The history of Chinese rock music

Chapter 1. The history of Chinese rock music
This chapter is dedicated to the history of Chinese rock. It describes what is it, when it emerged and who the main artists of this music genre were. Before I start to talk about Chinese rock I need to tell why music is so important in society; what I mean by “rock music” and what Chinese music is.
So, music is a form of art that is a part of human’s society as long as society exists. People want to create something, to express their feelings and thoughts, to share their ideas with the others and music is perfect for it. The combination of sound and silence, rhythm and melody tells a story that enthralls imagination. Music is very significant in socio-political sphere: it can be a tool of propaganda, a way to speak out the ideas and attitudes of a certain social group. “Music reflects and creates social conditions – including the factors that either facilitate or impede social change. It is powerful at the level of the social group because it facilitates communication which goes beyond words, enables meanings to be shared, and promotes the development and maintenance of individual, group, cultural and national identities” [24].
Rock music has a strong impact as on people’s emotions on the individual level as on people’s thought on the level of society. It emerged in 1950s’ in the USA and the UK and has its roots in Afro-American music and rock’n’roll of the 1950s’. The “birthday” of rock is the year of 1954 when Elvis Presley had sessions at Sun Studios and Bill Haley released his song “Rock Around the Clock” [19, p. 1]. Rock music is deeply connected, first, with the youth culture and, second, with social movements, protest and rebellion [57, p.39]. Musically rock music is based on the sound of electric guitar, bass guitar, drums and sometimes keyboards [71]. It is and it was a part of youth culture, and a symbol of generation conflict, for example, in the 1960s’ in Europe and North America. Young people were against racial discrimination, war in Vietnam, social inequity and “rock’n’roll lifestyle” was one of the way to demonstrate their attitude to the values of the older generation [56].
1.1 Music in Chinese society: short overview
Music was important part of Chinese society since ancient times. It has a close connection with ritual, which is one of the core Confucian concepts. According to the Confucian thought, it had a didactic role in the society. The aim of music is not only to entertain but also to teach, to show what is right and wrong. “Music in Confucianism is regarded as a device for self-cultivation, a vehicle of self-expression, a force of social stability, a political tool, and a medium of communion between man, nature and supernatural powers” [33].  According to Confucianism, music was one of six central arts that can educate people (Ji, 2008). “To the Chinese, music is never simply music, but it is something serving a greater purpose. Whether the purpose was for purification of the mind, or for motivating workers in their labors, or for increasing the knowledge about something, or to serve the society, the nation and greater political goals, Chinese music is never free from this ideological baggage” [28].
Music in China had a lot of forms: Chinese opera, minorities’ music, folk music, imperial court music. Chinese met European music since missionaries and merchants came there (Law, Ho, 2012).
In the 20th century, China faced a lot of changes and challenges. Music, which always reflects what is happening within the society, changed too. Shidaiqu, Chinese popular music appeared in Shanghai in 1920 – 1930s’ was a mix of jazz, Hollywood film songs, and popular Chinese urban ballads performed in the entertainment quarters, dance halls and nightclubs (Law, Ho, 2012).
Another music genre that reflected the situation in Chinese society, were patriotic and anti-war songs. “War against Japan (1937–1945) and the 4-year Civil War (1945–1949) gave an impulse to appearance of anti-war and patriotic songs with Western diatonic melodies” [41, p. 504] With establishment of People’s Republic of China music got new tasks that were proclaimed even earlier during Yan’an Conference on Literature and Art, when Mao Ze Dong said that “Literature and art are subordinate to politics but in their turn exert a great influence on politics” [20, p. 44].  Tongsu yinyue, music for the masses, which emerged in the early 1970s, should “serve the people“. It was a socialist art that combined plain folk melodies with Western orchestral accompaniment and traditional Chinese instruments  (Huang, 2001). “The CCP adopted songs as a propaganda vehicle to fight against their two enemies, the Japanese and the Guomingdang—and, more important, to reshape people’s mind. The CCP attacked American “cultural imperialism” and “the alleged toxicity of Western music via propaganda cartoons that juxtaposed ugly, drunken, and lecherous Americans with jazz and dance halls” [42, p. 404]. Chinese government tried to fight with everything that was out of the main line of the Party at that time, and music was one of the spheres of this ideological fight. Ironically, musicians used Western instruments while performing music that was used in anti-Western propaganda.
1.2 The Open Door Policy: new policy and new music
The end of 1970s’ brought to China new changes. The Open Door Policy launched by Deng Xiaoping marked a shift from control to market economy and more openness to other countries in economic sense. Establishment of private business, foreign investment and trade and more openness to foreign culture were promoted by reforms (Law, Ho, 2012). Of course, changes in economy influenced on culture and values (Law, Ho, 2009). Chinese music, with comparison with the previous period, got new tasks and ideas to serve. “By the 1980s, market forces converted state-owned music enterprises to ‘serve the people’s money’ (Wei Renminbi fuwu) with alternative pop music styles”  [32, p. 2].  
Opening of markets and thus, opening to technological innovations had a good impact to development of music. “New modern electronic appliances such as radios, cassette players, and television sets provided the necessary infrastructure that enabled the growing importance of popular music in China” [21, p. 231].
Another source for growing Chinese musical market was foreign investments from Polygram, JVC, and Rock Records from Taiwan. They were interested in it because it was the very beginning of industry of show-business in China and at that time it was perspective (Huang, 2001).
These reforms were like the open doors for new music genres. In the first middle of 1980s’ the dominating music genre came abroad to mainland China was Cantopop originated in Hong Kong and Taiwan. “This music, known as Gangtaiyue typically had the following characteristics: smooth flowing melodies, usually without direct or obvious relationship with traditional Chinese melodic construction; a type of vocal production that was the "middle way" between Western full, ringing vocal style and the more nasal, pinched and higher pitched Chinese folksong style” [18, p. 137].
Chinese people got a chance to listen not only music not only from Taiwan and Hong Kong, but also European and American music. “Popular music—ranging from The Beatles to John Denver and from The Carpenters to Michael Jackson and Madonna—was among the forms of popular culture that have entered China since 1978, along with, for example, Telenovelas from Brazil, pop music from Taiwan, and cartoons from Japan” [21, p. 231]. Such bands as “Queensrÿche, King Crimson, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Rush, Guns ‘n’ Roses, and Led Zeppelin were admired for their combination of instrumental brilliance and “hard” energy, which starkly contrasted with insipid contemporaneous mainland Chinese pop music” [18, p. 147]  and had further influence on Chinese rock-music.
 In the first half of 1980s’ mainland Chinese musicians tried to copy Cantopop by performing lyric songs - shuqinggequ. They were characterized as yin rou – soft, feminine (Huang, 2003). From the second half of 1980s’ the trend of imitation had evolved to distancing from light music. “During 1986–1990, a period of economic boom, mainland stars established more distinctive styles of jinge (energetic songs), which were characteristically Xibeifeng (Northwest Wind) emerged as an alternative to “soft” Gangtai music. By combining Western rock and roll instrumental accompaniment with Chinese northern folk-song melodies, a modern Chinese musical sensibility was explored in popular songwriting. A distinguishing feature was a hoarse vocal timbre suggesting rustic virility and sincerity; lyrics spoke of disappointment with limited life choices. This represented rock music’s initial Chinese beachhead” [31, p. 185] Also Xibeifeng wasn’t just an opposition to Gangtaiyue but also an attempt to come back to the cultural roots. “In some of the early Xibeifeng pieces the "roots seeking" led not so much to a sense of love and longing for one's hometown village (which could be interpreted as a kind of patriotism) but to a sense of alienation, loss and dissatisfaction (which could be interpreted as a kind of social criticism)” [18, p. 152] .
1.3 Yaogun – Chinese rock’n’roll
The next musical genre that appeared after Xibeifeng was Yaogunyue, Chinese rock’n’roll. It happened due to several reasons. “One such supposition is that China’s emerging role in the global market carries with it an inevitable relaxation of social and political constraints. A second belief is that rock and roll rebellion, the subject of reification in the West, similarly applies to China. The third assumption, closely related to the second, is valorization of Chinese rockers as heroic nonconformists leading modern China towards “Western” globalization” [31, p. 183]  As I’ve said earlier, one of the sources for inspiration for Chinese musicians was European and American music. It became possible because of spreading contacts between Chinese and foreigners, as a rule, exchange students who took tapes with Western music and share it with their Chinese friends (De Kloet, 2003). For example, a foreign student from Hungury Kassai Balazs and Madagascan guitarist Eddie Randriamampionona played with Cui Jian for a while [64]. Also Chinese who traveled abroad brought tapes with themselves [20, p. 30]. “A product of interactions between the foreign diplomatic community, foreign exchange students, and inquisitive Chinese university students, Yaogun yinyue began in Beijing in the mid-1980s. Mainland Chinese protorockers have admitted to early infatuations with mainstream heavy-metal bands favored by predominantly white and middle-class American overseas students, who interacted with Chinese youth” [31, p. 187].
Yaogun didn’t emerge from nothing. The first rock band “Peking All-Stars” consisted only from foreigners lived in Beijing and gathered in 1979 and that played music in hotels, Beijing Foreign Languages Institute, embassies [69].  In the first middle of 1980s’, there were founded several bands played covers of Western and Japanese songs. Group “Wan Li Ma Wang” that played covers of Western rock-songs was established in Beijing Second Foreign Language Institute in 1980. Wang Yong founded a band "Aris" in 1981 and they sang Japanese songs.  In1982 Ding Wu sang in band called "Fu Chong Ji”. The band “Seven Plywood” was established. The seven members of this band with Cui Jian among them recorded an album of covers on rock-song and Chinese national songs. It is interesting, that at that time not only Chinese performed rock-music in China: foreigners were members of a band “Continent” [65]. I call the period from 1980 to 1985 a period of imitation when musicians just had met American and European rock and pop music and tried to copy it. The number of bands played covers of famous songs proves it. It was very difficult to get information about rock as well as instruments. Also, not so many people had a chance to listen to foreign music and meet with foreigners. As a rule, first protorockers were from Beijing, were students of big universities where exchange students came to study or students of music or art colleges.
