Exhibition reviews rock music history

A visitor watches the items on display at Serve the Rock show in Beijing. Zou Hong/China Daily

The retrospective seeks to tell the story of the rise of indie bands in China. Chen Nan reports.

Serve the Rock, billed as the first major exhibition to review the history of rock music across the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, opened on Oct 25 at Asian Art Works gallery in Beijing's 798 Art Zone.

The exhibition, curated by Huang Liaoyuan from Beijing, Chang Yiping from Taiwan and Flora Kwong Man-wai from Hong Kong, looks at the rock scene in the regions over the past three decades.

The show includes personal items and collections, that have never before been publicly displayed, says Liang Long, the lead vocalist and songwriter of indie rock band Second Hand Rose, who initiated the idea of holding such a rock retrospective earlier this year.

Among the items on display are a guitar used by Cui Jian, known as the "godfather" of Chinese rock music, and his concert posters from the early 1990s; Second Hand Rose's stage costumes from its 2013 Beijing concert; and videos and photos from the first Hohaiyan Rock Festival in 2000 and the 1994 Chinese Rock Power concert held at the Hong Kong Arena. The 1994 concert stunned Hong Kong audiences and created a momentum for the wave of rock that then washed over the mainland.

"To have progress, we should look at the past and learn from it first," says Liang, 36, who recently returned from his band's first US tour.

He says that unlike today's young music lovers, who have wide access to information via the Internet, most rock musicians on the Chinese mainland during the 1980s and '90s were introduced to rock music via cassette tapes and CDs smuggled in from the West.

"I hope that the exhibition will help remind today's young audiences of what the established rockers achieved and how much they went through while pursuing their rock dreams," Liang says.

When he had the idea for such a show, Liang first approached Huang, who has managed Second Hand Rose since 2001 and is also a veteran music critic and contemporary artist.

Huang contributed items from his personal collection amassed over 30 years, such as handwritten letters seeking permission from the government to hold live concerts, and a red flag with all the participants' signatures from the first Helanshan Mountain Rock Music Festival.