http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/afplifestyle_china_music
BEIJING (AFP) – With his head shaven in a mohican and wearing trendy blue-tinted sunglasses, Zhang Hui is not the kind of young man you would bump into on the street in China.
The 20-year-old student was screaming and bouncing like the rest of the crowd at a four-day rock festival in a Beijing park over the weekend.
“This is my way of letting off steam,” Zhang said. “I feel so repressed — there are just too many restrictions in our society.”
“Most people can’t accept our music, they are still bound by a very traditional culture,” the student at a contemporary music college said.
Although Western-inspired music like rock and roll is now enjoying unprecedented freedom in communist China, rock fans say the lack of acceptance by a largely conservative society and a reluctant government is still limiting its development.
Now in its fifth year, the Beijing Midi rock music festival moved out of its music school campus for the first time at the weekend but found it had to make some compromises.
Due to noise complaints, the event was nearly aborted after its second night of performance on Saturday.
When Zhang Fan, principal of the music school and organiser of the festival made the announcement, fans protested by throwing water bottles at the stage.
After some negotiations with local authorities, the festival was in the end permitted to continue but the remaining two days had to finish by 7:00 pm.
Du Yu, an art student from Shanghai, said the incident was just another sign that rock music was not welcomed in China.
“If this was a Labour Day evening gala with some old dears singing on the stage here, do you think they would say it was a nuisance?” he asked.
He said he was not optimistic about rock music’s development in China.
“Too few people listen to rock and too few understand what it is about,” he said. “The education system here suppresses your thinking — people have no personality and are not capable of independent thought.”
Zhang Hui said the lack of freedom of speech in China meant the music could not flourish freely as it does in the West.
“Some of the lyrics talk about pain and the dark side of our society. This has touched a sore spot (with the authorities) and they don’t want to face it,” he said.
Reluctance by the state-controlled radio and television stations to promote rock and roll artists is also making it hard for aspiring groups to build up a following.
Guang Lei, a singer and poet, said it was extremely difficult to promote his music because radio stations were not willing to play radical and non-mainstream music.
“We need an open and eclectic environment which allows all sorts of music to flourish,” he said. “At the moment, the more radical type is still not permitted by the regime.”
The 34-year-old gave up his job as a trader in Chinese medicine to become a musician but said he has to live on his savings while trying to promote his art.
Wen Zi, 23, a singer and guitarist, said he tries to make ends meet by busking in underground railway stations and selling tie-dyed cloth on the street.
The only son of a rural family, he said his parents want him to have a stable job and a stable income.
“I am doing this because I love it but I might have to give it up one day when my parents need me to support them,” he said.
“I hope there will be more music festivals like this in the future, the more opportunities there are, the better it is for us.”
Yan Sham-Shackleton Online 