A new stage began at 1986 when Cui Jian first came at the stage of Beijing Workers’ Stadium and sang his most famous song “Nothing to My Name”. Cui Jian often may be called a “father” or even “grandfather” of Chinese rock. Cui was born in 1961 in musical family: his father was a professional trumpet player and mother was a dancer in Korean minority troop. In the age of 14 Cui Jian started to learn how to play trumpet and worked in Beijing Orchestra. Then he began to play rock music and left Orchestra [64].  Sometimes Cui Jian is considered as a representative of Xibeifeng, especially for his early songs. American researcher Hao Huang assumed that Cui Jian started as a writer of love songs that combined Xibeifeng with pop music in the middle 1980s’ (Huang, 2001). He changed his sound and semantic content of his songs in the first album “Rock and Roll on the New Long March”, which was released in 1989. Timothy Brace described it as a sign of moods floating in the air at the time: “With the sound came a new ideology, as embedded in the rock mythology, which promises (bodily) freedom, masculinity, rebellion, and protest. The ideology of rock resonates closely with the perceived Zeitgeist of the 1980s, during which a ‘‘cultural fever’’ raged over urban China, questioning the confinements of Chinese culture” [18, p. 176].
He combined Western way of performing music and Chinese musical tradition. He mixed up not only Chinese and Western approach to playing music but also used revolutionary images. It can be traced through the design of the cover of his album “Rock on Long March”. It is a reference to Mao’s Great March of 1934 – 1935.  He blinded himself with a red patch while performing his song “A Piece of Red Clothes” in the beginning of the 1990s’ and this image was a critic on the government without words.
There two different opinions, when Cui Jian became popular. To Jeroen de Kloet’s point of view, it happened just after performance of his most famous song in 1986. “Cui Jian came to fame in 1986 with his song ‘‘I Have Nothing’’ (yi wu suo you)—a song about a failed love affair, but widely read as a metaphor for the growing estrangement of Chinese youth from the political climate of China—he gave a popular sonic voice to this great cultural debate. His song became, quite unintended, one of the anthems of the student demonstrations in 1989” [21, p. 231]. Timothy Lane Brace assumes that it happened 3 years later: “Cui Jian shot to fame during the Tiananmen Square tragedy when his song, “Nothing to My Name,” became an anthem for students during the demonstrations” [18, p. 176]. To my mind, opinion of de Kloet is closer to reality because to the Tiananmen events Cui Jian was already well-known artist. Here is what on-line encyclopedia of Chinese rock tells: “In May 1986, at a Beijing concert commemorating the Year of World Peace, Cui Jian climbs onto the stage in peasant clothing and belts out his latest composition, "Nothing to My Name‎". As the song ends, a stunned audience erupts in standing ovation. Before long, young people all over China are banging out Cui Jian tunes on beat-up guitars in campus dormitories and coffeehouses” [74].
It wasn’t that easy to be a rocker in China because of its social structure. “The musicians live outside the system of the danwei, or work unit, which allows them greater freedom, but offers none of the system's benefits, like housing and a guaranteed salary. In the beginning, most rock musicians lived at home practiced anywhere they could find, and spent whatever money they had on instruments and any rock tapes that were available” [52]. They could stay in danwei only if they had an official job at orchestras and troops [20, p. 78]. Also, it was very difficult to find information what is rock and how to play it. Musicians learnt everything by themselves and got knowledge from every source they met [1, 2]. In eighties, the practice of badai – transcribing music through repeating listening was widely spread and it was another way for people to learn the music [20, p. 73].
1.4 How much Chinese is in Chinese rock?
There is a question, how much Chinese was in Chinese rock’n’roll? Is it indigenous cultural form or a simply copy from the West? It quite obvious that Yaogun was inspired by American and European rock musicians, such as Led Zeppelin, U2, Sting and The Police, Pink Floyd, etc. [1, 2].  I think that during the first period, from 1980 to 1985 it was rather an imitation that creation of something new. But after 1986 when Yaogun came out to the big scene, a new period of creation of new music style started. It was a sort of confrontation between light and smooth music Gangtai from Hong Kong and Taiwan and rough music of North part of mainland China, as Xibeifeng as Yaogun (De Kloet, 2006). “Interestingly, too, Beijing rockers ‘‘imitate’’ Western rock aesthetics (rebellion and specific music scenes) in order to differentiate themselves from their Southern colleagues” [21, p. 250].
 In my opinion, rockers of the second half of 1980s’ took a form of rock music: guitar, bass and drum playing together, long hair and black colour dominating in clothes. If we look at the photos of 1980s’ we will see typical rocker with Chinese face. At the same time, they filled this from with Chinese indigenous filling. They used Chinese traditional instruments and melodies, wrote songs in Chinese language.  I am going to show it on the example of two most famous heavy-metal bands of China Tang Dynasty and Black Panther in the 3rd Chapter. “Other Chinese rock bands have established their own style, combining Western rock and Chinese national styles. For example, He Yong’s “Requiem March” ends with a Buddhist chant recited by a monk. The heavy metal band, Xin Qiji, sets a Sung dynasty song lyric (ci) “to wailing electric guitars.” Lao Wu, lead guitarist for the rock band Tang Dynasty, describes the use of traditional Chinese instruments and images in relation to cultural essentialism” [42, p. 405].
Culturally, Chinese rock is influenced by the Western music but has its own native features. Lao Wu, a bassist of metal band Tang Dynasty said: "We're going down two different roads at the same time, we are absorbing Western music, listening to Queensryche and King Crimson, reading new techniques in Guitar Player magazine. But we're also getting deeper and deeper into our own tradition. Rock is based on blues, and the blues isn't in our blood. We can imitate it, we can play it, but eventually we'll have to go back to the music that we grew up with, traditional Chinese music - folk music from all over China - and then come up with something that goes beyond all the boundaries" [35].
As a rule, rockers got a musical education; they learnt how to play traditional Chinese instruments. They used ancient Chinese music heritage in a varying degree. Cui Jian learnt how to play trumpet and was a member of Beijing Orchestra. Drummer of female punk band Cobra Wang Xiaofang played Yangqin, Chinese dulcimer [1]. “Many musicians studied in the beginning classical Western order Chinese instruments, such as e.g. Qin Qi, who started in the age of 13 with violin lessons, or Wang Yang, who already in the age of 9 played the Guzheng (finger board zither)” [54]. Some of them learnt by themselves, as drummer Yu Weimin [2] or members of Tang Dynasty Ding Wu and Lao Wu. A great passion for music and desire to invent a new sound pushed them forward. I assume that play rock instead of Chinese music wasn’t as difficult for musicians as one may think. Rock and Chinese traditional music both are based on pentatonic, five notes scale [77].
The theory of postmodernism explains why it happened very well: in postmodern world everything is mixed up. This combination of different traditions, just as usage of new technologies is one of the features of postmodern music (Kramer, 2002).  China occurred to be on a crossroad of its ancient music tradition and new genres that came to China with its opening in 1980. 
One event divided the development of Chinese rock. It was Tiananmen Massacre in 1989.  It is difficult to divide political and cultural consequences of suppression Tiananmen movement on yaogun and that’s why it will be discussed in next chapter in more detail.
Conclusion for the 1st Chapter
Music always was an important part of any society from the ancient time and Chinese society is not exclusion. For Confucianism, music is important due its didactic role in the society. Music reflects changes in the society and situation in 1980 in mainland China demonstrates it very bright – the Open Door Policy changed economy, society and culture as well. In comparison with previous period, when music should serve mass of people, peasant and workers, it got new fulfillment in 1980s’. Starting from this period, music can serve money and become a part of business. People got an access to foreign music from Gong Kong and Taiwan and from the West then. Such bands as U2, the Police, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Talking Heads had a strong impact on Chinese youth. The growing popularity of Cantopop gave an impulse for the development of mainland popular music in the 1980s’ (Law, Ho, 2012). Hence, there were two steams of the influence to a new cultural landscape in China. The first steam, very tiny one, was music from Europe and America. I assume that not so many people could listen to it that time. Students of universities which had exchange programs, workers of embassies and businessmen took the music they listen to China and some of them shared it to Chinese friends. Also it was contraband of records from Hong Kong to mainland China [16]. The second steam was wider because more people have an access to it – Gangtaiyue, Cantopop, which was very popular in the first middle of the 1980s’ in China.
Musicians started to play rock from the very beginning of 1980. First protorockers played cover version and number of people who played it was limited by students of universities with foreign exchange and music colleges. With the performance of Cui Jian in 1986 a new period started when Yaogun officially started. I define Chinese rock as music played Chinese musicians from the second part of 80s’ in mainland China in mostly Chinese language. They combined Western form of rock – rock vocal, guitars and strong rhythm section with indigenous Chinese fulfillment.
As it demonstrated in the first chapter, it’s rather difficult to divide culture from society. It is more difficult to divide society from the sphere of politics. Nevertheless, rather contradictive relationship between Yaogun and central government and its development will be discussed in the next chapter.

Chapter 2. Official attitude towards changes in youth culture and spread of rock-music in China
This chapter is about the relations between central government and rock music. In order to explain rather contradictive nature of these relations I will start from the changes in youth culture in early 1980s’ and non-admission of them by the government. From the middle 1980s’ a new stage began: rock music as well as new phenomena in youth culture was allowed and concert of foreign artist and mainland China rockers, TV and radio programs prove this statement. Also I look not only at changes at cultural sphere but also at socio-political one. The spread of liberal ideas led to the beginning of Democratic Movement in 1986-1987 and student activism. The question is any correlation between rock-music, which is a symbol of protest from 1960s’ and people’s demands for political changes in China in middle and the second half of the 1980s’? The aim of this part is to answer this question.
Music always was a sphere of art, which influences people’s minds heavily. Control over masses is a thing that every government is very concerned about.  For example, in Singapore government controls what sort of music should be in rotation on the radio. American censorship prohibits songs about drugs and violence towards women. Music was controlled by government in Soviet Union and it was only one company, named Melodiya that could produce and distribute music (Bernstein, Sekine, Weissman, 2013).
As it was described in the previous chapter government tried to control music that was a tool of propaganda during Mao’s time. “Songs were controlled by the CCP and served to uphold state ideology. Communist China promoted a strong revolutionary orientation in the development of music as political propaganda” [41, p. 504]. Other genres of music, differ from Tongsu yinyue, common music, were not in favor. “Traditional Chinese music and Western music were both banned for carrying feudal and bourgeois messages, respectively, and Chinese composers and musicians were prohibited from researching either. Popular music was depicted as an inferior cultural form tainted by Western capitalist values and those Chinese who listened to American music or loved American commodities were deemed immoral. The musical repertoire during the Cultural Revolution was restricted to a very few songs, all of which were intended to increase popular enthusiasm for revolutionary ideology” [42, p. 404].
