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In Wuhan the beat goes on
2020-03-21 
Zhu Ning, 48, is a drummer in a punk rock band called SMZB, and founder of Wuhan's first live-house venue for indie music, Vox.[Photo provided to China Daily]

The first time I went to Wuhan was in 2011. I arrived at lunch time on New Year's Eve and the whole afternoon was devoted to interviewing the Canadian singer-songwriter Avril Lavigne.

She performed during the New Year's Eve gala staged by Jiangsu Satellite TV, which was broadcast live from Wuhan Sports Center. Because I had to catch a flight early the next day I missed out on exploring the city, so it remained barely known to me.

Of course that does not mean I don't have a smattering of knowledge about the city, picked up over the years from books, movies and TV programs: about its location on the banks of the Yangtze River in Hubei province, about its ancient Yellow Crane Tower, spicy duck's neck, hot and dry noodles and the beautiful cherry blossoms that grace the grounds of Wuhan University in March.

Now, because of the novel coronavirus that broke out in January, barely a soul on the planet has not heard of Wuhan. As for me, I have dug up old memories about it and have been keen to know more about this city that has a history stretching back more than 3,000 years.

In doing so I got to thinking about Wuhan in times more joyful than now, and in particular about its indie music scene, which does not quite have the indie pedigree of, say, Beijing or Xi'an, but nevertheless is vibrant and growing.

I talked with some of those in Wuhan indie rock bands and those connected with the city's live house venues whose lives are closely linked with Wuhan and inspired by it.

Vox founder Zhu Ning.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Zhu Ning says he will never forget the summer of 2005 when he was in Wuhan and boldly decided to rent a 170-square-meter bar that he turned into the city's first live-house venue for indie music.

Zhu, now 48, was a drummer of Wuhan punk rock band Sheng Ming Zhi Bing (bread of life). He left the band in 2000 and the band was renamed SMZB afterward. He named the venue Vox, referring to the voice of youth and voice of freedom.

"I can still recall that scorching summer heat," Zhu says.

"We opened the venue on March 28 and a few Wuhan local bands performed the first show. We had some students from nearby universities and others who were curious about the venue. But when the students went on their summer holidays we didn't do that well, with hardly any customers in July and August. Of course we had to pay rent, so to save money we opened the windows and doors to save on air conditioning."

Exactly three years to the day before Vox opened, Zhu had given his idea of a music venue a dry run, opening a bar in the city. On that occasion, too, Tongue had been the opening act, and over the next six months 100 shows would be held before the bar was forced to close because of a lack of patronage.

[Photo provided to China Daily]

So when in 2005 Vox ran into its summer drought, Zhu began to wonder whether if was destined to suffer the bad fortunes of its predecessor. However, later in the year business began to pick up, with more and more people, especially students and local expats, turning up. Some of the country's most well-known rock bands, such as Miserable Faith and Brain Failure, performed there.

Now, 15 years on, Zhu has fulfilled his dream and Vox has become the oldest and one of the most well-known live-house venues in Wuhan. The city's location at the heart of China make it a stop that simply cannot be overlooked for any rock bands planning nationwide tours, Zhu says.

On Jan 16, just days before Wuhan's name began reverberating around the world, Vox held an end-of-year do to coincide with the Lunar New Year, and it attracted more than 200 people. Three days later Zhu returned to his hometown of Panzhihua, Sichuan province, to celebrate the Spring Festival with his family, and he planned to return to Wuhan after the weeklong holiday, the first show after the festival due to be held on Feb 9.

On Jan 23 the Wuhan local government announced that all public transport in the city, including local buses, long-distanced buses, subway and ferry, would be temporarily halted. Zhu had to cancel his plans and Vox was closed, with shows until May being canceled or postponed, including Cheers Elephant, an indie pop rock band from California, which was to have performed on Feb 28, and Long Shen Dao, a Beijing reggae group, due to perform on April 1.

"All this happened so fast," Zhu says. "We're now working from home, connecting with our fans through social media by sharing music and presenting online programs."

One of the young indie rock bands from Wuhan is Chinese Football, formed by three local young people nine years ago.
[Photo provided to China Daily]

In one of the online programs, Bedroom Producer, indie musicians get the chance to upload their new works made at home.

"On the face of it the viral outbreak has cast a shadow over everyone's lives, but on the other hand perhaps it gives us all a chance to slow down and think about what we're doing," Zhu says.

