{"id":16667,"date":"2021-05-13T17:17:33","date_gmt":"2021-05-13T21:17:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/?p=16667"},"modified":"2021-05-13T17:17:33","modified_gmt":"2021-05-13T21:17:33","slug":"rocking-out-in-china-part-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/rocking-out-in-china-part-three\/","title":{"rendered":"Rocking Out in China (Part Three)"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the past few months, we’ve been taking a closer look at rock music in China. You can go back and check out Part One<\/a> about Cui Jian and the sound known as Northwest Wind, as well as Part Two<\/a> where we looked at Black Panther, Dreaming, and Tang Dynasty. Today we’ll continue into the 90s to see how Chinese rock continued to develop. I just have on question for you – are you ready to rock<\/strong>? (\u4f60\u51c6\u5907\u597d\u6447\u6eda\u4e86\u5417? n\u01d0 zh\u01d4n b\u00e8i h\u01ceo y\u00e1o g\u01d4n le ma?).<\/p>\n

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Image by Oberholster Venita<\/a> from Pixabay<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Chinese Rock Goes Punk<\/h2>\n

As I mentioned in the last post, Tang Dynasty’s debut album was a smash hit. It sold over 2 million copies and helped propel rock music to the mainstream in China and throughout Asia. Rock & roll even made it onto the airwaves of CCTV! People loved the heavy metal<\/strong> (\u91cd\u91d1\u5c5e zh\u00f2ng j\u012bn sh\u01d4) guitar riffs and nostalgic lyrics that harkened back to an era thought to be the pinnacle of Chinese civilization.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the popularity and accessibility of rock music at large started to decline in China in the mid-90s. Much of this had to do with censorship from the government, with restrictions on performances and the banning of rock from TV.\u00a0The nostalgia soon faded into the rearview mirror, as Chinese rockers of the mid-90s turned punk<\/strong> (\u670b\u514b p\u00e9ng k\u00e8) and went underground.<\/p>\n

He Yong<\/strong> (\u4f55\u52c7 H\u00e9 y\u01d2ng) is considered a pioneer of the punk scene in China. His one and only album titled Garbage Dump<\/strong> (\u5783\u573e\u573a l\u0101 j\u012b ch\u01ceng) came out in 1994. Most of the songs were written during the height of the Tiananmen Square protests. As you can imagine, some of the lyrics on this album turned out to be pretty controversial as a result. Here’s the music video for the title track on that album followed by the lyrics. I actually managed to get a good English translation for this one!<\/p>\n