Who Is Cui Jian?!

Cui Jian (roughly pronounced "Tsuey Jyen") is widely considered to be "the Father of Chinese Rock"--Rock not just in the musical genre, but also in his sense of rebellion.   The title of his seminal 1989 album Rock 'n Roll on the New Long March is a subtle (and ballsy) jab at the pretensions of China's autocratic regime.  Its lead single "Nothing To My Name" was sung as a protest anthem by the Tiananmen Square student protestors.

Consequently, Cui Jian was banned for years from both Chinese radio and from performing in Beijing.  (Such has been his media blackout that I didn't even learn about him from my semester in China, but rather from an American friend stateside!)

But despite these attempts to silence him, Cui Jian continued to play sell-out crowds across the rest of China.  His enduring popularity was such that, when the concert ban was finally lifted years later, he famously sang "Wild Horses" with the Rolling Stones when they came to Beijing in 2006.

Yet notwithstanding his popularity in humanity's most populous nation, Rock 'n Roll on the New Long March is not available on itunes, or even to torrent (believe me, I searched).  I assumed the Chinese govt. must truly have a far and vindictive reach, to be able to so thoroughly suppress such a politically-embarrassing CD!

Hence, when a single stray copy suddenly appeared on amazon one day, I quickly snatched it up, anxious to hear what actual Rock 'n Roll rebellion sounds like, from a country where that actually means something.

So, you can imagine my disappointment to learn that Rock 'n Roll on the New Long March sounds, quite frankly, like a Chinese Huey Lewis and the News.  Serious, even the protest anthem "Nothing To My Name" sounds like a Phil Collins song.  The album's lack of stateside accessibility probably has less to do with govt. suppression than with the fact that we already have our own Huey Lewis and Phil Collins; we don't need to import others.  I suppose that in a dictatorship, any rockin, no matter how mild, is enough to be subversive.

However, I always give a new CD a chance, and after a few spins, I did notice that Cui Jian isn't simply imitating Western '80s soft-rock; for example, break out hit "Nothing To My Name," if you listen carefully, does feature some subtle and innovative integration of Chinese traditional instrumentation.   Track 5 "Fake Monk" actually foregrounds these traditional sounds in interesting and engaging ways, creating new music rooted in the ancient.

But I didn't really connect with Cui Jian--I didn't learn to love him for his own sake, and not just for his influence--until I encountered his '90s output, where he formally breaks with any hint of 80s soft-pop, and flies wild and free into the great unknown.  Take for example the opening track off Balls Under the Red Flag, aptly entitled "Flying":

Now that's something new!  Here we see traditional Chinese sounds and instrumentation melded into Western-style rock, in a fusion that is utterly different and utterly spectacular.  Official State suppression only made him bolder in his experimentation, not less, and there's nothing more Rock 'n Roll than that! (Especially when you compare him to all the gutless American bands who water down their sound for mere commercial considerations).

The depth of Cui Jian's achievement can be gauged by comparing "Flying" to this 2005 cover of "Rock 'n Roll on the New Long March," by Chinese band Reflector, and the opening tract to the tribute album Who Is Cui Jian?! (which is available on itunes, btw):

Admittedly, I prefer this rip-roaring version of "New Long March" to the original...save that the original, whatever else may be its obvious '80s influences, still feels like something different.  This newer cover rocks out more, but it also sounds exactly like a cover that an American band would come up with.  Two-decades later, a contemporary Chinese act, even one enthralled with Cui Jian, can still do no better than copy the Anglo bands.

But Cui Jian does not copy, he does not ape, he does not mimic, no: Cui Jian innovates, he creates, he is an artist.  He takes Western music cues and turns them hard East. He is both rooted in China and transcends it; the Rolling Stones sing "I Know It's Only Rock 'n Roll" but Cui Jian knows it's so much more.  He is what Rock 'n Roll rebellion actually sounds like, what is should sound like, and what it sounds like when Rock 'n Roll frickin' matters.