Live at the Forbidden City: Musical Encounters in China and Taiwan (iUniverse)
ISBN: 0-595-39048-X
Available from iUniverse , Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Books-a-Million.com , Powell's Books , Elibron , and many other online booksellers. Bookstores may order this title through the Ingram Book Group and Baker & Taylor wholesale distributors.
Listen to Dennis Rea Live at the Forbidden City interview on NPR affilate KUOW.
Purchase Dennis Rea's book and music online .
Google Books Live at the Forbidden City page
ABOUT THE BOOK
Dennis Rea's book, Live at the Forbidden City: Musical Encounters in China and Taiwan, offers a singular look at the rapidly evolving Chinese popular music scene, as seen through the eyes of one of the first progressive Western musicians to perform extensively in both China and Taiwan.
In the 1980s and 90s, American author and musician Dennis Rea was an unofficial musical ambassador to the East, playing concerts in venues ranging from sports arenas to illicit underground nightclubs to TV broadcasts viewed by millions of Chinese—often under bizarre circumstances and the constant threat of harassment by Communist Party authorities. Spiced with informative reflections on Chinese music and culture, Live at the Forbidden City interweaves vivid, often comical depictions of Rea's musical adventures with an insider’s look at China's emergent rock music phenomenon, richly descriptive tales of travels in China’s ethnic minority regions, and an eyewitness account of the violent civil uprising that broke out in the city of Chengdu at the same time as the world-shaking events at Tiananmen Square.
"I was fortunate to be drawn into a series of improbable adventures performing music in China and Taiwan during a period of unprecedented cultural upheaval, playing in places where few foreign musicians had ever performed and exposing large audiences to rock, jazz, and other unfamiliar musical styles," says Rea. "At the time, virtually all cultural imports from the West were frowned upon by the government as 'spiritual pollution,' which lent an air of Cold War intrigue to many of my gigs and made for some dicey run-ins with the cultural and political establishment." According to Rea, his musical experiences "spanned both the renegade rock underground and the world of state-controlled tongsu, or mainstream popular music," illuminating the stark contrasts between China’s official and underground musical cultures.
Live at the Forbidden City will appeal to readers with a wide range of interests, from devotees of travel literature to enthusiasts of rock, jazz, and world music, as well as those interested in China, Taiwan, and Asia in general. Readers will find humor in the many hilarious first-person musical and travel experiences described in the book, and will be angered at the Chinese government's brutal treatment of the 1989 pro-democracy movement. They will also come away with a sense of loss over the disappearance of longstanding Chinese traditions under the onslaught of modernization and globalization.
No other book combines insightful cultural commentary and richly descriptive traveler's tales with an insider's view of China's emergent rock and jazz scenes and the first eyewitness account of the violent crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators that occurred in the city of Chengdu in 1989. The author's experiences are also unique in that they took place not only in the cultural crucible of Beijing, but also deep in China's provincial hinterlands and on the other side of the political divide in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.
China looms large in current events due to its gigantic population and growing economic clout; indeed, many observers predict that the twenty-first century will prove to be the "Chinese century." As China continues to project its influence around the globe, it will be a constant presence in international news. In addition, China's longstanding dispute with its "breakaway province" of Taiwan represents a potentially explosive international crisis. Live at the Forbidden City gives a human face to a culture often labeled "inscrutable" by the West, and provides an intimate look at cultural trends on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
PRAISE FOR LIVE AT THE FORBIDDEN CITY
"The adventures of an accidental musical ambassador.
"In 1989, Rea, a guitarist whose musical predilections lean in the direction of experimental rock and contemporary jazz, joined his fiancée, a scholar in China, in the city of Chengdu. His thoroughly engaging chronicle takes readers from his first hour in the country, when a taxi driver backed over his guitar, through his almost five years living and traveling in China and Taiwan. The author originally thought he would put his musical career on hold while teaching English, but he eventually played before appreciative audiences, sometimes collaborating with local musicians and later staging concerts with musicians he recruited from Seattle. The narrative never becomes self-serving or self-congratulatory, even though Rea portrays himself as always arriving one step ahead of a trend. Even his move to Seattle, from his home in Utica, N.Y., took place just before Seattle became a hotbed of musical creativity. In early-1990s China, he was an oddity, though since that time the country has hosted tours by megastars such as the Rolling Stones and, to Rea’s dismay, Britney Spears. Beyond the chronicle of his musical exploits, the author expresses considerable appreciation for a seemingly inscrutable culture, even as he describes the Chinese government’s infamous crackdown on protesters in 1989. Thanks to his constant curiosity and a refusal to lapse into prejudice, Rea found doors opening for him. '[O]ne should always be careful not to judge one culture by the standards of another,' he says, and this principle guided him throughout his sojourns. He pays tribute to local musicians, though he observes that people on the mainland, no doubt because of relative material deprivation, seem to be more receptive to challenging music than those in Taiwan. Throughout, Rea employs an agreeably self-deprecating tone and exhibits a musician’s ear for euphony and rhythm.
