Thu, May 31, 2001 page8

• Ecstasy, punk and the new generation

  • By Wang Dan 王丹
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  In November last year, I attended a forum in Taipei entitled "Techno Music and Ecstasy," chaired by Taipei's Cultural Affairs Bureau chief Lung Ying-tai (龍應台). The forum gave me a new understanding of Taipei's youth, known as the "e-generation" or "new generation." It also made me wonder what social transformation and environment gave rise to this new generation and how it interacts with its environment.

  China faces a similar phenomenon. Take ecstasy pills, for example. A number of Chinese cities are already on a par with Hong Kong and Taipei in terms of ecstasy abuse. On March 4, police in Wuhan seized 300 ecstasy pills in one day during raids on entertainment establishments. In Wuhan, one ecstasy pill can fetch as much as 400 yuan. According to police data, more than 200 types of ecstasy pill have been identified in China. The country appears to be catching up with the world much faster in this respect than are its politics and economics.

  Society is moving forward spontaneously, faster than the deliberated actions of the government. This is evident from China's own new generation. As a global phenomenon, ecstasy is not just a problem of drug abuse. It is intertwined with social and cultural issues and individuals' abilities to adapt to change. Ecstasy's popularity reflects youngsters' response to society.

  A Chinese girl who takes ecstasy told a reporter: "I know I don't have any skills to make a living. Society has forgotten us. Do you understand? Only ecstasy can let us discover ourselves. We melt into the crowd. Our bodies and the music become one. Nobody fights; nobody cries; everyone is smiling. There's no gender, age or ethnic discrimination here. Everyone treats each other peacefully. It's very beautiful."

  Here we see the vast difference between China's young generation and those, like me, who made up that group a decade or so ago. They attach more importance to themselves; they feel aloof and distant from society. They seek individual and spiritual freedom, but they also resort to alternative means of survival.

  Underground punk music is one of the means by which they express themselves. Beijing's punk wave began in 1994. By 1997, bands like Underground Infant (地下嬰兒) and the Wheat Field Guards (麥田守望者) had emerged and more groups were staging their own shows at underground music parties. In 1998, the underground punk scene underwent a process of integration under the name of "Wuliao Contingent" (無聊軍隊). An album by various artists was released in the summer of 1999 under the same title, marking the peak of punk music.

  These punks are between 20 and 25 years old. They make it clear that they want to make "the most naked, provocative and subversive" music in China.

  Of course, the punks are not the mainstream among the new generation. But they are undoubtedly the mainstream of the avant-garde. And it is they who best reflect the interaction between the younger generation and wider society.

  In the 1980s, rocker Cui Jian (崔健) sang: "It's not that I don't understand; the world's changing fast."

  Indeed, the rapid changes that China's society has undergone since the 1980s are reflected in the rapidly changing fashions and countenances of the new generation. Regardless of the fact that they care only for themselves and have no sense of social responsibility, it is obviously no longer possible to take them back to a rigid, closed society.

  Wang Dan was a student leader during the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations in Bei-jing. He is currently a graduate student at Harvard University and a columnist for The Journalist magazine.

  Translated by Francis Huang
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