MOREN MAO
morenmao1618@gmail.com
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ISSUE 1MARCH 2024
From the 90s’ most prominent punk star to the best indie rock band of the 21st century, this newsletter explores the impact of censorship and authoritarian control on the yaogun community. Composed of translated excerpts from interviews, album booklets, and internet comments, accompanied by lyrical analysis and curated playlists.
New Little Bar music venue located in the Yulin Subdistrict of Chengdu. The original Little Bar location was the birthplace of underground music in Chengdu, China. Photographed by 蔡鸣 (Cai Min), 2009.
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IN PURSUIT OF A “CORRECT” POLITICAL ORIENTATION
BAND:
万能青年旅店 (OMNIPOTENT YOUTH SOCIETY)
NO TANKS IN SIGHT
Album cover of the self-titled album Omnipotent Youth Society (2010)
Omnipotent Youth Society released their self-titled debut album in 2010. The eighth track “All the Taverns on this Planet” (在这颗行星所有的酒馆) is blacklisted. Similar to He Yong’s “Garbage Dump,” this song is also inspired by the pro-democracy movement of 1989. The most suggestive and obvious section of the lyrics includes:
Youth and freedom are taken for granted
Not something to be earned
While facing a daunting and muddled future
All we can do is sing love songs
With no tanks in sight
In a 2012 Interview, when asked what “sing love songs, with no tanks in sight” means. Ji Geng (姬赓), the lyricist and bassist responded “It means exactly how it is written. They are two conflicting ideas, where one is very romantic, and the other is the reality.” The interviewer then asked if they were metaphors for anything. Ji Geng replied “No, it means as it is written. Because they will drive their tanks onto city streets, and they have done it. And even then, the people still sang. There’s not much that’s hidden here. If I exchanged “tavern” with “square” then its meaning would be obvious, but I didn’t want to write it like that” (Ma, March 7, 2012).
November 2023, Omnipotent Youth Society performed at the Knockdown Center in Queens, New York. It was the band’s first show in North America in nearly a decade and tickets sold out within a day. The audience was almost entirely made up of Chinese expats and students. I met fans who came all the way from the West Coast, a couple who drove 8 hours from Maine, and a group of Chinese international students who flew in from Vancouver. It was an especially cold night, but the queue extended from the venue’s door for blocks and blocks, there was only excitement in the air.
Fans gathered to see Omnipotent Youth Society, but it was also an opportunity for the yaogun community to gather outside its hometown. The band provided a temporary harbor for discourse, convergence, and momentum. It feels significant in a way I struggle to put into words. Omnipotent Youth Society explores topics of humanity, society, and introspection. Although separated from home by the Pacific Ocean, the band still managed to ground their audience with shared cultural roots and experiences. That night, comradery was built for a land physically far away but not so distant in spirit.
At the end of their set, amidst the screams of "encore" were also voices calling out “Tavern! Tavern!” But of course, the band never did sing that song. Being abroad does not mean they are no longer restrained and watched by the government, they are not granted the freedom to sing whichever songs they wish. Any wrong move has the potential to put their careers on the line.
Omnipotent Youth Society at the Knockdown Center. The band is known for using the trumpet, clarinet, and saxophone in their songs. Photographed by Moren Mao, November 25th, 2023.Image from https://www.ww01.net/en/archives/111491Band practice during the early days of the Omnipotent Youth Society. The band was initially named the Nico after the Blind Melon vocalist, Shannon Hoon’s daughter. Photographed by 刘正薇 (Liu Zhengwei).
A BASTARDIZED COVER
Listen to a curated playlist of the Omnipotent Youth Society Here:
YOUTUBE:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQots5ZXea6Ao7MacHcwity3UtrwOYKc3&si=aIte2_sEsa2A3jd4
SPOTIFY:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5M6FgE3RqpH7zUkBXarG93?si=bc1fc267d4c04e49
In 2021, the Communist Youth League of the Hebei Province released a cover of “Kill That Man from Shijiazhuang” (杀死那个石家庄人) by the Omnipotent Youth Society. The cover completely altered the lyrics and what the original song stood for.
The original song tells the story of ordinary folks in industrial cities as China moved from a planned economy to a market economy. With it brought unemployment, dwindling savings, and never enough food on the dinner table, winter endured without heating, frayed jackets patched over and over, again and again. Painting a portrait of far too many marginalized families, they lose hope, and their lives decay silently. Until, as the song declares in the chorus:
To live like this for thirty years
Until the building collapses
Darkness hidden deep in the clouds
Flooding the panorama in our hearts
The original song is highly critical and introspective, it narrated the experiences of hundreds of thousands of sidelined individuals in China. Cities like Shijiazhuang are industrial cities, populated by factory and manual labor jobs. Life is monotonous, mirroring the simple and repeating motions performed in a factory, without an end in sight.
Get off work at 6 pm
Change out of the pharmaceutical factory’s uniform
Wife is making congee
While I go and have a few beers
To live like this for thirty years…
Until unemployment strikes, until they aren’t even able to afford joys as simple as having a beer. China’s industrial era ends with those who are ruthlessly left behind.
The first verse of the original song is about those who work in factories, the second verse is about the immaterial nature of the materialistic age, and the third verse alludes to the pressure from China's education system. They are interluded by the chorus of:
To live like this for thirty years
Until the building collapses
The building symbolizes a variety of things, all of them steadfast and unwavering, standing steadily against the wind as anticipated. These buildings imply the family, work, and school structure, and other communal constructions. These buildings also imply a wider social construct, which includes structures making up the government, the economy, and cultural conventions. On an individual level, these buildings also represent our inner world, one of introspection and expectations, the imaginary, the fantastical, and the hopeful. These buildings format reality and foundation optimism. Yet, the buildings that fabricate our life comes crashing down. Not even the government, the grandest and most reliable structure can shield its people from the elements.
The reality in China as portrayed by yaogun music is often very different from the pristine picture the state wants to project. The Communist Youth League’s version of “Kill That Man from Shijiazhuang” was instead titled “That Man from Shijiazhuang Cannot be Killed” (杀不死的石家庄人). The lyrics were altered into uplifting and positive verses to fit the state’s patriotic narrative. It takes a moral high ground and delivers the song by preaching to its audience that through hardship, it is imperative they must prevail. The cover uses phrases such as “gathering our dreams and taking off,” “picking up the faith we lost,” and “perseverance is written in your name.” The song tries to uplift and inspire the people, yet it comes off as tone-deaf and blind to the truth. After this song was uploaded to Chinese social media platforms, it received widespread criticism and negative attention, it was subsequently removed across platforms. One Internet user commented “It’s a shame the music video was deleted. This is the best post-modern performance art that I’ve seen this year, a role model of modern comedy” (Langzi lanshan, December 31, 2021). The bastardized cover further demonstrated the necessity and irony of the original version.
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