolutionary model Mr Xie, a Shandong native who was such surprising locations as the an operas. Then Cui Jian, dubbed "the raised in Guangzhou, comes com cient Observatory Tower. For all atom bomb of Chinese rock” by plete with all the standard rock star that, however, yaogun is definitely Taiwan’s China 7Imes Weekly, burst equipment: black clothing, dark rock with Chinese characteristics. on the scene. Almost immediately, glasses and a voice that was raked The Taiwan singer-songwriter Hou ideologues and cultural conserva out of the gravel. In the underground Dejian, who defected to China in tives swooped in with criticisms of music video of “What’s the 90s 1983 and was shipped back to his "extreme individualism" and Gonna Bring?” images of Sun Yat- Taiwan last year, was the first to "bourgeois liberalisation”. His sen, old people practising tai chi, a introduce traditional instruments songs, they claimed darkly, had map of China burning, and like the suona to Chinese rock arran "negative ideological content”. It’s Guangzhou street scenes alternate gements; it’s now almost a cliche. said that a high-ranking municipal with visions of Mr Xie bound in red The films Yellow Earth and Red Sor official even denounced "Nothing to silk, tearing a seal ofblack tape from ghum sparked a fad for Shaanxi folk My Name” as absurd—how could a his mouth and smashing walls with music which has since melded with Chinese youth have nothing to his his guitar. rock to form a new, hybrid genre name when he had socialism? What is the 90s gonna bring for known as the northwest wind.

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