Zhu, who expanded Vox to Changsha, Hunan province, in 2017, and Chongqing, in 2018, says he has received moving messages of support from Vox patrons saying they look forward to attending a show in Vox Wuhan in the near future and celebrating the outbreak's end.

"Music is important to people. Gathering in one place and sharing the energy music brings a fantastic experience for all of us."

Qiao Yina, better known by her stage name, Jojo, the leading vocalist of the Beijing band Finger Family, said on Sina Weibo on Feb 8: "I really miss the food in Wuhan and the cats in Vox. I miss touring and hope we can get together soon."

Another Vox aficionado said on Sina Weibo: "Summers in Wuhan are very hot. When summer comes, everything will be OK hopefully. I want to drink beer and watch shows in Vox."

One of the young indie rock bands from Wuhan is Chinese Football, formed by three local young people nine years ago.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Zhu, born and raised in Panzhihua, became interested in music when he was a boy by watching a local Sichuan opera troupe's performances in a machine factory in which his fathered worked.

The troupe performed every weekend, and Zhu not only attended performances but sneaked backstage to watch actors and actresses doing makeup and rehearsing.

His father sensed his son's interest and let Zhu learn to play the drums with a music teacher. As the country's rock music scene emerged in 1980s Zhu became enraptured and listened to songs of bands such as Black Panther and Tang Dynasty, as well as the rock pioneer Cui Jian.

"Like many of my classmates I listened to pop music too, but listening to rock music gave me goose bumps."

In August 1995, when he was 24, he quit his job in the machine factory in which his father worked and, with live savings in hand, boarded a bus before switching to a train for the 3,000-kilometer, 24-hour train journey to Beijing. His destination: the Midi School of Music, China's first school of contemporary music.

What attracted him to the school was the fact that faculty members were all well-known rock music players he knew as a fan, he says, and not even the hefty three-month tuition fee of 780 yuan, a princely sum in those days, could deter him.

One of the young indie rock bands from Wuhan is Chinese Football, formed by three local young people nine years ago.[Photo provided to China Daily]

"I had never been away from home before, and when I walked out of the train station I was totally lost. It was four o'clock in the morning and very dark."

Before going to the school he watched the daily flag-raising ceremony in Tian'anmen Square, he says.

Looking back, Zhu says attending the school changed his life, because he met many like-minded people, and it was during that training that he resolved to make music his lifelong vocation. It was there, too, that he me two students from Wuhan, Wu Wei and Han Lifeng, with whom he would form SMZB in 1996.

SMZB, generally considered Wuhan's first punk band, had its first break in 1997 with a show to commemorate Kurt Cobain, frontman of the American band Nirvana, who had died aged 27 in 1994.

"The city inspires SMZB's music, and because the leading vocalist and songwriter Wu Wei is from Wuhan he sings for the city," Zhu says.

Wuhan is the subject of a song named after the city, in which Wu sings: "I live here with my dream. I live here with my hope. I want to make changes to the city because it's to her I belong."

In 2006 Zhu left the band and devoted himself to running Vox. That year, with the help of an American friend who had been a university teacher in Wuhan, Zhu spent a month in New York, visiting local live house venues.

After SMZB, many punk bands appeared in Wuhan, which gained a reputation as a mecca for punk. In the 1990s, Zhu says, indie bands playing various musical genres started to emerge in the city, and a compilation titled Travel In Desert, featuring 12 songs from five Wuhan indie rock bands, was released in 2003.

Since 2007 Vox has staged shows at universities in Wuhan, aimed at offering young indie bands a stage on which to show off their talents. Every year 10 shows are open to amateur young bands from local universities. Since the venue is close to the likes of Huazhong University of Science and Technology and China University of Geosciences, the young bands also get the chance to perform with professional indie rock bands at the venue.

One of the young indie rock bands from Wuhan is Chinese Football, formed by three local young people nine years ago.

The band's founder and leading vocalist, Xu Bo, was born in 1986, the year in which the Chinese rock pioneer Cui Jian performed his best-known song, Nothing to My Name.

Xu, who grew up listening to rock music and reading Japanese comics, was an architect until he was 30, when he gave up to became a full-time musician, according an interview he did with the online media platform North Park published on Jan 15.

"Wuhan is very noisy and crowded," he was quoted as saying." I feel familiar and also like a stranger sometimes to the city. It inspires me to observe and think."

 

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