Breaking Voices: A Forum on Chinese Rock Music in the 1990s

Although today’s focus is on contemporary art, many artists we interview still reflect on the rock music they loved in their youth. Rock music is not just a genre. In the 1980s and 1990s, it became a means for a generation to pursue freedom of expression and awaken individual consciousness. Every music genre has its “golden time,” such as classical music in the 18th and 19th centuries and jazz in the mid-20th century. Most music fans agree that the golden time of rock music in China was the 1990s. We have invited some key figures from that era—musicians, organizers, and researchers—each with their own remarkable stories.

This forum will take place over two days:

On May 24, we will discuss the vibrant and passionate early 1990s, hosted by Qin Siyuan;

On May 25, we will explore the diversity and quality of bands that truly soared in the late 1990s, hosted by Shengun.

Let’s delve into that “unfinished” time, listening, conversing, and sharing together to hear the resonant voices of that era and to reassess its cultural value in the present.