2.1. Chinese youth culture in 1980s’ and the attitude of the government to it
The Open Door Policy led not only to the changes in economic sphere but also to new phenomena in social and cultural spheres. Business and education contacts with foreigners gave an impulse to the spread of American and European music in China.
I assume that not big amount of people had a chance to communicate with foreigners and listen to a foreign music. But at least it was possible. New type of time-spending emerged in the beginning of 1980s’: it was discos, where young people could come and listen to music and dance. Obviously that such type of entertainment was new for youth and one can hardly imagine it during Mao’s times. At the same time, officials didn’t approve it. “The PRC authority is concerned about what it understands to be the moral pollution caused by popular music”  [41, p. 510]. They didn’t approve discos and there were precedents when young men were put in jail for several days for dancing. In some big cities dances and communication with foreigners were forbidden in order to stop “moral pollution” in 1980 (McNulty, 1980)  
From the other hand, 1980 was a year when the very first rock concert of band from abroad happened in China. It was Japanese group Godiego with four Japanese and one American member. It was sponsored by Japanese companies and held place in Tianjin (St. Petersburg Times, 1980)
Professors of Peking University published a booklet “How to Distinguish Decadent Songs” in 1981 where was described why such genres as jazz, rock and disco are dangerous for listeners. Administration of several Beijing universities tried to manage what students listen to by obligate registration of their types (Wren, 1982). But at the same year Jean Michel Jarre, a French pioneer of electronic music had a concert in Beijing with 20 000 audience! (Ocala Star-Banner, 1891)
Long hair, tight trousers and interest in Western music – all this was an evidence of decline of morality of the young generation. “Rock was labeled and criticized by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as representing spiritual pollution from the West”[23, p. 235] In order to fight with it government started an “anti-spiritual pollution campaign” in October 1983. Deng Xiaoping made a speech on Second Plenary Session of the 12th CPC National Congress where he used the term “spiritual pollution” at the first time and said that art is in danger. Mass culture, which began to emerge in China in the beginning of the 1980s’ were claimed as pornographic and controversial to socialist values. In particular rock music was treated as dangerous because it can pollute people minds by the ideas of rebellion and riot (Liu, 2014). But it was stopped in a few months because of a “fear a return to the xenophobia of the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution” [15].
The process of changes was very controversial. Ideology met economic benefits and this controversy showed that changes in economic sphere dropped behind changes in political one. State controlled music during the 1970s’ but the 1980s’ brought new rules. “Slowly but irreversibly, the state has changed from a monopolistic producer into a commissioner and regulator of a cultural market [26, p 10].
As I told in previous chapter, with the appearance of new music on Chinese cultural landscape, people tried to play this kind of music too. Several bands, which played covers on foreign songs gathered. In 1984 appeared the rock band Bu Dao Weng and it is remarkable that a work unit danwei helped musicians with the instruments (Steen, 1996). I assume that it shows a real shift in attitude towards rock music because danwei wouldn’t help musicians without at least unofficial permission. But as it described above, in most cases rockers were out of the system of danwei and the case of Bu Dao Weng is rather exclusion than a rule.
Government understood that it cannot control outspread of Western culture among young people because the times had changed. From the beginning of the 1980s’ rare foreign musicians came to China with concerts and this trend continued to grow in the second middle of the 1980s’. So, in 1985 the first concert of foreign superstars took place. It was British Wham! (Baum, 1985) This show was something people haven’t seen before in China. The police tried to control the crowd and make them sit but people danced anyway (Lakeland Ledger, 1985). This concert had a strong impact on the Chinese youth because people saw what they only listen before.
A rock band from Europe performed in China for the first time in 1986. It was a band called Strax from Iceland. Official tried to control the behavior of the crowd: it was announced before the concert that all the forms of impolite behavior are prohibited as whistling and shouting, but it was ignored (Gainesville Sun, 1986). Also rock-music appeared in the rotation of radio stations. For example, rock was in a heavy rotation on commercial radio station of Guangzhou “Pearl River Economic Radio Station” (Gargan, 1987). The year of 1986 also marked a real breakthrough for the Chinese rock-music. It was the first time when Cui Jian appeared on the scene and sang his song “Nothing To My Name” on the concert at Beijing Workers’ Stadium. Rock finally went out of underground and small clubs.
Words of General secretary Hu Yaoban illustrate how much official attitude towards rock had changed, who said: “What is wrong in rock’n’roll?” (Wilmington Morning Star, 1985) One of the reasons, why government tolerated Chinese rock-n-roll was an attempt to have domestic musicians versus foreign music, especially Cantopop [20, p. 53].
In the beginning, government didn’t accept these changes and tried to fight with them but as it turned out, it couldn’t do anything with the changes in youth culture. Chinese people got an access to new types of music: disco, rock, jazz from the West and Gantaiyue from the South. Young people had fun dancing at disco halls wearing strange clothes in eyes of older generations. In the very beginning of the 1980s’ it was rather dangerous for them because such behavior as well as friendship with foreigner was condemned by officials. Anyway, even Anti-Spiritual campaign of 1983 couldn’t stop it and governmental attitude towards Western culture became more tolerable. During the decade, musicians came to China with concerts – it brought money. Also, rock music appeared in the rotation of radio stations.
2.2. Democracy Movement and Yaogun
All the events described in the previous paragraph are evidences that official position towards rock-music changed. Live performances, TV and radio programs show that climate had changed in China. It was really so, and not only in socio-cultural sphere but also in the sphere of politics. Democratic Movement bloomed in the second half of the 1980s’. 1986 was a remarkable year not only for Yaogun, but also for Chinese society - it was a year of the beginning student activism in Anhui province that spread over the country.  Astrophysicist Fang Lizhi introduced to students ideas of democracy and inspired the movement (Shell, 1988). Actually, pro-democratic moods appeared in 1978, when people put their ideas on Democracy Wall in Beijing. This movement existed till 1981 (Paltemaa, 2007). People who participated in the movement wanted officials to see that Chinese society needs further reforms “which substitute the deliberate rule of law for the arbitrary rule of men, not as alternative to socialism necessarily, so as to achieve a far more meaningful level of government-to-citizen accountability” [58, p. 332]. Students “demanded more rights, liberties and welfare” [30, p. 75] From the first glance, ties between Democratic Movement and Yaogun are not obvious, but Wu’er Kaixi, the student leader said in 1989 that “Yaogun influenced students’ ideas more than any of the theories of aging intellectuals on democracy” [20, p.109].  It wasn’t officially proclaimed as a symbol and “Nothing To My Name” of Cui Jian isn’t a protest song from its content , but according to the theory of Hall, China is high-context culture, which means that many things are not said – people understand it from the context.
It was two groups of interest that understood the nature of the reforms in different extent. People from the second group were waiting for wilder and deeper changes and it’s not surprising that the contradiction between expectances of people and official position finally transformed in an open conflict. “In the late 1980s, Chinese rockers advocated participation in a cosmopolitan internationalism, Kaifang (liberalized, open), as opposed to traditional culture, Fengbi (landlocked, closed). The older generation used it to refer to the “Open Door” official policy of intercultural contact limited to a tightly controlled selection of technology and trade, which is in actuality an exclusionary tactic. This second, dynamic concept of Kaifang contains the potential for redefining the homeland’s cultural core, by suggesting that culture does not remain static” [31, p. 189]
People who listened to rock were opposite official position even they were allowed to do so.  “Fans of Yaogunyue find in its brashness and boldness expressions of their own frustrations of feeling hemmed in by the political and cultural traditions in China and connect themselves with a rebellious and independent political ideology that they see as part of the "Rock and Roll lifestyle. Having fun and partying to popular music is in this sense an act of opposition. It is a refusal to participate in the perpetuation of a lie. Partying to specifically Yaogunyue focuses the oppositional component; and support of Cui Jian and his music is undeniably and obviously political. In particular, Yaogunyue and the social gestures surrounding it (yelling, dancing, etc.) serve to simultaneously bond an oppositional community and alienate it not only from the regime, but from mainstream society as well” [18, p. 200].  Also rock was a reason for fans to communicate and gather together. People indicated each other by appearance first and then – by taste in music. They spent their time at parties where people danced, listened to music and communicated. Rock gave them a feeling of community, which was very strong [20, p. 70]. “Yaogunyue has emerged as a marginal style, marked as different by virtue of its oppositional possibilities (both stylistically and lyrically).  And it is in this margin - where it practices its expressive difference - that Yaogunyue finds its political power” [18, p. 166].
But it won’t be right to say that every person who involved in the Democratic Movement listened to rock music and vice versa. I tried to ask musicians about it, but nobody answered. They rather prefer to “not understand the question” than to answer it [1]. I think it’s understandable because these questions might be painful for them. In my opinion, rock music and spread of liberal ideas over China are parts of one process that started with the opening of Chinese economy in 1978.
Cui Jian became more and more popular for telling things that were important for Chinese youth and he influenced them a lot. The relationships between Cui Jian and officials became more difficult as he criticized a current situation in China by his songs (Matusitz, 2009). There was a dichotomy of political and economic aspect of these relations. From the one hand, Cui gained money through the distribution of his records and life performances. From the other hand, his music became a symbol of political opposition to an educated class and a rebellious youth (Brace, 1992). Central government put certain restrictions on Cui’s activities. “Cui Jian was banned from performing in 1987 for a year after a Beijing performance on 14 January enraged one Party official, just as the frenzied audience in his 1991 tour prompted the authorities to cut his tour short in Chengdu” [21, p. 231]. These facts reveal the contradictory nature of relationships between government and Cui Jian. For example, he was under attack when government launched new anti-spiritual pollution campaign against “bourgeois liberalization” in 1987 [20, p. 83].
In 1989 Cui Jian released his first album “Rock and Roll on the New Long March” by state-own record company (Huang, 2003). Despite the fact that the album was actually released with the help of government, Cui Jian allowed himself to criticize the existing situation. In Huang’s opinion, this album had a certain influence on the political situation of that time. “It electrified Chinese youth with daring rethinking mainland Chinese rock ‘n’ roll challenges to conventional social values. ‘Rock and Roll on the New Long March’ not only alluded to the heroic history of Mao Ze Dong and his dedicated comrades, it converted popular music from an insipid Western import to a contemporary revolutionary weapon against institutional inertia and corruption. The founding deeds of Communist Chinese leaders were joined to a driving rock beat, and instead of veneration, an irreverent challenge was unleashed in the form of rock energy” [31, p. 187]
The relationships between Yaogun, which had a rebellious potential in the second half of 1980s’ and became a symbol of protest and the government were difficult.
