CANADIAN Jonathan Campbell's book "Red Rock: The Long, Strange March of Chinese Rock and Roll" examines how rock emerged in the 1980s and how the rebellious music helped a young generation make sense of the sweeping changes occurring in China. Alex Linder reports.

When Jonathan Campbell sat down to write a book about Chinese rock and roll, or yaogun, he didn't think he'd be going back more than a decade.

After all, for the last 10 years he had been at the center of the Beijing rock scene, as a spectator, writer, promoter and even drummer, during what he assumed to be the most exciting time in the genre's brief history.

"I thought that was the be-all and end-all of yaogun," says Campbell after he visits Shanghai International Literary Festival. He was invited here by the Consulate General of Canada in Shanghai.

"It was happening and the world was starting to pay attention. It was amazing and I knew because I lived it," he says.

Campbell vividly remembers his first taste of yaogun, being blown away in a club in Beijing by a group called Wild Children playing folk music from northwestern China. From that point on he was hooked and things snowballed. He was holding down the drums in a couple of bands, writing articles for the local and international press and he was also booking gigs for bands visiting China and for Chinese bands wanting to tour the West.

Before arriving in Beijing in 2000 to study Chinese and decide what to do with his degree in international studies, all of his life had been in school, first in his native Canada and then at the University of Washington for grad school.

His first real working experience came in the music industry's version of the Wild West, where a real infrastructure for Chinese rock bands had yet to be constructed.

"There weren't that many of us," he says, laughing. "We were just sort of figuring it out as we went."

As Campbell started to dig back into the roots of yaogun, he found an all-together more chaotic and critical time. He was surprised to find that it had not been chronicled. So he decided to tell not his own story, but the story of yaogun in "Red Rock: The Long, Strange March of Chinese Rock & Roll."

To understand yaogun's beginnings, Campbell spoke with many of China's first generation of rockers. "Their stories really blew my mind," he says. "It opened my eyes to what rock and roll did for people in this country, who were going through a time that we can't possibly understand."

Rock and roll entered China in the 1980s just as the country was opening itself up. In his book Campbell depicts the underground scene of the earliest rockers who lived off of cassette tapes borrowed from visiting foreign students featuring popular bands like Wham! and Bon Jovi. They were confused about the changes sweeping their country and the outside world, but the music offered hope.

"Rock and roll really saved their lives," Campbell says. "It showed them new possibilities."

As well it showed Campbell new possibilities. "It flipped the script on what rock music was to me," he says. "It used to be something that I just listened to, not teaching me about things, not showing me what's possible."

Father of Chinese rock

He acknowledges the statement "rock and roll can change the world" sounds cheesy and ridiculous today. But in the late 1960s that was the guiding principle of rock and roll music in the West. Western rock music declined and lost that purpose, but it was picked up by Chinese rockers creating yaogun, according to Campbell.

In his research, Campbell found himself particularly inspired by Cui Jian, the father of Chinese rock, whose raspy shouts introduced the music to the nation in 1986 with a televised performance of his classic, "Nothing to My Name."

Cui, a mix of Elvis Presley and Bob Dylan, became yaogun's biggest star filling arenas and selling millions of records. Campbell says the people who went to see Cui perform were there for more than just a good time; he helped them understand what was going on.

Campbell hopes Cui will be remembered for his contribution and take a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. "He invented Chinese yaogun," Campbell says. "He introduced rock and roll to a billion people. If anybody should be in, he's the one."

For the past year Campbell has moved back to his hometown of Toronto, far from a music scene that has progressed from Cui to include a wide variety of bands playing styles from metal to hip-hop. These bands are influenced by independent acts like Sonic Youth and Fugazi rather than just pop superstars.

Campbell says it's not easy being away, but for writing the book it was the best thing because he needed to become more of an outsider. "The book is primarily for English readers who are elsewhere in the world and interested in what's happening in China," he explains. "I needed that perspective."

In Canada, people are baffled when he tells them he is writing a book about Chinese rock and roll. "They look at me like I'm writing about something that doesn't exist yet," he says, laughing.

Campbell thinks this ignorance needs to change as North Americans realize they are no longer at the center of the world and they might need to tune their dials to see what the new global leaders are up to.

He isn't exactly sure what this music is going to sound like, but he hopes the next generation will not forget Cui and yaogun's past.

"It's rock and roll to disrespect your elders; I get that," he says. "But there's nothing less rock and roll then to live in a vacuum where nothing happened before you and nothing's connected."

Campbell believes the artists who do look back and take up this spirit will have the ability to shape the future of rock and roll.

"The people that connect with and embody how yaogun grew to today are going to produce music that's not only awesome to listen to, but it will reintroduce the idea of rock and roll as something more than just a kind of music," he says.

"The power of yaogun is in its potential to remind us what rock and roll was when it started. China has more of an opportunity to do that than anywhere else," he concludes.