Class Post:Beijing

In light of recent global events, specifically the Olympics, Ross's photojournal of the games caught my eye. Curiously I had a dream about the Olympics last night, but I suppose that if you watch the same thing every night for 2 weeks straight then somehow remnants of it could find their way into your subconscious.
What caught my eye was not the National Spirit Achievers Award party featuring Chen Qigang, composer of featured music during the ceremony, but a picture just below the one of Chen Qigang. Its a photo of a crowd watching a band, a very western picture. Out of context one might confuse it for a typical indie band at a underground venue somewhere like Portland or New York.
But this is D-22, "Beijing's leading alternative rock-club."

I spent some time clicking around on the links that Ross provided, most of which lead to pages for artists including not only Chinese musicians, a Japanese girl-power duo called 10, but most interesting is a Canadian teenager, Simon Frank, and Chinese guitarist,Zhang Shouwang (aka Jeff Zhang) who play there own brand of "alternative rock" in the various venues around Beijing.
What caught me eye was this, a YouTube venue that features the band playing very "20th Century" music. That is to say that they are not simply playing atonal, but using the instruments themselves in new ways, like bowing the electric guitar and simultaneously electronically altering the sound of the guitar itself, to produce timbres and even tonalities that exist outside of the usual realm of rock and roll.
The video is being recorded at SugarJarCN, an art venue as part of "an independent music/sound art exchange project.
Also of note culturally is the band's name, here, operating under the name Speak Chinese or Die. The Canadian/Chinese duo also play in their own bands.

This isn't you pappy's rock n roll anymore.

These young people from wide ranging walks of life and musical background have just entered into a world with composers like Schoenberg, Philip Glass, and John Adams. Making music outside the box.
When I thought of China prior to the Olympics, I was aware of the fact that it had become quite modern and Western. But the details are what escaped me. The things, like experimental music, that have nestled themselves into the elaborate filigree of culture in the West. I'm always caught off guard when they crop up elsewhere, thinking how one earth did that end up where it is. But the Olympics made me do my homework, since China made such a gracious host to the world, I was sparked to reach back, and learn a little bit myself.