2.3. A turning point of 1989: Tiananmen Massacre and its influence on Chinese rock
The contradictions between Democratic Movement and officials resulted in an open conflict in 1989. “By 1989, everyone was unhappy. Ordinary citizens were seeing their standards of living cut into a half by double-digit inflation, while the corrupt and hypocritical party leaders who bullied them every day at work got fat off the reforms. Intellectuals were clamoring for freedom of the press and the release of those political prisoners. College students, packed eight to a room in a filthy dorm and force-fed Marxist-Leninist dogma in class, spent their time listening to rock music, talking about how to change China at surreptitious "democracy salons" on campus” [35].
The death of Hu Yaoban on April, 19 was a reason for students to come out the streets for his memory. “That night students marched on Tiananmen Square demanding freedom and democracy. The protest then escalated into a full-scale popular uprising rapidly, when martial law declared on May 20, millions of citizens, determined to protect the students on Tiananmen square at any cost, jubilantly threw together makeshift blockades to stop the troop trucks massed on the perimeters of the city from coming in” [35]. The anthem for them was famous song of Cui Jian “Nothing To My Name”. He sang for students in the square in the end of May 1989 (Huang, 2001).
The protest was suppressed by Army on the 4th of June. It’s still unknown how much people died that day.  As for Chinese rock, Tiananmen Massacre influenced it with no doubt.
Tiananmen Massacre is often considered as a turning point in the history of Chinese rock. It connected with a political role that played rock-musicians during the second part of the 1980s’. “At this time, Chinese rock and roll held a central role in the struggle for control of meaning in a Chinese mass culture, as a point of resistance to social and political repression” [32, p. 5]. Officials couldn’t ignore the fact that “Nothing to My Name” became an anthem for demonstrators. “Immediately following the Tiananmen massacre, Beijing security forces were ordered to locate and imprison prominent rock musicians, who were characterized as social delinquents on a par with student prodemocracy leaders” [31, p. 189].
Were the restrictions of the government the beginning of the end of rock music in China?  I assume that rock musicians had to leave the sphere of politics because circumstances had changed. But anyway, they continued to play music and perform.  Sanctions turned out to be temporary and in several months rockers came back to Beijing but rock went underground [35]. “On occasion, Chinese rock bands have been permitted to undertake overseas tours of Hong Kong, Malaysia and even the United States, to bring back precious foreign currency” [31, p. 183]. One again money overweighed ideology. But officially rock music wasn’t recognized by government. “The word "yaogun," Chinese for rock 'n' roll was not sanctioned in the print media” [39, p. 69]. Also a ghost of Tiananmen influenced on restrictions that was in the logic of policy of obliteration. “From 1990 until 1999, rock performances were banned in Beijing for the entire month of June of every year, because government officials were afraid that rock student audiences would publicly commemorate the anniversary of the June 4 massacre” [31, p. 191]. Rock musicians could play in small clubs (De Kloet, 2005) and release their albums but no longer with a help of state-own labels, rock-musicians had to release their albums in Honk Kong and Taiwan and then import it back to mainland China through tapes and Hong Kong cable network (Huang, 2001).  
In spite of the fact that rock had no rights to exist through the official point of view and it was prohibited to use the term Yaogunyue in mass media for about 10 years, people continued to play rock music. The first half of 1990s’ was a time of flowering of bands that gathered in the end of 1980s’. Jeroen de Kloet says, that in spite of government restrictions on rock music after Tiananmen Massacre, Chinese rock continued to develop. “With the crackdown on the student protests on 4 June, 1989, the cultural fever that raged over China in the 1980s is believed to have quickly faded out, after which Chinese popular culture had to reground itself. Nonetheless, Beijing rock culture continued to grow, and the works of bands following on Cui Jian, such as Tang Dynasty, Black Panther and singers like He Yong and Zhang Chu, continued to be deeply embedded in the rock mythology”  [21, p. 232].
Jonathan Matusitz thinks that the Tiananmen Massacre was a cause of further popularization of rock music in China, as foreign as domestic. “Until the Tiananmen Square tragedy, only small sections of Chinese audiences had been attracted to international rock and pop thanks to the icons’ long hair, tight pants, and strange lyrics from legendary characters on foreign labels. The popularity and marketability of global rock and pop was mostly limited to Beijing’s college students and artistic circles. The state-run recording studios would allow only few albums to be produced because some rock and pop songs, with their lyrics on individuality and depression, was disturbing the Chinese government. Since 1989–1990, however, things changed. Many state-run publishing houses lost their subsidies and were driven to produce profits. As a result, the popularity of international rock and pop increased both within and outside of Beijing. This means that Chinese rock and pop has become not only imitation but also innovation” [45, p. 485]
Andreas Steen assumes that the genre changed after events of June 4th. “After the Tiananmen Massacre in June 1989, the number of rock bands in Beijing increased dramatically. Over the years, however, the genre has changed, and not only because of the PRC's ideological, social, and economic development. Another reason was that, consciously or not, several musicians agreed to "koutou" to a politically responsible and economically motivated music industry in order to reach their goals and release records. Chinese rock has obviously lost its formerly criticized "rebellious spirit" (fanpan jingshen) and transformed into a politically lighter version. This process allowed the genre to enter into the mainstream of Chinese popular music” [54, p. 3]
As it said earlier, a great number of bands that appeared in the end of the 1980s’continued to play music in different genres, as well as new bands emerged. In spite of the fact that musicians played rock music after Tiananmen Massacre and released albums, there is an opinion that “real rock” was in 80s’, and after that rockers became a part of show business and earned money but didn’t express their attitude towards current order of things through their music. Rockers were blamed in consumerism and commercialization as by scholars as by contemporaries. Here is the quotation that Jeroen de Kloet provides in one of his articles: “The perceived crisis of Chinese rock in the mid-1990s is shown by the words of DJ Zhang Youdai, who told me: “The new generation does not have their own culture, or their own life; it’s consumerism. I think the 1980s were the golden years. People ask me why Chinese rock started in the 1980s. I think you should ask why in the 1990s rock died in China. In the 1980s young people concentrated more on culture; right now people concentrate on the economy, on making money” [22, p. 612]. Hao Huang has the same opinion. “Instead of heading a movement advocating openness versus repression, rock musicians are scrambling to find a tenable niche in Chinese popular culture. Consumerism has changed the rules. Trading fever has displaced cultural fever. Rock musicians are no exception. In the 1980s, they proudly flaunted their individualism, outside social norms. In the 1990s, they clawed their way into the commercial arena by pledging allegiance to the Chinese cultural core. Living outside mainstream economic discourse has become too heavy a price for those who once symbolized resistance to a corrupt, superannuated regime. Now, it is rock musicians themselves who are fighting to demonstrate that they remain relevant to China’s mass culture, present and future” [32, p. 11]
One more evidence that rock culture didn’t die after Tiananmen is foundation of MIDI Beijing School of rock and jazz in 1993 that was the first institution where students could learn modern music and advanced musical techniques [62].
Relationships between government and Cui Jian were difficult as they were before. From one hand, he brought money. From the other hand, he criticized government. Cui Jian was allowed to go on tour for the Asian Games 1990, but it was cut by officials because Cui blindfolded himself by a red patch while performing “A Piece of Red Cloth” [52]. This image showed his disappointment with the situation and will to not see what was happening and it was obvious for government too.
In spite of the attempts of Cui Jian to continue speaking out his attitude towards current situation, Yaogun seems to lose its political meaning in the beginning of the 1990s’ because the moods in youth changed: young people decided to think about themselves rather than about their country. Pragmatism and individualism replaced idealism of the 1980s’ [52]. This trend will be explained in the 3rd Chapter.
Conclusion for the 2nd Chapter
At the first stage government tried to stop the spread of the Western music and lifestyle. In the beginning of the 1980s’ there were precedents when young Chinese were prohibited to go to the discos, communicate with foreigners and so on. Officials even launched “Anti-spiritual pollution campaign” in 1983 but it wasn’t successful.
The attitude towards new phenomena in youth culture began to change. Foreign musicians came to China with concerts; the most remarkable was the concert of British band Wham! in 1985. In 1986 Cui Jian appeared in public at the first time and this event shows that officials allowed playing rock. He released his first album through state-run label. At the same moment the second half of the 1980s’ is a time of emergence of Democratic Movement. Yaogun became a symbol of the protest at Tiananmen Square in 1989 because the song “Nothing To My Name” was its anthem.
After events on June 4th restrictions for Chinese rockers followed, but they weren’t long and serious. Rockers continued to perform and release their albums, but they had to do it through labels in Hong Kong and Taiwan and only then distribute their music in China. Nevertheless it was banned in mass media; Yaogun got more popularity in the beginning of the 1990s’. That’s why it was allowed to musicians to perform and go to tour outside the country: they earn money for their music. One more reason is that Yaogun lost its political meaning and musicians preferred to sing about their individualities rather politics.

Chapter 3. The measure of American and European influence on Chinese rock: the cases studies of Cui Jian, Tang Dynasty and Black Panther
The third chapter is dedicated to two case studies: the father of Chinese rock Cui Jian and two heavy metal bands Tang Dynasty and Black Panther. I want to show the different extent of American and European influence on the artists (I call it “Western” further in the text). In the first part of the chapter I compare heavy metal bands Tang Dynasty and Black Panther. They appeared in Beijing approximately in one time and played music in one genre. In spite of this, they put a different meaning in their songs and used different images and I want to show it on the example of music videos “A Dream Return To Tang Dynasty” by Tang Dynasty and “Shame” by Black Panther.
The second case study is the most famous song of Chinese rock “Nothing To My Name” by Cui Jian. I made a comparative analysis of his song with “The Times Are A-changin’” by Bob Dylan. I chose these artists due to the several reasons. First of all, Cui Jian is often called “Bob Dylan of China”. Second, both of them were anthems for the civil movements in America 1960s’ and China 1980s’. I want to look at the historical contest of the creation of these songs and how authors expressed the meaning they wanted to say. Also I am trying to understand the cultural roots of songs “Nothing To My Name” and “The Times Are A-changin’”.
The aim of this work is to find out how much Chinese was in Chinese rock in the second half of 1980s’ and how much it was inspired by foreign influence on the example of famous Chinese musicians, their songs and images they used.
