To follow New musics in Beijing

Party propaganda may appear to be ever more pervasive, but this is a deceptive image. While the gloriously ear-scouring Chinese punk scene has long captured media attention, I look forward to reading a recent book (now available in OpenEdition) by Nathanel Amar,

• Scream for life: L’invention d’une contre-culture punk en Chine populaire (2022)
  (reviewed e.g. here),

a definitive survey, focusing on Beijing and Wuhan. Amar’s useful website links to many articles (listed here), complemented by his YouTube channel Chinese Alternative Music Project.

It’s good to dip my toes in life waay out of my comfort zone—which, mysteriously, happens to be fieldwork in dusty north Chinese villages documenting funeral rituals. Traditional folk culture too is an alternative scene, even as the Intangible Cultural Heritage system strives to render it toothlessly patriotic.

Brain Failure’s Anarchy in the PRC is an early classic: 

Note also the documentary This is our Utopia! Punk collectives in China.

All this may be remote from the kitsch Spring Festival Gala, and that’s just what makes it so valuable. The PRC punk scene offers a countercultural alternative, contesting the CCP monopoly on truth and memory (cf. Ian Johnson’s book Sparks on China’s underground historians). It’s part of young people’s cultural world—as I observed in my previous post, students returning from city colleges to attend the rural funerals of their grandparents may be listening to such gritty urban sounds on their phones.

Amar’s article “Drunk is beautiful” (Boire au bord de l’eau: usage de l’alcool dans la communauté punk chinoise) suggests a link to Inebriation and the qin zither, and Deviating from behavioural norms. Read his review of releases in 2024 here (extending to Taiwan and Hong Kong), including the album Kachakacha by Xiaowang/Sonic Baby (playlist). And do pursue his link to this page on the record collection of the iconic Liu Yuan (1960–2024).

See also Punk: a roundup—including the GDR, Croatia, Spain, and Iran. I look forward to post-post-punk.