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The ‘loneliest’ singer of Chinese rock scene to perform
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Rock music fans will be able to experience a generational throwback this coming week as “the loneliest singer-poet in China” will take the stage.
Folk rocker Zhang Chu will perform in a comeback show at Shanghai Grand Stage next Saturday.
“It will be my very first solo commercial concert in the past 20 years,” Zhang says in an e-mail interview. “I hope to attract an audience with a lot of experience and enlightenment about life, and who have their own thoughts toward music.”
Reaching his artistic peak in the early 1990s — which also was the golden age of Chinese rock — Zhang had pretty much disappeared from the music scene after his last album in 1997.
It was not until recent years that he started showing up now and then at music festivals, performing on the same stage with much younger singers who used to be his fans.
Entering a new stage of life, the 45-year-old has returned to the spotlight with a new understanding of music, life and growth.
“In the past, I did music for the dreams of society. Now I do music only for my innermost self,” Zhang says.
Looking back, Zhang says at first he was more artistically active and experimental. After his success in the 1990s, he somehow suddenly lost his interest in doing music.
Zhang says that it was a problem faced by most young musicians who played in bands.
“Sometimes we went to extremes when we were young. The music we made at that time was disconnected from the mainstream of society,” he says. “I don’t grow nostalgic for past glory days. What I remember is a youth that I spent with many friends.”
The concert in Shanghai will feature most of Zhang’s famous songs. “Lonely People Are Shameful,” which is taken from Zhang’s 1994 album of the same name, will be the theme of the concert.
It was that album which left him with the nickname of “China’s loneliest singer,” since most of the tracks are very introspective in their poeticism.
“Loneliness, in my understanding, is tied closely to any individual. It is the condition while someone is thinking to himself or herself,” Zhang says. ”I believe those who enjoy deep thinking have such experiences.”
Back in the day, Zhang was completely dedicated to his art.
“I used to write solely out of my passion for music. But now I know life is not be only for music. Now I’m concerned not only with music, but also with other hobbies and beautiful things in life,” he says.
In addition to “Lonely People Are Shameful,” Zhang will also perform “Love,” “Marriage” and “My Eyelashes.” None of them has ever been played by him on stage.
Zhang’s representative works also include “Older Sister,” which still receives airplay. It is about a man who returns to his parental home after his older sister has been raped.
“I’m working on my new album now. It will be launched in one month,” Zhang says.
Date: December 14, 7:30pm
Venue: Shanghai Grand Stage, 1111 Caoxi Rd N.
Tickets: 280-880 yuan
Tel: 962-388
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