3.1. Tang Dynasty and Black Panther – how much Chinese is in Chinese heavy-metal?
As I talk about the measure of Western influence on Chinese rock, I need to prove that it was different extant of this influence. I want to show it on the example of two most famous rock bands of the second middle 1980s’ – Black Panthers and Tang Dynasty.  I compare them because they have some similarities and differences between each other. They appeared almost at the same time in Beijing – in 1987 and 1988 respectively. They still are the most famous rock bands of the first generation of Chinese rock. In spite of the fact that they started to play almost at one time, these bands use different images and symbols in their oeuvre. We can trace it even in their names. Tang Dynasty got its name from ancient dynasty, which is known for the bloom of poetry and art (Jones, 1992). Zhao Nian, a drummer of the band, explained the reasons why did they choose this name for it: "We chose the name 'Tang Dynasty (Tang Chao)' because that was China's greatest period. It was also the greatest era for the arts" [52]
The name “Black Panther” refers to the rock mythology: images of wild animals are wildly spread among rockers. Li Tong, leader guitarist, said that they decided to play rock because they all listen to foreign music that time. Originally, they called the band “Dark horse”, but Li Tong decided to name band Black Panthers because he thought that they “had a power of Hard Metal.  Also panthers are rare animals and they close to our image” [60]
So, it looks like Black Panther uses traditional rock images and doesn’t refer to Chinese cultural heritage and Tang Dynasty does it. So, to prove this idea I want to tell more about the history of these bands and compare two videos on songs “Shame” [5] of Black Panther (1992) and “A Dream Return to Tang Dynasty” [6] of Tang Dynasty (1992).
3.1.1 Tang Dynasty and Black Panther, Chinese heavy metal bands
Tang Dynasty is metal band in China gathered in 1988.  They combined British heavy metal with traditional Chinese music. They wrote melancholic songs that were dedicated to the imaginary world and were an attempt to escape from the present [74]. 
The leader vocalist, Ding Wu was born in 1962. He spent his childhood in Northeast China, where he started to study traditional opera vocal in the age of 8. Ding Wu and his family came back to Beijing in 1972. He learnt to play the guitar in 1976 when popularity of this instrument just had begun to grow and people called guitar “an instrument of hooligans”. In 1978 Ding Wu entered Fine Arts Department of Beijing Academy of Fine Arts. Shortly before the graduation in 1982 he began to listen to rock music with his friends. At that time it was difficult to get any relevant information about it and good instruments to play music.  Ding Wu participated in some performances with his friends. Also he tried to get tapes and magazines from friends who played music to learn more about rock. “In 1984 he with Li Ji established rock band Bu Dao Weng (“Roly-Poly”), which was supported by a work unit (danwei) with instruments” [54]. They played covers of Japanese and Western songs for a year and then disbanded. After that, Ding Wu began to sing in Black Panther but not for a long time. In 1988 he met Kaiser Guo, a half-Chinese American who came to China for study. Kaiser gave more information to him about rock music, for example Pink Floyd that became a favourite band of Ding Wu. They began to play music together and established band Tang Dynasty [77]. Kaiser was a guide of American and European influence on the sound of the band. He showed different bands for other members of Tang Dynasty, for example, Queensryche [67]. Liu Yijin, also known as Lao Wu joined them as a guitarist.  Liu was born in Tianjin, China. The guitar was his second instrument; his first was the Guqin. Eventually he felt interest in playing the guitar and got his first instrument in 1978. Despite the fact that his father opposed him in playing music, Lao Wu continued to practice the guitar 15 hours a day by himself without teacher. His family moved to Beijing in 1984 where he continuously failed to find a stable job and he began to make money by playing music. Lao Wu eventually picked up the seven string guitar and the erhu, as heard in the song "The Sun" [77].  “He gained a reputation for his lightning-quick guitar chops, the guitar virtuoso of China's glory days of rock” [50]. He always acted as conductor of Chinese national identity: “Rockers are jockeying for legitimacy as popular-culture brokers by taking Beijing rock as part of a northern Chinese cultural core” [31, p. 193].
In 1989, after Tiananmen Massacre, when Kaiser Guo had to come back to America and Ding Wu moved to Xinjiang for a few months, the band was temporarily disbanded.  But in the end of this year Tang Dynasty participated in concert “Modern Music 90”in Beijing at Capital Indoor Stadium. It was their first appearance in public and people liked them a lot [76]. The significance of this event can be comparable with Woodstock 1969 because it signed the emergence of Chinese rock after temporary sanctions of Post-Tiananmen period.
On May 1990, Tang Dynasty signed a contract with Taiwan record company and started to record their first album “A Dream to Return to Tang Dynasty”. It was released in China in 1992 [63]. Also it was released in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia [65].  In April 1993, the nation's MTV Video Music Award nominations were announced; Tang Dynasty won the Best Asian MTV nominations for their album “A Dream to Return to Tang Dynasty” [65].   This release got its accolades for the mix of Western and Chinese traditions. “It's art rock at its pompous best: complex harmonies, breathtaking guitar work, and Led Zepplinesque mysticism wedded to ornate, flowery lyrics. In spirit, Tang Dynasty isn't that far removed from the progressive metal bands of the 1970s. Instead of the knights-errant of Arthurian legend, the band is enchanted by the youxia - valiant Kung Fu-fighting swordsmen wander the pages of Chinese history. The album is a fusion of great metal, intricate art rock, Arabic folk music from the far western deserts of Xinjiang, and well-crafted pop melodies” [35].
The very name of the album tells that musicians wanted to stress their national identity and don’t look like a copy of the Western precursors. They used a form of heavy metal, which characterized by loud distorted guitars, emphatic rhythms, dense bass-and-drum sound, and vigorous vocals [77]. They were heavy metal rockers and they the style musicians used with long hair, tight jeans and black leather is a feature of heavy metal (Kostiuk, Savina, 2013).  At the same time they stressed that they play Chinese music. Lao Wu said in 1992: "This isn't the '60s and China's not the U.S.A. Our music doesn't have to follow the same road as rock music in the West, and it doesn't necessarily mean the same things here" [35]. Tang Dynasty used Chinese cultural heritage in their performing music. “A strong longing for the past is expressed in the band’s name, album titles, imagery, music, and lyrics. This celebration of the past and its related discontents of the present, form the leading characteristic of Tang Dynasty. In their songs, they express their solitude in modern times, their despair, and their search for a better world” [21, p.237] Ding Wu combined Chinese operatic traditions with rock vocal.  Lao Wu played not only guitar but also traditional Chinese instruments as erhu and guqin. The sound of the band was in trend of the attempt to come back to historical and cultural roots.  “Their sound is part progressive rock and artistic metal and part traditional Chinese vocal techniques with lyrical poetry and musical arrangements meant to hearken back to the glorious days of ancient Chinese civilization; in particular, the cultural epitome of Chinese history as popularly represented by the era of the Tang Dynasty” [60].  I think that they felt the time and play music appropriate for the circumstances. The trend of nationalism was very strong in Chinese society, especially at Post-Tiananmen era (Kendall, 2009).  Hao Huang explains it through governmental policy. “Desire to produce a purely Chinese rock music appeals to the CCP’s post-Tiananmen, market-oriented authoritarians. Recently, the chief of the Beijing Bureau of Security praised Tang Dynasty “‘off the record” citing them as examples of assertive Chinese nationalism, while deploring the addiction of certain band members to narcotics. Tang Subei, chair of the Chinese delegation to the Cross-Straits Talks between Beijing and Taipei, has acknowledged that he was pleased to hear from a Taiwanese delegate that while rock has existed in Taiwan for decades, it has never been properly Sinicized, whereas the Mainland can already boast of Tang Dynasty. In 1991, the China Youth News printed an article that asked the government to tolerate rock music, because it was the only effective defense against the flood of Western-deprived pop music in the mainland market” [32, p. 9]
The second band appeared at that time was Black Panther.  It was formed by Guo Si and Li Tong. Their official debut happened in Hong Kong. Black Panther released debut album in 1991 in Honk Kong and Taiwan. A year later album “Black Panther” was released in mainland China [74]. The leading guitarist Li Tong started to play the guitar in high school. He often called a “heart” of the band.  His favourite singer was Ozzy Osbourne [63]. Guo Si told that he met rock music through foreigners first. "In 1982 a Filipino surf band did a show at a park. It was all covers, Beach Boys and stuff. We stood there stunned. We had no idea a guitar could make those sounds! That was a turning point" [52] .Then he bought an electric guitar and started to play music.
As I have said before, Ding Wu sang in Black Panther in the beginning. Then his place took Dou Wei. Dou Wei was born in Beijing in 1969. In 1983 he begun to listen to Western Music and learn to play the guitar by himself. He joined Black Panthers in 1988 as keyboard player and vocalist [63]. He left Black Panther in 1990 and Luan Shu came to his place. Luan Shu studied at Central Conservatory of Music, his major was trumpet. He joined Black Panthers in 1990 as keyboard player and singer [78].  Wang Wenjie, bassist, also was a founder of the band and also started to play music at school [77]. The album “Black Panther” was sold with 1.5 million copies and had brilliant status. In 1991 they performed at Shenzhen Modern Music Spring Festival. The songs for this album were written mostly in Chinese except two songs “Take care” and “Don’t break my heart”, which have repeating lines in English. So, in comparison with Tang Dynasty, Black Panther didn’t try to create a conceptual music by stressing their national and cultural roots and the sound of the band is more international then the sound of Tang Dynasty.
3.1.2 Comparative visual analysis of music videos “A Dream Return to Tang Dynasty” by Tang Dynasty and “Shame” by Black Panther
The song “A Dream Return to Tang Dynasty” is the first in the debut album of the band. It tells a story about dreamer who wants to return back to time of Tang Dynasty:
“A prediction about my future is burned along the lines on my hand.
Night is sober and dreamless today
Through the predictions I am rushing into the myth, my dream - Tang Dynasty” .
