China's most famous rock musician,
Cui Jian (pronounced “tsway jen”), will kick off a
North American tour with a free concert at Union College's Memorial Chapel on
Friday, April 9, at 8 p.m.
The concert by the man called “the
Bruce Springsteen of China”
is open to the public. Sponsored by Union's East
Asian Studies program, the concert is made possible with support from the
Freeman Foundation.
The pioneer of rock music in China,
Cui has sold more than 10 million records. He became a pop culture icon during
and after the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989 and starred in
the subculture classic Beijing Bastards
(1993). His two most recent albums, Balls
Under the Red Flag and The Power of the Powerless, received
governmental criticism at home and critical acclaim outside of China.
Cui has worked for years under a
de facto performance ban in China,
his gigs limited to a few bars in Beijing.
His work explores the Chinese national character, a subject of chronic
sensitivity for the Chinese authorities. Cui has toured in Asia,
Europe, and North America.
Receiving wider government approval more recently, he was scheduled to open for
the Rolling Stones during their 2003 China
tour,
cancelled because of concerns about SARS.
Cui Jian was to have performed at Union
last spring, but the concert was postponed because the musician and his band
members could not get visas from the U.S. State Department in
time for the show.
Cui and his band last month
completed a tour of Europe.
After opening at Union,
their one-month North American tour will include stops in Toronto,
Philadelphia, New York
City, Boston, Vancouver,
Seattle and Los
Angeles.
For more on Cui Jian, visit his
web site at http://www.cuijian.com.