tbn (L) Cui Jian

Wow, I just noticed Cui Jian’s getting a lot of love in 新京报/The Beijing News today.

First is this article, reproduced, inexplicably, with a different headline and buggered up “related news” here, and another article, reproduced under the “related news” section of the first article, here.

It’s all part of their “30 years of reform and opening up” series, which seems to almost dominate their China news section, and today they proclaim:

第81期：中国摇滚乐诞生中国摇滚乐诞生中国摇滚乐诞生

The 81st period: Chinese rock is born Chinese rock is born Chinese rock is born

Got that?

崔健从“一无所有”开始

Cui Jian began with “Nothing to my name”

 Well, if TBN’s photo is to be believed, he managed to find a guitar, a Qing Dynasty-style shirt, and a red cloth to blindfold himself with:

1986年5月9日，一个人穿了一件颇像大清帝国时期的长褂子，身背一把破吉他，两裤脚一高一低地蹦上北京工人体育馆的舞台。这是一场《让世界充满爱》的大型流行音乐演唱会。

9 May, 1986, a man wearing a long coat reminiscent of the Qing empire period, a battered guitar on his back, one trouser leg higher than the other, jumped on to the stage of Beijing Workers Gymnasium. This was a “Let the world be filled with love” large-scale pop music concert.

台下观众还没明白发生了什么，音乐开始响起。

The audience still hadn’t understood what happened when the music started.

“我曾经问个不休/你何时跟我走……”

“I have asked you endlessly/When will you go with me?“

台下变得静悄悄。十分钟后，歌曲结束，在热烈的欢呼和掌声中，崔健诞生了。

The audience when silent. Ten minutes letter, the song was ended, and in the warm cheers and applause, Cui Jian was born.

中国的摇滚乐，诞生了。

Chinese rock was born.

如今回想当年，崔健说：“当时改革开放刚刚起步，被压抑了十年的人们，已经有了太多情绪堆积在心里，需要一个出口来宣泄、表达，但不知道怎么找。我们作为第一代唱摇滚的，恰好打开了这个出口，所以就引起了大家的注意。”

        If we think back to that year, Cui Jian says: “Back then reform and opening up had only just started, people who had been repressed for ten years already had too much pent-up emotion,  they needed an outlet to vent, express themselves, but didn’t know how to find it. We were the first generation to sing rock, as it turns out, we opened that outlet, and so grabbed everybody’s attention.”

It goes on to take a look back at Cui Jian’s early career, including a 1985 pop song competition he and his band were knocked out of in the first round, but sorry, I’ve got to go to lunch now. Read it yourself.