‘J
ust like a jigsaw puzzle, trying to find
my place to be,’ belts out Xue Feng,
lead singer of Beijing scream-punk
band The Peppercorns. In a scruffy
bar, tucked away in one of the city’s
ancient alleyways, Xue and his ensemble- which includes a theremin, a Russian-
invented electronic instrument dating
from the early 20th century – pose the
dilemma to a crowd of loyal, moody
punk rockers. The band has an angsty
energy; the crowd is muted and focused - perhaps they too are pondering the
point that Xue later puts to me: ‘Most
Chinese indie music is unoriginal and
still at the phase of imitation... Chinese
Prince, Chinese Oasis, Chinese Guns
N’ Roses, Chinese Radiohead, we have
(DON’T) FIGHT THE POWER
Amy Hawkins surveys the
cultural landscape in the
world’s second-largest
economy.THE BIG STORY
A still from the music video for ‘Room Service’,
via the record label 88rising, by hip-hop
sensation Higher Brothers, nin.tl/higherbrothers.them all.’ While Western rock stars may
be known for their hedonism as much as
their music, their emulators in Beijing
are outwardly better behaved – any gig
ends on the dot at the scheduled time,
and encores are rare.
Beijing’s live-music aficionados may
see themselves as more subversive than
the mainstream K-Pop (Korean pop)
and more recently C-Pop (Chinese pop)
idols that command mass adoration in
China, but they are all beholden to the
same government strictures, and tightly34 NEW INTERNATIONALIST