Cui Jian Won't Attend CCTV's Spring Festival Gala

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Cui Jian, the father of Chinese rock, was recently reported
to be performing on CCTV's horse year spring festival gala.

But Cui Jian's agent emailed NTD, saying:"Cui Jian indeed
received an invitation from the spring festival gala team, but
Mr. Cui Jian won't participate in the performance at the end."

After years of being banned from performing, the Chinese
Communist Party (CCP) finally lifted the ban on him.

So why does Cui Jian refuse to perform in such a big yearly
entertainment show?
Please see the report.

Cui Jian became very popular after a song
"Nothing to my name" in May 1986.

He and his band performed the song on Tiananmen Square
in May 1989, the year of the "June 4 Movement", to support
the students there who were on hunger strike fighting for
democracy in China.

After the Tiananmen Square massacre, Cui Jian's album
publishing and business performance didn't go well.

In 1990, Cui Jian performed a song called "Last Shot" that
memorializes the Sino-Vietnamese war in a concert
on the Asian Games. At the end of the song, he said,
"We hope the gun shot we heard last year was the last."

"A stray bullet hit my chest.
Instantly my life flashed before my eyes.
There's only tears but not sad.
If this is the last shot, I'll accept the great glory."

Cui Jian is a symbol of rebellion and critical spirits.
Cui wasn't allowed to perform on any official stages
except bars and small places for many years.

Having always been low key, Cui was recently reported
to be invited to perform on CCTV's spring festival gala,
which has raised attention on him.

But Cui's agent, Youyou, leaked to NTD earlier
that Cui won't participate in the gala.

In an email to NTD, Youyou indicated: "Mr. Cui Jian is
currently busy working on his first movie 'The Blue Bone', he
doesn't have time to have a face to face interview with you.
Mr. Cui indeed received an invitation from the spring festival
gala team, but Mr. Cui eventually will not go to perform."

Cui Jian's agent, Youyou: "Because we received a notice
that his performance didn't pass the censor."

NTD reporter: "What did he want to sing?"

Youyou: "Nothing to my name."

Reporter: "Which part didn't pass the censor?"

Youyou: "We don't know. We just got notice, so we won't go.
It's in fact very simple, it isn't worth so much attention.
I think, what can a spring festival gala represent?
Cui Jian has a lot of fans all over the world.
As an excellent musician, music is the most important."

Following the convention, all the performances in the spring
festival gala must be censored 4 to 6 times, but the details
of the censor is kept hidden.

Mainland poet and dissident Wang Zang: "From the CCP's
perspective, they want to win over the rebels.
We saw that many people have been bribed over the years.
The CCP scolds them a little and does big favors for them.
That's what they've done all these years.
Their invitation to Cui Jian is to win him over.
If he performs on the gala, all his works in the past,
those positive values, will be basically ruined."

The CCTV gala lifts the ban on Cui Jian this year, which
may be to show an open attitude, said Ai Xiaoming, former
professor at Sun Yat-sen University and independent
filmmaker. But its censor system cannot be changed.

"I think the censor system must be abolished, the problem
is that it can't be abolished under the one-party dictatorship.
In this situation, would you accept the censor or not?
Would you insist on fighting for freedom of speech?

Or do you change yourself to follow their rule, and get a
chance to speak up? He has the chance to choose."

Chinese poet and dissident Wang Zang thinks that allowing
Cui Jian to perform in the gala doesn't mean that the CCP is
becoming open.
Wang says the CCP is illegal which Chinese people all know.
The so-called censor is just brainwashing.
All the official actions are shows; maintaining stability shows.

Wang Zang:"Propaganda has always been their big knife.
They've never given up struggling on public opinion ideology.
They censor music, poems, literature, all aspects.
They just want to ruin all the free thoughts,
and Chinese peoples' passion and backbone.
Then, there won't be supervision, objections, critiques,
and rebelling to them. They'll get power and then profit."

Cui Jian finally came back on TV in 2012.
He sang a song called "Greenhouse Girl" on Beijing TV's
spring festival gala last year.

"You ask me where I'm heading. I point to the ocean.
Your surprise seems to give me, oh! Praise."

52 year-old Cui Jian still rocks like before.
Compared to the boldness in "Nothing to My Name" more
than 20 years ago, Cui Jian's music nowadays has more
inner meaning. Cui Jian is not "nothing to his name".



《神韵》2014世界巡演新亮点
http://www.ShenYunPerformingArts.org/