CHINESE AND EAST ASIAN MUSIC: THE FUTURE OF THE PAST
14th International CHIME Conference
Musical Instruments Museum (MIM), Brussels
18-22 November 2009
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
14th International CHIME Conference
November 19, 2008The female role in rock, a statement by Jiang Xin / Jessica
November 4, 2008
Jiang Xin aka Jessica, a friend of Ding Wu, Zhang Ju and Dou Wei, who has started to play rock in the late 80s, has given an interesting statement about the role of feminism in rock. Every now and then, the question of female rock artists and how they are accepted socially and within the rock scene pops up. I think Hang on the Box are the most interviewed and stated band in that regard (e.g. in Beijing Bubbles, etc.). So what Qian Wang discussed with Jessica should not remain hidden in his PhD thesis (download the pdf):
“In the early 1990s, I never thought about the gender issue. All the music I listened to was made by male rockers. Consequently, I unconsciously tried to play rock like a male rocker. Even when I was making the first album in 1995, I still had not realised my problem. Later, I started to listen to female rockers’ music, like Janis Joplin and Alanis Morissette, I sensed the difference between male and female rockers’ music, and realised that I needed my gender identity. I am a woman, not a man. I thus purposely wrote some lyrics in my second album <May> to stress my female identity.” – Interview with Jessica by Qian Wang (July/August 2005)
Further information:
W. Qian (2007). The Crisis of Chinese Rock in the mid-1990s: Weakness in Form or Weakness in Content. Page 266. University of Liverpool.
Yaogun.com on Jessica: http://yaogun.com/artist/woman/jiangxin.htm (Japanese)
