Page 15 - FMH7

We stayed and watched all the bands, the line-up that night was Bedstars, The Diders, Discord and
a band that must have replaced the band that was the poster cos their names were different. All the bands were very energetic and performance-wise great. I got some commentary on the bands from my hosts, who said that the lead vocalists of the Diders would often strip during shows. Half the time the lyrics were in English and the music sounded more like old school punk that had quite upbeat rhythms, one band was bit more grindcore and heavier. Even though the West has this image of the PRC as having high state repression and censorship, and see Chi- nese people are relatively docile, the lyrics of one particular band had anarchist politics and critiques of gentrification that has been going on in Beijing. When I had walked around earlier that day, some parts of Beijing was like entering a dystopian future, where McDonald’s and the architectural remnants of the imperial dynasties have merged with more capi- talism than western cultural hegemony. I guess there are two sides to this, there’s the western cultural influence on the mainstream and on alternative com- munities. Case in point: punk music and the graffiti bombs you see on courtyard entrances. Really, it’s a dystopian present where extreme wealth inequality continues.
Seeing punk music in Beijing had very different meanings for me as a diasporic person coming back to a “home” that I had never known: a Chinese punk scene. My experience of punk scenes have been very white male dominated – from Auckland to Sydney, the bands that are around and the demographic of the audience often reflects this white dominance. This has always been a thing I felt weird about, and
a point of non-belonging. I can’t really describe the feeling of being with your own people for the first time and listening to music you enjoy but that not many other POCs are into or can connect with – where the audience has always been majority white. Even in Beijing though, there were still expat white people, and half of the lyrics were in English. But the white people in the audience were the minority for once.
After the show, we had a midnight meal with seitan, tofu and mushroom kebabs. Fuck yeah. It reminded a bit of when we used to get vegan hot dogs, deep fried mushrooms in the early hours of the morning after punk shows in Auckland.
I, too, had gone home for Spring Festival.
Some Chinese punk bands that I have been listening to:
Subs
Hang on a Box SMZB
CMYK
Final Impact Our Way Out
MZ bamboo.rage@gmail.com