Customer Reviews

Power of the Powerless

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The godfather of rock music from the Chinese mainland, CUI JIAN, remains after 13 years creative - despite of aging and the prohibition of live concert in his hometown Beijing since more than 6 years. And he is still holding on to the tradition of rock'n roll, which is more and more forgotten in the world where it's coming from. The most direct way to touch the heart of the after-culturerevolution-generation in the big cities in China.

To say Cui Jian's music is traditional rock 'n roll is like saying dadaists are classists. Cui's music is about breaking the boundaries and infusing Western styles with traditional Chinese music. Take the opening track, "Slacker", for example. This song is an exotic fusion of traditional Chinese sound(The Peking Opera percussions), punk(Clash's fingerprints are all over it), Jazz(think a lo-fi Miles Davies), rap(Beastiy Boys) and funk. For listeners who are Madanrin Chinese savvy, it's not hard to appreciate Cui's lyrical finesse. Cui's lyrics are often bitter, filled with repressed angst but nevertheless humorous. His songs are often of a critical nature with a political overtone. Even for non Chinese listeners, this disc should be equally enjoyable. It's simply amazing to experience a product of the musical/cultural globalization at it's very best. I hope this little review helps, or at very least, I hope it will clear up the misconception that Cui Jian is simply a Chinese-nized Jerry Lewis. Cui is an innovator and that's a very important fact.

I have to agree with old Quan below, Cui Jian really is the godfather of rock music from the Chinese mainland. Which given the population of the middle kingdom means he's bigger than Springsteen. This 1999 disc has old Cui mellowing a bit on the political and musical front (compared with 'Balls under the Red Flag' of 1996), but this is probably his best album - and that means the best Chinese rock album ever. Having had to make do with bootlegs for his previous it was great to see this album legally on sale on the streets of Beijing and immediately No.1 all over the PRC. It's a great shame that EMI (who have international rights to most of Cui's recent records) don't issue an export version of his best songs with English liner and translations. While so much Asian pop is just derivative (Korea, Indonesia, Hong Kong worst, Japan and Taiwan less so) Cui and some of the other "Beijing bastards" (to quote the movie title) are genuinely original. If Khaled can get onto Bruce Willis' 7th Element soundtrack in Arabic, why not Cui in Beijing-hua?

i think i like his album 'balls under the red flag' slightly more. no doubt though, this is a great effort by cui jian (and even better live) backed up by a world class band combining rock, rap, traditional Chinese instrumentation, and jazz into a unique sound to carry his powerful lyrics which speak of love and relationships, political and social angst, and of individual space in and against an emergent, fragmented and eclectic post-modernism - sometimes in biting satirical allegories and sometimes just plainly. i should add that this pressing of 'power of the powerless' includes english translations of the songs and is considerably higher quality than the cd released in china. ...

Cui Jian, "the Godfather of Chinese rock", has made four albums this far and every one of them is very different in style. Cui Jian's fourth album, The power of the powerless, combines jazz, rap, funk, rock and elements of classical chinese music into a new kind of musical representation. This is not my favorite of Cui Jian's albums, but nevertheless very good, with talented musicanship and diversity in style. Worth buying.

having lived in Beijing from 97-2000 and having had the pleasure of not only owning a CD and VCD of the live performance(at the time of course the band was still not allowed to play together before a large audience)I would go through the Freindship store (government owned stores) and one day someone had put the live vcd on and attracted about 5 people and for the following three days it grew to 20 when one of the employees turned it off and chewed out the other people for putting in on. So of course I bought it. We had the band play at the 4th of July cellebration and you could hear at least one of them weekly on a drop in at a great place called the CD cafe. Have not been able to get this CD but will keep trying. One of the greatest bands and Cui has fronted for the likes of Peter Gabriel and the like. Not as heave as Tang Dynasty but a great band. The Bob Dylan of China

...I am not much an "alternative" (relative to Chinese pop) music buff, but I am very moved by Cui's lyrics. The Slacker was a very original piece of art when it first came out, at a time the nation was first open to the world and there was a huge upswing of national pyschic. The lyric cried for acceptance: a pathetic, desperate loser was suddenly accepted by pure passion. We can hear this romance of tragic in many of his other works. His other lyrics/works are just as powerful. The unsupress-able calling for cultural mutation certainly sealed his fate in China today. Sigh ...

Here I don't wanna post a review of this single album, because it will probably mislead people who are not familiar with his works. Instead, I just want to clarify that Cui Jian is not only the godfather of chinese rock but also the single one most innovative, most talented, most prolific, most cosistent music artist in china. His music is never "mainstream" or trad rock n'roll. He can write stunning ballads and rock hits, but he never stopped with them. From the very beginning till now, his music is kind of fusion and experimental. It is very wrong to think him like AC/DC or Bruce Springsteen or other typical hard rock icons.(I love them though). I would like to say his music is more like pixies dealing with beastie boys' material, which will be very inspiring. Based on my musical experience, he is surely among the greatest alternative rock musicians worldwide in 90's. My suggestion is that you should try to get all his albums even you understand no chinese. (His lyrics are the best model of contemporary chiese literature, too)

this chinese music cd is worth buying, it makes me feel great. although it's not in english, but if you find that to just add to the listening experience the song will become your own.