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New Guns N' Roses Album Inciting Anger

November 24, 2008 9:33 AM

ABC's Stephanie Sy from Beijng:

Welcome to the Jungle…of angry Chinese netizens.

As the long-awaited Guns N' Roses album draws mixed reviews among music critics, Chinese netizens have reached an almost unanimous verdict. Based on the title, "Chinese Democracy," they hate it. A widely-read Chinese newspaper, the Global Times, carries an article about the new album, with the headline, "US band releasing album viciously attacking China."

In the 17 years that it took the band to release the album, desires for real democracy have taken a backseat to the pursuit of personal wealth through capitalism in China. Most young university students have little knowledge of the student democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square that ended in a bloody government crackdown twenty years ago. Recently, when I interviewed Beijing university students about the U.S. election, many of the students said while they had never been more fascinated or excited about a presidential race, they don't desire American-style democracy for their own country.

"We just have different systems," one foreign studies graduate student said. "What works there might not work in China."

On Chinese sites like popular web portal sohu.com, comments about what is implied in the phrase "Chinese Democracy," has garnered less diplomatic reactions. The use of a profane suffix to the word "bull" is repeated by several people commenting on the Global Times report about the album, which is not expected to be sold (legally) in China.

"They are despicable," writes one person, presumably referring to the band.

"American trash," writes another.

The vast majority of entries criticize the album's release, and some, more jingoistic comments, criticize Westerners in general for their "absorption with sex, drugs, and violence" (and as traditionally follows, rock n' roll, I guess). But what the Chinese government will doubtless find even more offensive is that the title track appears to address the jailing and beating of members of Falun Gong, a spiritual movement that is strictly banned in China. The lyrics for "Chinese Democracy," say, "You think you got it all locked up inside, and if you beat them all up they’ll die, then you'll walk them home for the cells…" The "you" is clearly directed at Chinese authorities.

Many of the comments in the blogosphere seem to echo the nationalist sentiment that has arisen at other times when Chinese citizens perceived their country to be under attack by Westerners, such as during the disastrous Olympic torch relays in London and Paris, or when netizens deemed international media coverage of the riots in Tibet as biased against China. More and more Chinese are bold enough to criticize the failings and corruption of their own government, but when foreigners inside or outside of the country criticize China, they spark outrage. This is especially true on highly sensitive issues (Tibet, Taiwan, and Falun Gong), which are highly propagandized by the state-run press to show only the Chinese government’s view.

But, the online debate is not completely one-sided in this case. One commenter on sohu.com wrote that people should “be more open-minded.” On the pop music website douban.com, a blogger with the screen-name Hasumi writes, “The Chinese government is indeed imperfect. China is indeed imperfect. The Chinese people are indeed imperfect.”

G n’ R may have more name recognition among a certain set of thirty-somethings who rocked out to “Welcome to the Jungle” in the 90s, but they aren’t the first celebrities to insult the Chinese in its Olympic year.  Several months ago, avant garde singer Bjork shouted “Tibet! Tibet!” on stage during a performance in Shanghai. In the wake of the Sichuan earthquake, Sharon Stone made a comment implying China’s repression of Tibetans had bequeathed it bad karma. Each of these incidents drew vocal fire on Chinese community websites, but they also sparked vigorous, if at times, heavily one-sided debates, that might not otherwise have occurred at all.

November 24, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (5)

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Posted by: Yukon Sam | Nov 24, 2008 10:03:33 AM

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