The video “A Dream Return to Tang Dynasty” starts with the face of Vairocana Buddha’s statue and face of Ding Wu with closed eyes. During the powerful intro landscapes of China are changing each other: mountains, fields, the caves at Longmen Grottoes and a battle-field with a waving red flag. A white horse is walking through ancient gates and the drummer is beating an old gong. Ding Wu starts to sing and we see musicians playing in different places: onstage, in front of those ancient gates, in the middle of abandoned road, somewhere in Loess Plateau. They are in tie trousers and shirts, jumping and waving their long hair. When the band is on the stage, we can see several red flags in the right corner. There are some moments when they are sitting on the ground in the hills of Loess Plateau and looking at the camera. Their way of performing is very energetic, a bit aggressive, but when they don’t play music they are quite relaxed. Ding Wu sings in a high voice and sometimes raises his voice to a shout. The song has a powerful solo by Lao Wu. The video ends with four drop red flags. This clip is full of images and references that lead viewer to the times of Tang Dynasty. “The symbolism in the music, the lyrics, and the video clips that present a sort of Orientalist dream sequence full of references to the traditional past, express a pervasive sense of cultural loss” [21, p. 238]. First of all, these are the landscapes of Loess Plateau, where Luoyang, the ancient capital of Tang Dynasty is situated. Views of Longmen Gates are also bring us back to one of the sights of Luoyang. The statues of Buddha that we watch in video were mostly made during Tang Dynasty. Third, a white horse in the first minute of it is a symbol of White Horse Temple, the first Buddhist temple in China situated in Luoyang.
Song “Shame” was written by Li Tong about his feelings. “I wanted to tell about my emotions, it’s not a concrete story”  [60]  It’s rather interesting that the name of the song in Chinese is 无地自容, which is chengyu, Chinese idiom consists of four characters. It translates in English as “can find no place to hide oneself for shame” [70]. This song tells a story in the first person who walks in crowd and talks to another person, probably a lady that “someday will meet him and understand him”.  Luan Shu sings:
“I’m not a person that I used to be.
I was so lonely in my past,
People were so cold to me.
And finally I got a feeling
I’m ashamed” .
Video to this song was made near Great Wall in 1992 [60]. The video starts with the waving red flag and a piece of the Great Wall.  We can see members of band walking down the Great Wall with a red flag. Then different scenes changes each other: musicians performing on the stage wearing black leather and sun glasses, performing at most famous paces of Beijing as Tiananmen Square, Summer Palace, hutongs and, of course, the Great Wall. Also there are scenes when they don’t play music and hang around Beijing and do nothing. They have an image of city idlers that have fun and live a modern live of capital’s inhabitant.
These two songs tell us stories of people unsatisfied by events happening or happened in their life. If “A Dream Return to Tang Dynasty” is full of escapism and antagonism to modern life, the hero of “Shame” lives now and here. I suppose these videos were shot in two capitals of China – ancient and present. Music video of Tang Dynasty is full of images that refer to the past epoch: Buddha’s faces, old building in traditional Chinese style and a white horse as a reference to the oldest Buddhist temple in China.  Black Panther’s members are children of 1980s’ and they speak about current problems of an individual, which is more typical for the person of Western culture, not Eastern. They are enjoying they walk around Northern capital and a bit reflexing about their “shame”. In spite of obvious differences of music videos there are some their similarities. First of all, through the standpoint of direction of the scenes they are quite similar. We can see musicians performing their music on the stage, and their stage behavior is the same – they are wearing tight leather trousers or jeans, waving long hair and moving around the scene. Second place of the shoot is see sights that are remarkable for Chinese people, for example, Longmen Grottes and the Great Wall. The third scene is when musicians don’t perform and Tang Dynasty members are sitting in peace somewhere in the hills of Loess Plateau and band of Black Panther is walking around Beijing.  Finally, both bands use red flags. Red is a color of joy and happiness in Chinese culture [66]. Also flags remain audience about communistic present. Red flag is used to times in Tang Dynasty’s video: first it’s waving at the battle-field; also there are 4 red flags on the stage. They are dropped when musicians leave the scene in the end of video. I propose that these 4 flags are symbols of 4 members of band that don’t feel any joy out of the dream about the times of Tang Dynasty. Also dropped flags in the end can be a sign, a very sad one, of a total disappointment of present order of things. I assume that Black Panther bring a red flag through the Great Wall as a connection between past and present. Also, they could mean their loyalty to the government by using a red flag. The video was shot at Tiananmen Square only in 3 years after events of June 4th and it was possible due to the allowance of the officials, I believe.
So, as we can see, these two bands had a different extent of Western influence, which is obvious not only from their names, but also from the meaning of the songs, images in music videos and design of albums. Tang Dynasty tried to stress their national identity and traditions and seeks for the cultural roots of great past of China through the form of heavy-metal. They make music about past, how perfect and beautiful it was and how disappointed in present they are.  They are less Western inspired then Black Panther. Black Panther use heavy metal aesthetic as well but they didn’t try to show their “Chineseness” in every creative act. The usage of English in such songs as “Take Care” and “Don’t Break My Heart” proves that they were more open to the Western influence. Their songs describe feelings and emotions of a person that lives here and now and more concerned about his place in the society and relations with other people. Anyway, their music is a Chinese rock; played by Chinese people in mainland China from the second middle of 80s mostly in Chinese language and the chengyu in the title of the song “Shame” proves that they used traditional Chinese forms as well.
Nevertheless, Tang Dynasty and Black Panther have some common features. They play music in one genre of heavy metal. The analyzed videos have similar art direction: the order of scenes, stage behavior of musicians, the usage of the red flag, but in different symbolism, by the way. Musicians even looked quite similar with their long hair and tight dark leather trousers or jeans.
3.2. Comparative analysis of Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-changin’” and Cui Jian’s “Nothing to My Name”
I chose the song of Bob Dylan and Cui Jian as subjects of analysis because of several reasons. First of all, both of these songs were an anthem for protest movements. Second, they were written in similar historical context. Third, Cui Jian was inspired by American and European musicians and Bob Dylan was one of them. The first aim of this analysis is to compare the circumstances the songs were written in. The second aim is to compare the meaning of the songs and symbols the authors used. Also I want to look at the way they expressed their points of view to the current situation in America of 60s’ and China 80s’. The third aim is to find out how much Cui Jian was inspired by Bob Dylan, did he copy the way Dylan wrote his song or also used Chinese traditions?
I am going to use method of semiotic analysis to compare these songs. “Semiotics studies the world, culture and society as sign systems that produce, keep and promote information” [47] According to Jonathan Matusitz, music helps people to talk to each other in one language. “Music is one of the oldest forms of human communication, in all cultures at all times. Popular music, or rock and pop, denotes a cultural object. It is a sign in itself, and the various ways of organizing it can be viewed as forms of semiotics. Popular music is a sign because it has many facets and many uses, but it is generally acknowledged that its primary appeal is to the emotions of a generation, particularly a young generation. The content of the musical sign in this case is in the emotion evoked within the hearer” [46, p. 157]
The reason I choose Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-changin’” to compare with Cui Jian’s “Nothing to My Name” is that both of the songs was an anthem of civil movements. The second reason is that Bob Dylan was one of the Western musicians who influence Cui Jian (FlorCruz, 2012) and it is important to see the extant of this influence. It’s no doubt that Cui Jian combined Western and Chinese approach towards music. “Stylistically, Cui Jian's music presents the following characteristics: pinched, rough vocal style; a foregrounding of rhythmic elements, both in the accompaniment (which borrows heavily from Western rock music) and in the melody; a melodic construction which is taken to be closely related to northern folk song melodic construction; lyrics often interpreted as politically oppositional in content; and occasional use of traditional Chinese instruments such as the suona, the dizi (a transverse flute made of bamboo), and the guzheng (a zither)” [18, p. 164]. He tried to find a new sound for his music, that was different from what was performed before and also to use new images that came with a new sound. “Cui Jian, studying trumpet at the Beijing conservatory, eagerly incorporated the new, rebellious ‘‘Western’’ sounds of rock. With the sound came a new ideology, being part of the ideoscape, as embedded in the rock mythology, which promises (bodily) freedom, masculinity, rebellion, and protest” [21, p. 231].
So he mixed traditional instruments of China with bass-guitars and drums and was searching for the new form of music, but what about poetry? To answer this question, I need to look not only to the song of Bob Dylan but also to Chinese traditions of poetry that correlate with Confucians ideas.
In this case, I agree with poststructuralists approach that the text depends not only on its creator’s will but also on the circumstances it was written in (Osipova, 2010).  Every song is born in certain circumstances and before I start the comparison of two songs I need to concretize the historical context. “Lyrics are shaped by context as much as context is shaped by lyrics. For this reason, the semiotics of lyrics is best when it focuses on contextualization, that is, the interpretation according to the context. Contextualization helps semioticians understand how rock and pop lyrics are interpreted as a parodic form of individual and cultural detail” [46, p. 168].
The song “The Times They Are A-Changin’” was written in 1963 and realized in 1964. It was a time in the American society when protest moods were very strong. “Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'" is one of his great early-'60s anthems. The simple tune, played in waltz time, supports five verses that contain a clarion call to recognize and accept change in a general sense. The opening line, "Come gather 'round people," evokes old folk ballads, but the singer has a cautionary tale in mind, not a soothing story. He tells various groups - writers and critics, senators and congressmen, mothers and fathers - that change of an uncertain, threatening nature is coming. He offers little advice to cope with this change, suggesting only that mothers and fathers, whose "old road is rapidly agin'," either lend a hand or get out of the way and that, as the flood waters rise, "you better start swimmin'." Like "Blowin' in the Wind," which Dylan had written more than a year earlier, "The Times They Are A-Changin'" spoke philosophically and in general terms, but was easily interpretable in the context of its period of composition as a referring primarily to the civil rights struggle” [49]. People weren’t happy with the things in the USA and wanted to change current state of things. It was a time when they tried to express their ideas participating in Civil rights movement, Anti-war in Vietnam movement and so on. Also one of the features of that time was student activism. Students, as young, progressive and energetic people tried to speak out their ideas and disagreement with official position. So, the song “The Times They Are A-Changin’” became an anthem for them because it proclaimed the changes that are coming. Bob Dylan said ones that he wrote this song because it was exactly what people want to hear. In the liner notes of this album Biograph, Dylan wrote: "I wanted to write a big song, some kind of theme song, with short, concise verses that piled up on each other in a hypnotic way. This is definitely a song with a purpose. I knew exactly what I wanted to say and who I wanted to say it to" [75] So Bob Dylan can be called a voice of the generation of middle 1960s’ in America.
