The biggest reminder, for me, happened last June. My band was hired to play a gig at a Craft Beer Festival; something that could be happening in any hipster community, anywhere in the United States or Europe (again, sometimes, it's easy to forget you're in Asia at all).
When we showed up to get ready for sound check, we were told that we had to end EXACTLY at 9pm, and not a minute after, because this week-end, all of the Chinese students were taking the Gao Cao.
The Gao Cao is the Chinese equivalent of the SAT/ACTs (kind of, except, a much bigger deal, with a much bigger price for some). The Gao Cao, and the Chinese educational system could be an article in itself, so I'll leave that topic for anther day- suffice it to say, this test is so important, the city was going to make sure it was quiet by 9pm. I think this is weird. My fellow band-mates, all expats from different countries, have all lived in China longer, and don't really bat an eye at this. We get our free beer and food (perks of being with the band) and wait for the first band to finish their set. Because it had rained earlier in the day, setting up took loner than it should've, which meant that the first band started later, which meant, we were only going to get to play half a set (bummer, because it was a good crowd and we wanted to make some music!).
We hurried on stage and started to sound check, and before we had even checked all the mics, some Chinese police men ran up to the stage and told us to stop playing. It was only 8:15 at this point, but none the less, we were told to stop. After some arguments and negotiations, all of which were happening in Chinese, and I could not really understand, we were allowed to play again. At this point, we figured wasting time on the sound check was silly, so we jumped right into our songs. We played 2 before the police came back, insisting that we stop playing. It was still only 8:30. Apparently, this time, they were threatening to put the person running the festival in jail if we didn't stop playing. After more discussion, and bargaining, we were allowed to play one more song. We got to play 3 songs that night.
We were schedule to play the next night, Saturday, as well. Because of the way Friday night went down, we worked out a way to start playing much earlier, figuring this would solve the problems. There was no rain on Saturday either; it had been an absolutely gorgeous Beijing day. Everything seemed like it was going to be perfect. We got on stage to get ready to soundcheck, and as I started to blow my first note, a very large, unfriendly, slightly angry, police officer came up to me. I wasn't sure what he wanted, and I'm not one to be intimidated, so I went on trying to check my mic levels, at which point, he screamed "NO" very loudly in my face, nearly pulled my saxophone out of my mouth, and gave me a look that said: "If you don't stop, I might hit you". It was terrifying. They cut the sound and power to the stage. After much negotiation, talking, and waiting, we found out we weren't, in fact, going to be allowed to play. If the festival disobeyed, it meant heavy fines. And, threats of jail time has been bandied about. So, there we were, a 9 piece funk band, standing on stage, with a huge crowd, at least a couple hundred deep, standing at the stage, waiting to hear us, and we couldn't play.
This is the crowd, waiting for us to play.
This is us...we tried to start playing a couple of times....to no avail.
We, the defiant ones we were, tried to play acoustically a bit (they seemed ok with this), which was fine for the horn section, but not so great for the singer who couldn't be heard, or the rhythm section-since guitars, basses and keyboards don't fare well without amps. But then the crowd got a little bit excited, and we were made to stop that too. We were, however, allowed to turn on the microphone long enough for our singer to make an announcement to the crowd........
And the singer says- the show must go on!
He told them all that the show would go on! Across town, at his bar. And, believe it or not, more than half of the huge crowd at the beer festival, including a group of tourists who knew nothing about Beijing, trekked across town to our lead singer's bar to actually get to hear our show. But the rest of that night, is, again, another story (one that involves a garbage truck, fighting for taxis, toplessness, and an epic concert).
Back to the point of this story, it occurred to me later, as the band was discussing this gig that almost wasn't, that this craft beer festival also fell dangerously close to the 25th anniversary of the Tienanmen Square Massacre. And then it all made sense. It wasn't about the Gao Cao. Not really. OF COURSE. Of course, the police would be out in force, and extra vigilant around this time. Of course they would be doing all they could to quell large gatherings. Especially large gatherings of expatriates, that were centered around alcohol consumption. Especially large gatherings of expatriates, centered around alcohol, being fueled by loud, exciting music.
Right. And that's when I remembered that I was living in a Communist country. And that I was allowed to live my daily life, only in-so-far as it wasn't a threat to the government and its plans. I mean, it feels like I can live my daily life with freedom, but in reality, the minute my freedom seems to be an issue to the way the government wants things, I'm shut down. The terrifying encounter with the Chinese policeman during soundcheck made that clear.
But then, how different is it from government anywhere, really? Especially where minority groups are concerned.
