Do you hear the people sing?
Songs from the streets
Hello and welcome to the latest edition of Concrete Avalanche, a newsletter about music from China.
Thanks very much for reading and a special thank you if you’ve shared, liked and / or commented on one of these posts so far, it’s genuinely appreciated and makes me feel a little less weird for spending so much time on this.
I originally had a whole edition filled with new music almost ready to go here, but it now feels odd to post it out and not acknowledge the events of the last few days.
I’m not on the ground in any of the cities where protests have been taking place, but — I imagine like a lot of you — I’ve been watching things unfold as closely as possible. My social media feeds have been flooded by white blocks, video clips, and music ranging from Patti Smith’s ‘People Have the Power’ to Bob Marley and the Wailers’ ‘Get Up, Stand Up’.
Amid the serious nature of some of the messages and their background, there’s also been great humour and creativity, as ever on the Chinese internet.
Still, it’s worth remembering that, as
writes, what’s happening “takes guts and sacrifice.” And as put it, “their bravery is an inspiration to many.”There are better places to turn to than here for coverage of events right now and ultimately this is still meant to be a Substack about music, so below is a brief look at what the people have been singing and / or listening to recently. If it seems a little light on specifics or sources, that’s intentional for reasons that are hopefully obvious, but perhaps it’s a starting point if you want to dig a little deeper.
Poignantly, the music of Uyghur singer Murat Nasyrov was heard at some of the vigils for those who died in Urumchi, not just those in Xinjiang but also in cities such as Shanghai. The tragic artist’s ‘Kaldim Yalguz’ song has featured in particular:
As vigils turned to protest, old revolutionary songs played a part, with ‘L’Internationale’ and ‘The March of the Volunteers’ being sung by some and the latter’s rousing “起来!” (“rise up!”) lyric being posted by multiple accounts on WeChat. In part these songs were used because almost everyone in the country is familiar with them; for some the opening lines of the country’s national anthem in particular hit a little different right now, for others singing these songs was a way of anticipating or rebutting accusations of a lack of patriotism.
Another revolutionary tune of sorts which was widely shared online last weekend (and made an appearance during the Shanghai lockdown in the spring) is ‘Do You Hear the People Sing?’ from Les Miserables. This, like the Beyond song ‘Boundless Ocean, Vast Skies’, was also prominent in Hong Kong in 2019. Here’s a sample lyric from the latter to give you an idea of how it found a new resonance:
“Many times I’ve faced the cold shoulder and ridicule /
But I’ve never given up the hopes or ideals in my heart.”
And in case you thought that they forgot about Cui, there have been images purportedly showing a student in Wuhan wearing a piece of red cloth over their eyes in recent days.
Sometimes the songs used are quite innocent, but get picked up and used in new contexts — at least until censors cotton on. For example, Mr Graceless’ indie-rock track ‘Sitong Bridge’ was released at least six years ago and features apolitical lyrics, but took on new meaning and got a sudden uptick in interest in mid-October before it promptly disappeared from the Chinese internet.
And after one of southern China’s main music venues had its official WeChat account scrubbed of all content and suspended for posting a message with the words ‘I love you, young people’ earlier this week, some supporters responded by sharing a host of songs entitled ‘I Love You’ by artists ranging from New Pants to Faye Wong. The tracks are largely innocuous love songs, but of course, that’s the point.
It’s hard to know what happens next. But for this newsletter at least, the plan is to return to the usual run-down of new music in the next issue — there’s some great stuff to catch up on.
In the meantime, I leave you with a bit of Li Zhi and the hope that this world will get better…