The second middle of 1980s’ was a time of growing protest moods in China. A mass of people wasn’t satisfied with the situation in China, such as growing corruption. The aim of Democratic Movement was to make officials listen to the needs of people. But governors didn’t agree with the standpoint of the participants of the protest movements. This contradiction led to the Tiananmen Crackdown in 1989. Students of Universities in Beijing went out the streets and the anthem for them was a song “Nothing to My Name”. This song of Cui Jian became well-known at 1986 when he sang it in the first time in the concert. He sang “Nothing to My Name” in front of the students on Tiananmen and all they want was to be heard by the older generation. From the first glance, it is a love-story of a young man who sings to a girl that left him. But it can be interpreted as a song from youth of China that has nothing to power-holders that are older generation and they can change the order of things in the country. He definitely wanted to express his views on situation in country. “For Cui, rock music has a meaning and a certain message, which functions as a cultural force that should aim at social change, or at least make people think” [55, p. 18].
Hence, the comparison of the historical context of the creation of these songs proves that they were written in similar circumstances. The USA of 1960s’ and China 1980s’ can be characterized by strong protest moods and student activism. People saw that something was wrong in their societies and tried to change it. Every movement needs a symbol and this symbol was a song that represents the feelings of its participants.
And “The Times They Are A-Changin’” and “Nothing to My Name” talk about changes that are about to come. But Bob Dylan and Cui Jian do it in a different way. Bob Dylan told in “The Times They Are A-Changin’”:
The line it is drawn…
… The order is rapidly fading [3].
So, he speaks about changes in explicit way. Changes are happening and it’s a fact. Hearer can agree with this or not but it how the things go.
Cui Jian does it in a bit another way. First of all, there are two meanings of this song. First, a literal sense is a story of young man who is left alone by a girl. Second, figurative sense is a call from young people to older generation. In the first chorus Cui sings:
“I asked endlessly, would you go with me?”
In the 3rd chorus the intonation changes:
“I now you will go with me!” [4]
The changes have come and the hearer is a bystander of them. Hence, people that sang this song in 1989 wanted to see the changes as their predecessors in America in 1964.
The difference in ways singers said about coming changes is in that Bob Dylan belongs to low context culture and it is natural for him to say what he wants to say and Cui Jian is a person of high context culture uses images and metaphors.
We can say the song “Nothing to My Name” was written in traditions of the Western individualism, because it is a story in the first person. It looks like one person speaks for the whole country, and it is in norms of Western tradition.  Bob Dylan was a voice of the generation in America in the middle 1960s’, and it doesn’t surprising. But what is about China? Stereotypes about Chinese collectivism tell us other. But, actually, according to the Confucius tradition, poetry is not only a tool to describe nature or one’s feelings. It has a didactic meaning (Smirnov, 2011). “The view that poetry is mainly an expression of personal emotions is at least as old as the didactic one, if not older. Both views—the didactic and the, for want of a better term, individualist—ran parallel in early Confucian writings on poetry” [43, p. 78].
Poet should tell the critic on the government and his views on socio-political organization of the society. “According to the History of the Han Dynasty in ancient times there were officials sent out by theking to collect songs from the people so as to test public opinion. He should bring the people's sufferings to the notice of the ruler in the hope that the latter may be moved to mend his ways, but not incite rebellion. To achieve this aim, the poet should make use of allegory and satire, rather than openly attack the government. This is known as feng chien, or ‘satirize and admonish'” [43, p. 67].
Hence, Bob Dylan and Cui Jian act for the purpose of their own poetical-protest positions. We can say Cui Jian was inspired in a certain extent by Bob Dylan as an example of a singer who represented mood of people and time. Nevertheless, if “The Times Are A-Changin” is a reference to mass of the people and the first line proves it:
“Come gather round people
Wherever you roam” [3],
“Nothing To My Name” references to one person from another with the first line:
“I have asked endlessly,
When will you go with me?” [4]
So, the first song is an explicit reference, and the second is an implicit one. Two blasts of meaning are very traditional for the Chinese poetry. Ancient poets used a set of images and metaphors to estimate their political point of view that were known among all the well-educated people (Smirnov, 2011).  The form of love song that Cui used is not traditional, because classical Confucius poetry condemns romantic love between man and woman as a treat for the society and country (Smirnov, 2011).   In 1980s’, Gangtaiyue a light pop-music from Hong Kong and Taiwan, used a topic if love. Maybe Cui wrote his song using this form in order to make his views not that obvious. Later he said that he never meant to talk about politics and people can understand his songs as they want [18, p. 166].
It is interesting that both of singers use an image of water in their songs. In Dylan’s song he sang:
“And admit the waters
Around you have grown,
… Then you better start swimmin’” [3]
Cui uses this image this way:
“The ground beneath my feet is moving
The water by my side is flowing” [4]
Water is a symbol of woman’s nature and romantic feelings in most cultures. Also, in traditional understanding, water is a symbol of human’s nature that smooth and liquid as water and changes all the time (Kobzev, 1988). It is a symbol of coming changes and both songs tell it to hearer.
So, these songs as anthems for protest movements have some similarities and differences.
As for music, these songs have their roots in folk traditions. Bob Dylan was inspired by Scottish ballads and Cui Jian used traditional Chinese instruments and melodies that were combined with Western instruments. 
These songs were written in close historical and socio-political situation. The youth that was unsatisfied with the order of things in their countries, participated in protest movements for Civil rights and tried to speak out their ideas. “The Times They Are A-Changin’” and “Nothing to My Name” became anthems for the protest movements in America of middle 1960s’ and China of the second half 1980s’ respectively.  They have a reference to the hearer and talk about changes that are coming. But the difference is that Bob Dylan references to the mass people, as young as old generations. He says that changes are happening and it’s a fact. Cui Jian talks as a young man to woman that left him. So, there are two semiotic blasts of the song. The first blast is quite obvious: it’s an unhappy love-story. The second blast can be regarded as a reference from young generation to old one. Moreover, grammatical peculiarities of Chinese language can determinate the subject of song as “I” as “We”. “Chinese, being a completely uninflected language, is not burdened with Cases, Genders, Moods, Tenses, and the Chinese poet especially is often concerned with presenting the essence of a mood or a scene rather than with accidental details”  [43, pp. 39 - 40]. Hence, the main phrase of the chorus “一无所有” can be translated as “I have nothing” and “We have nothing”.  Moreover, according to the Confucius tradition, poet has a right to express his socio-political view and to criticize the ruler.
Conclusion for the 3rd Chapter
Chinese musicians had a different extent of the American and European influence. On the example of Tang Dynasty we can see that they use totally Western form of heavy metal and felt it with Chinese meaning. Their songs are dedicated to the escape to perfect days of Tang Dynasty from the present; they use traditional Chinese instruments and sing only in Chinese.
Cui Jian combined Chinese and Western too. He played rock with loud guitars and political context and at the same moment he used Chinese instruments and revolutionary aesthetics during his performances. In comparison with Bob Dylan, he says things in implicit way, using metaphors and gives hearer an opportunity to ascribe the meaning of the song by himself.
Black Panther didn’t care about the past and didn’t try to call for the minds of generation. They sang were about current problems and maybe this easiness of their music helped to sell 1,5 billions of their first album? Their music was in trend of Post-Tiananmen era, when Yaogun lost its political meaning and people became more concentrated on their selves rather on socio-political situation in the country.
Anyway, all these artists played music in the genre of Yaogun, Chinese rock’n’roll. It’s rock music, with a strong rhythm-section and the sound of electric guitar, but it has some features as lyrics in Chinese and usage of Chinese musical instruments – in most cases; references to Chinese cultural heritage in one or another form. As rock in America and Europe in the 1960d’, Yaogun had a political weight, but it lost it after Tiananmen Massacre.

Conclusion
Music is important part of humans’ life and society. It influences people heavily by reflecting their emotions and thoughts and helps to share them with others. For China, music served not only in aims of entertainment but also education – in Confucius model, and propaganda as well during Mao’s times. It always correlated with changes in the society and 1980s’ as a time of dramatic changes prove it. Reforms in economy allow music to be a part of business. People got an access to light pop music from Taiwan and Hong Kong first, called Gangtai and then started to play their own music that had other aim than propaganda. Then appeared Xibeifeng, music that was based on Northern musical tradition and from Xibeifeng came Yaogun, Chinese rock’n’roll. Musicians tried to play rock in the beginning of the 1980s’ in spite that information and abilities to learn weren’t enough.  It was a period of imitation when a little number of cover bands was founded. They played covers of Western and Japanese songs and I think it was a process of learning what music of rock is. The real breakthrough happened in 1986 when Cui Jian first appeared in public. After that more musicians began to play rock: heavy-metal bands Black Panther and Tang Dynasty, singer He Yong and others. It was not a simple imitation of American and European examples anymore. In terms of culture, a new subgenre of rock music emerged – Yaogun. By the term Chinese rock or Yaogun I understand music that musicians began to play in the second half of 1980s’ in mainland China. Their songs were mainly written in Chinese and had such features as usage of traditional for rock music instruments as bass guitars and drums that sometimes were combined with traditional Chinese instruments.
So, emerging of rock music in China was inspired as well as economic as political reasons. Opening of the country to world’s economy gave an opportunity to Chinese people listen to European and American music. It was an impulse for appearance of Yaogunyue, and not only that. In my point of view, Yaogunyue came from Xibeifeng that was a kind of counterbalance light music of Gantai. The whole sense of freedom, opening for new flows and influence, possibility to speak out the critics to government was connected with Deng Xiaoping’s reforms. Rock music, as music of rebellion and social protest, became a political player in the second half of 1980s’. We can see it on the example of Cui Jian who was a voice of generation and expressed what worried people at that time and felt that he can speak it.
The relationships between rock music and officials weren’t easy. When this music just appeared in China, it was disapproved by the government. If person went to discos, had long hair and wear unusual wear, it meant that he or she was spiritually polluted. Government launched short Anti-spiritual pollution campaign in 1983 but it didn’t stop further spread of Western culture.
Government understood that it can do nothing with the changes in youth culture so it decided at list don’t stop these changes. From the beginning of the 1980s’ rock bands began to play music in China. It became possible due to more openness of Chinese people to accept new music and spread of rock because of contacts with foreigners.  From 1980, foreign musicians got a chance to perform in China. The first concert of foreign stars – British band Wham! took place in Beijing in 1985
The middle of the 1980s’ was a time of more freedom in musical sphere. In 1986 Cui Jian first appeared on the scene as a rock artist and the fact that he used revolutionary aesthetic during his performances proves the extant of freedom in the Chinese society. Such band as Black Panthers and Tang Dynasty began to play heavy metal in 1987 and 1988. Mass media paid attention to rock music.
