Cui Jian, the vanguard rock star in China, and influential hard rock band Tang Dynasty are to give two joint concerts at Tianjin Sports Centre on the evenings of February 14 and 15.
Sponsored by Pulay Music, Cui's agent company, the concerts also will feature rock bands including No 43 Baojia Street, Ruins (Feixu), Wood Melon (Mugua), Happy Street and Seven Whirling Days, and rising pop singers such as Su Dan, Yu Dong, Wang Feng and Wang Lei.
The organizers expect the upcoming concerts to be another landmark in Cui's rock career.
He and his band time and again have received enthusiastic responses from audiences, so much so that his sound controller has had at times to switch the music sound to a volume as high as 150 decibels.
The majority of Cui's fans belong to the generation born in late 1960s and early 1970s, which has grown up with Cui's music.
Cui is known as the "father of rock in China." Indeed, no musician in China has rocked harder, sang longer or shown more commitment to the soul of rock 'n' roll than Cui Jian.
Cui is considered by many to be the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Kurt Cobain all rolled into one - a one-man rock and roll revolutionary whose poignant songs of alienation spoke volumes to a generation searching for identity amidst the precariously shifting realities of their awakening nation.
Born in 1961 into a Korean ethnic group family with a dancer mother and a trumpet player father, Cui displayed musical aptitude at an early age.
At 20, he landed a job as a trumpet player with the Beijing Symphony Orchestra, but he was intrigued by the Western rock and roll that he was hearing on pirated tapes.
He learned to play guitar and imitated the songs of the Rolling Stones, the Talking Heads and the Police.
During a 1986 television talent show, Cui leaped on stage and sang "Nothing to My Name" (yiwu suoyou), a sweet love song heavy with heartbreak. Cradling the microphone like a lover's neck, Cui's performance was described by critics as "just like seeing Elvis Presley gyrating on the Ed Sullivan Show."
Almost overnight, Cui Jian became a household name in China.
With the strong beat of "Nothing to My Name," "Red Cloth," "Balls Under the Red Flag" and "Rock On the New Long March," Cui shouted out his feelings about the world around him, arousing enormous resonance among his fans.
Cui has also enjoyed fame abroad and won acclaim in the international rock world.
Although the Chinese lyrics of his songs necessarily distance his songs from their Western antecedents, in basic structure, they borrow heavily from American and European pop genres.
In his earlier works, the influence of reggae, the Police, Talking Heads and other music circulating in Beijing's foreign community at that time is evident, and the contributions of Eddie and Balasz loom large.
Indeed, many foreign listeners are disappointed to find that Cui Jian's music is not as "Chinese" as they'd expected.
An argument can be made that his most distinctive songs are the ones that do incorporate Chinese elements such as the dizi (Chinese bamboo flute) and guzheng (an ancient Chinese zither) with modern music.
Cui, however, does not view his music as fitting into a narrow cultural continuum, but rather sees himself as part of the global rock-and-roll revolution.
Unlike the works of many other Chinese rockers following him, the best of Cui's songs are genuine rock.
However, over the past few years, Cui has been criticized by some contemporaries for not moving on, for not changing.
When asked if he would play anything new in the coming concerts, Cui declined to comment.
Cui has reportedly performed in concerts held at the opening ceremonies of some luxury residential areas in Beijing.
Cui just replied: "I wish to give more concerts for those who appreciate my music. I perform not for money, but for the feeling."
He also revealed that he is making a new album. "I want to try new things and the times demand a new sound," he said.
"I do not want to be known as the father of rock in China. That just makes me feel old. I feel like I'm just starting."
(China Daily February 11, 2002)
