Punk Rock Hunt Talkers

I grew up in a small town with an outsized influence from an Air Force base. One thing was punk rock and skateboarding. Any one else listen to 80's - 90's punk?

Not if I can help it. Johnny Rotten was.
 
The Chinese didn't seem totally fond of it, but during that time I don't think they were allowed to live out loud, so who could really know.
Anecdotally, there was a period where music wasn’t as suppressed as other mediums and the Chinese had the beginnings of a lively punk scene. I was in Beijing around 2005-06 and went to a couple venues popping up around the 4th ring road when it was one of the outermost. Got to hang a bit with a band called Reflector, who were kind of a big thing in the scene.

I do recall a bit of a faux pas that I made: I’d brought these guys a bunch of 45’s from local bands back home. They were gracious, but said they’d have trouble playing them as all the record players were destroyed in the Cultural Revolution. It was one of the many experiences in my overseas travels that made me realize how good we’ve got it at home.
 
Last edited:
Anecdotally, there was a period where music wasn’t as suppressed as other mediums and the Chinese had the beginnings of a lively punk scene. I was in Beijing around 2005-06 and went to a couple venues popping up around the 4th ring road when it was one of the outermost. Got to hang a bit with a band called Reflector, who were kind of a big thing in the scene.

I do recall a bit of a faux pas that I made: I’d brought these guys a bunch of 45’s from local bands back home. They were gracious, but said they’d have trouble playing them as all the record players were destroyed in the Cultural Revolution. It was one of the many experiences in my overseas travels that made me realize how good we’ve got it at home.

I might just not have been there long enough or at the right time to discover such things. I was there during the construction of the new US Embassy and the Beijing olympics, and things were very tight - the people were actually pretty great, but seemed very oppressed. I lived in the Chao Yang district of Beijing and spent most of my time there or down in Shun Yi. In a city like Beijing, districts probably made a huge difference in the kinds of experiences you might have. The food and fireworks were definitely top notch, that's for sure.
 

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
114,861
Messages
2,074,014
Members
36,779
Latest member
estherviews
Back
Top