Also, the second half of the 1980s’ was a time of Democratic Movement and student activism. People saw changes in economy, had an opportunity to communicate with foreigners and get the ideas from the West and wanted to see some changes in other spheres of the society. At my personal perception, the spread of rock music and people’s attempts to speak out their views on policy were parts of one process of changes in people’s mentality. Rock was music for well-educated youth and those people participated in protest movements. It correlates with the fact that rock music as a symbol of protest that was used in the 1960s’ in socio-political movements. That’s why Cui Jian performed in front of students on Tiananmen Square in 1989 – his song was an anthem for the protest.
Rock music was one of the symbols of students’ movement in 1989. After Tiananmen Massacre Yaogunyue some restricts toward rock-musicians followed. But they weren’t as strict as they could be: rockers escaped from big cities to villages, but after several months musicians came back to big and continued to play music and release albums on Taiwanese and Hong Kong’s labels. Rockers were forbidden to perform for a big amount of people and mass media didn’t use term Yaogunyue for a whole decade. Anyway, musicians continued to play music and even new names on the rock scene appeared.  Even the first rock festival had place in 1991.
Post-Tiananmen period was a time of emerging of new bands as well as bands established in the 1980s’. Government prefer to ignore Yaogunyue and even this word didn’t appeared in mass-media. At the same time officials used a trend of nationalism in Chinese rock in their rhetoric. Rock music split in two parts: some of musicians tried to be a part of popular culture and some of them choose underground. Rockers were blamed in commercialization but I think it’s a quite natural process in terms of whole marketization of culture that happened as a result of the reforms of Deng Xiaoping. Anyway, Tiananmen Massacre wasn’t a cause of the end of Yaogunyue. The first half of the 1990s’ wasn’t a simple time for Chinese rock but it continued its development. 
Yes, officially rock had no chances to exist, but actually there were certain circumstances for playing rock music in the big cities. Timothy Brace carried out three factors for that. “Rock performances and productions in the PRC since the early 1990s are described as ‘distinctly urban phenomena’, and the growth of Chinese rock music in Beijing is accounted for by three factors: (1) the PRC’s large concentration of foreigners, particularly foreign students; (2) a comparatively large number of sites for performance and a corresponding audience for the music; and (3) good recording opportunities for rock musicians. In 1992 Deng Xiaoping made his ‘southern tour’ to Shenzhen and other cities to defend open-door economic strategies” [29, p. 447]
According to the comparative analysis that I’ve made in both case studies, I can say that Chinese rock was inspired by American and Western music. At the same moment musicians used Chinese cultural and musical heritage by including traditional instruments or writing lyrics within the Confucius tradition.
I assume that the most indigenous band was Tang Dynasty. Starting from the name of the band, they refer to the past of China that looks more attractive than nowadays. The disappointment with present and no will to change anything carry away them back to the previous days of ancient Tang Dynasty, to beautiful capital city Luoyang.
In contrast to Tang Dynasty, Cui Jian talked about necessity of changes and they will come and are coming now. Inspired by Bob Dylan at some degree, he became a voice of the generation that felt lost in present days and have nothing. But he did it in a different way: Bob Dylan talked to the mass of people and proclaimed happening changes like an ultimatum to the older generation. Cui Jian used a form of critics of government through metaphor. In a contrast with Confucius poetic traditions, it’s a metaphor about unhappy love affair. The songs “The Times They Are A-Changin’” and “Nothing To My Name” were written in close historical context and were important part of civil movements.
Finally, Black Panther looks like the most Western influenced band of these three examples. They sang songs about the problems of an individual, about love, a place in the society and differences between a hero of the songs and others. These topics more usual for American and European musicians than Chinese and that’s why Black Panther was something new in Chinese culture. Their place is a capital, they live now and here. Everything in their songs remains about global and postmodern world where different trends, cultures and traditions are mixed up. They could combine a chengyu in the name of the song and English in the next on the first album and didn’t care that they look less indigenous than previous artists.
To sum it up, I want to say that I got the answers on three questions that I asked in the beginning.
1) Yaogun emerged in a result of the Open Door Policy in the second half of the 1980s’. Chinese culture became more open to foreign influences and if musicians copied American and European rock during the first middle of the 1980s’, they brought new features to rock then.
2) Government had a controversial attitude towards rock music. in the beginning of the 1980s’ it was blamed as “spiritual pollution” and banned. But at the same time foreign artists came to China with concerts and domestic musicians played rock. Since 1986 situation had changed: rockers appeared on the stage and in mass media. But with the spread of the Democratic Movement and especially Tiananmen massacre, rock felt under restriction again, but they were temporarily. It happened because this kind of music was popular and brought money and also it lost its political demands after 1989.
3) From my opinion, Yaogun is indigenous form of art with its own features. But as it has roots in American and European music, there is a different extent of influence on Chinese rock from the West, as we can see it on the example of Cui Jian, Tang Dynasty and Black Panther.
This research can be continued in several directions. For example, it is interesting to look at Chinese rock nowadays, to its place in the society, music industry and relations with the government now. Another direction is more historic: there is an idea to look at the social origin of the first Yaoguners: what education did they have, from what families they are and what happened to them during the 1960 – 1970s’ and how did it influence on their decision to play rock music in the 1980s’.
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Appendix A. Interview with Wang Xiaofang, Cobra (1991), drummer and vocals
1. What American and European music did you listen to? Please name at least 5 bands/soloists.
In 80s’: Sting, U2 and Pink Floyd. In 90s’ Massive Attack and Cocteau Twins influenced me a lot.
2. Did you meet them from 1978 to 1991?
No
3. From what time did you start listening to foreign music?
From 1987.
4. Who influenced you to play music?
PINK FLOYD
5. How much influence from HK and Taiwanese music did you have?
*no influence *a little influence * moderately *rather big influence *a great influence
In early 80s’, I started to listen Taiwanese pop-music.
6. How much influence from American and European rock-music did you have?
*no influence *a little influence * moderately *rather big influence *a great influence
I had a great influence.
7. Did you listen to foreign radio?
No
8. Did you get underground (smuggled) recordings?
Yes. Friends brought some types.
9. Did you have problems with authorities for playing music?
Cobra girls’ rock band was founded in 1989, and rock music was not a mainstream music in the Chinese society.  We faced the problem of making money for playing music; it was hardly possible to make a living.
10. Did you ever travel outside the PRC with your music?
Yes, I participated in various music festivals in the USA, HK, and Europe.
11. Where did you get your non-traditional\non-Chinese music instruments?
I studied Chinese music, I learnt how to play Chinese dulcimer.
12. How did you learn to play them?   
See as above
13. Did you have PR (public relation)?
No
14. Did you have magazines about rock-music?
I saw Western magazine about rock-music in 1991 in China. In 1992 I had a photoset for German rock-music magazine.
15. Did you write songs in English? No
16. Did it make any difference to the authorities what language you sang your lyrics in?
I wrote lyrics in Chinese, most of the lyrics are about our own personal living conditions and social views.
17. Did you know about any official music organizations or societies?
In the mid-1990s, China has set up a new organization: Copyright Society of China
18. Did you know about any unofficial music organizations or societies?
I don’t understand.
19. How did you distribute your music?
CD Records
20. Did you have any clubs for playing music?
We often played music. In 1992 we toured in Europe; we played in clubs in festivals. In 1996, we participated in festivals and club performances in the United States.  In 2002, we participated in festivals and club performances in Germany.

Appendix B. Interview with Yu Weimin, drummer
1. What American and European music did you listen to? Please name at least 5 bands/soloists.
1）Led Zeppelin
2）U2
3）Bob Marley
4）Buddy Rich (drummer)
5）Miles Davis
I like different music groups and genres, as well as styles, for example, hard rock，Funk, Jazz, Fusion, bossa nova, reggea, flamenco, punk rock, drum&bass, latin. Also I like ethnical, Indian music and music of Middle East.
2. Did you meet them from 1978 to 1991?
No.
3. From what time did you start listening to foreign music?
In my childhood in the 1970s’, I listened to classic European music a lot, in the early the 1980s’ I began to listen to American and European pop music.
4. Who influenced you to play music?
The Police, It was the first foreign rock album that I’ve got and I liked it a lot.
5. How much influence from HK and Taiwanese music did you have?
It had a certain impact.
6. How much influence from American and European rock-music did you have?
I had a great influence; I listened to definer genres from pop to rock music.
7. Did you listen to foreign radio?
No
8. Did you get underground (smuggled) recordings?
No
9. Did you have problems with authorities for playing music?
In 1988 – 1990 I started to play in bands that played covers, I was in college that time and the most important was to compare European and Taiwanese pop-music.  In 1990, I started to play rock in a band and it was our music. From 1995 I play in different styles. The most difficult thing is to play original music and get money for that and be happy at the same moment.
10. Did you ever travel outside the PRC with your music?
HK, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Turkey
11. Where did you get your non-traditional\non-Chinese music instruments?
I got it from HK, Japan, the USA, Turkey. I bought some instruments by myself when I travel abroad.
12. How did you learn to play them?
I started to play the guitar about 1985; I studied at school that time. I sometimes took guitar lessons after school and sometimes we played music with friends. It was our way to have fun.
We had a dream to play music in a group and when I was in university I learnt how to play the drums.
In 1987, it was possible to learn only classic and folk music in colleges in Beijing.  It was no special school for teaching how to play drum set.  I had a friend how taught me how to play the drums on introductive level. Also it was some books and audiovisual materials. It was important to study by oneself because it was no systematic courses to take.
13. Did you have PR (public relation)?
No
14. Did you have magazines about rock-music?
Probably in 1991 I read a foreign magazine abroad about guitars at the first time. Later I read “Rolling stone”, but not often, only when a friend brought it from abroad, but then I had a lot of “Modern drummer”, “Jazziz” and so on.
15. Did you write songs in English?
In 1992 I started to play in group Xuewei. The lead singer was half-British and half-Chinese. All the lyrics were in English. But when we recorded our songs we used lyrics as in Chinese as in English.
16. Did it make any difference to the authorities what language you sang your lyrics in?
English lyrics mainly considered as a part of globalization.
17. Did you know about any official music organizations or societies?
All the official music associations and organizations were for pop music. Rock music was to alternative for that.
18. Did you know about any unofficial music organizations or societies?
In early 90s’ it was a German guy called Wudou who lived in Beijing and played on Beijing Jazz festival but it was over.  Scale music organizations and associations were rare at that time.
19. How did you distribute your music?
We distributed our music mainly through live performances.
20. Did you have any clubs for playing music?
We played music in different places, from Live house to Disco club. Also we played in theaters, gymnasiums, stadiums, large outdoor music festivals.