Berlin 1993: Avant-Garde Chinese rock

A serialised version of Rock in Berlin: The Chinese Avant-Garde is on Youtube, featuring Cui Jian, Cobra, Tang Dynasty and Wang Yong. Thanks to SinoScuba for the link. For more see below.

There are nine parts but the subtitles are in Japanese. Most of the first part features Cui Jian rocking out on songs "Wild on the Snow" and "Fake Monk."

A rough translation of Cui Jian's interview answers are below, starting on minute three:

I was 14 when I started to learn the trumpet from my father, because he was a trumpet player in an army orchestra. Then in '81 I became part of a song and dance troupe in Beijing, which eventually became the Beijing Symphony Orchestra. After '87 I left the orchestra....

After "Fake Monk":

I think purely coming together in music is a little superficial, it's just a skill. This is easy to do and many people in China are like that. They put Chinese opera together with Western arrangements. But what they come out with is not all that. It's a little empty and commercial. I think a real coming together is the coming together of culture. Chinese young people understanding more about the West, and Western young people understanding more about China. The two cultures mutually understanding and mutually influencing. I think a real combination is in content, not form, and in the mind...