Beijing Rocks Out
I recently spent 5+ weeks in China in various cities, including an extended stay in Beijing. The unreasonably cold spring weather was more than compensated for by the sense that the city is finally beginning to feel like a cultural capital. In coming posts I’ll discuss the performances I sampled and hint of the latest developments behind the scenes. Today, I’ve asked my friend, current Fulbright Scholar Nick Frisch, to reflect on the competing rock festivals that descended on Beijing earlier this month, simultaneous to international orchestral and opera festivals elsewhere in the capitol.
Guest Blog by Nick Frisch
Two years ago, the MIDI Festival—for several years, Beijing’s signature outdoor music event—was denied its usual permit without explanation. Pre-Olympics jitters were blamed; but in 2009, permission was denied again, and MIDI went forward in Zhenjiang, a city near Shanghai.
When the Modern Sky Festival sought to rock out Chaoyang Park this past October, officialdom struck again: all foreign bands were denied visas with scarce advance notice, gutting the lineup.
Naturally, the government isn’t terribly keen on large groups of young people massing in the Chinese 
capital. All the more surprising then, that both the MIDI and Strawberry festivals went forward on a triple-booked May 1st weekend this year. Besides the two outdoor events, rock hole-in-the-wall D-22 threw itself a fourth birthday party, its signature bands (Carsick Cars et al.) rocking the cramped, smoky venue on three successive nights. Many bands played both festivals, some of the D-22 bands all three.
It was a good moment to take the temperature of Beijing’s music scene. Diagnosis: 
mediocre, with some bright spots. Prognosis: good. If China ever did have an analogue to the free-love, anti-man Woodstock of legend, these heavily merchandised, hipster-infested, and police-monitored festivals weren’t it. Beijing’s youth like a weekend out to strut their fashion sense, but most seemed unaware that rock music traditionally includes a period during which one resists the idea of selling out. And who schedules two massive festivals, on the same weekend, on opposite ends of town? 
Ditan Park’s Folk Music Festival, at least, had the good sense to wait until the following weekends. Many of the acts were simply mediocre, while others showed a frustrating inability to capitalize on their potential. My personal bone to pick is with Mountain People (Shanren), an act populated with Chinese of minority extraction from the diverse and musically fascinating southwest. Their songs invariably begin with a fascinating swirl of folk sounds on native instruments. A pop or rock beat will creep in…and suddenly, you are listening to someone’s high school band emulating a cross between Dispatch and Jimmy Buffet.
There were some outstanding acts. Your correspondent saw local favorites Pet Conspiracy (Chongwu 
Tongmou) give a great show at Strawberry, and at MIDI, Secondhand Rose (Ershou Meigui)’s Chinese opera-inflected rock was rapturously received. So the glass is also half full: the logistics and management might lag, and the overall talent level lags even further behind that; but when the talent develops, they will have somewhere to play, and someone willing to come watch. For those seeking to engage with Chinese music on a two- or three-year time horizon, frustrations are inevitable in all genres, from rock to classical and between.
But for anyone who remembers or knows of the gigantic proletarian-praising parades that once occupied Beijing’s attention on May Day holidays under Mao, it’s hard to argue the trend is anything but positive.