"Vivid and informative, expressing appreciation grounded in experience.
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— Kirkus Discoveries
"The renowned conductor and music publisher Serge Koussevitsky once declared, 'Musicians are always the best ambassadors.'....The Koussevitsky quote, along with Deng Xiaoping's 'If you open the window, some flies are bound to get in,' ironically captions an absorbing new memoir by Seattle guitarist Dennis Rea, Live at the Forbidden City: Musical Encounters in China and Taiwan (iUniverse). Rea, whose roots in various Seattle rock, out-jazz, and avant groups date back to the 1980s...performed in dank dive bars to a few dozen bewildered Chinese as well as in massive sports arenas and on China Central TV before millions of viewers. The touring musician's struggle multiplied tenfold in the China of the late 1980s and early 1990s, especially playing music that some officials considered dangerous and subversive. Rea vividly tells of crooked record producers, baffled yet paranoid government bureaucrats, and incompetent promoters. One of the few Western eyewitnesses to the bloody Chengdu protest that erupted in tandem with Tiananmen Square, Rea's harrowing descriptions of the ensuing carnage are moving and superb."
–Christopher DeLaurenti, The Stranger
"Live at the Forbidden City is at once a witty and engaging memoir of an adventurous musical life, and a unique document of an unprecedented era of political tumult and cultural transformation in China"
—Andrew F. Jones, author, Like a Knife and Yellow Music
(Four stars) "Many a fortune cookie offers the mixed blessing 'May you live in interesting times.' During some of China's more recent 'interesting times' — specifically the student protests culminating in the Tiananmen Square massacre on June 4, 1989 — Dennis Rea was living in the south-western province of Sichuan, his life as a university English teacher far surpassed by his reputation as a musically omnivorous guitarist, at a time when China's own musicians were starving for nourishment...Rea dramatically chronicles the good old days, when 'underground rock parties' could actually succeed in subverting authority...a vivid account of China's recent musical past."
—Songlines magazine
"Not just a travelogue, but a highly informative, detailed, analytic, erudite piece of writing."
—Eugene Marlow, Professor, Baruch College, The City University of New York, and author of the forthcoming book Jazz in China
"Dennis Rea is a Seattle area guitarist who's worked with Jeff Greinke [and] Bill Rieflin and may be known to some through his participation with groups LAND and Stackpole. Long before he made his name in the Northwest music scene, he undertook an amazing musical odyssey into Communist China during the late 80s and early 90s, which this book chronicles. His visit was ostensibly as a university English teacher in the central Chinese city of Chengdu, but once the locals discovered they had a musician in their midst who was skilled in jazz and rock guitar, Rea's situation took an unexpected turn. He was quickly catapulted into the then underground Chinese rock scene and became somewhat of a local legend and source of inspiration to a multitude of budding guitarists and musicians for whom Western rock music was a vital outlet of expressing their frustration with Communist government policies. This placed Rea in an interesting position, both as mentor and musical celebrity, but also as a thorn in the sides of party officials who looked on rock music as a decadent and corrupting influence on China's youth.
"The book climaxes early with the chilling events of 1989 during the student uprising and subsequent government crackdown that is mostly associated with the massacre at Tiananmen Square, though witnessed throughout most large urban areas in China, including Chengdu. Rea provides a vivid firsthand account of the protests and violence that followed. His status as a foreigner and outsider — especially as an American — lends this part of the book added drama and excitement.
"The book also includes some interesting chapters chronicling Rea's travels into the hinterlands of Western and Southern China, though for Expose readers the real meat involves his experiences among the upper echelons of the early 90s Chinese pop and rock scene, plus his time spent among various ensembles (most notably Identity Crisis and The Vagaries) after he and his (now) wife relocated to Taiwan in 1990.
"Rea has since become a champion of the Chinese rock scene and a patron of its most important figures, foremost being Cui Jian, whom Rea describes as "Bob Dylan, John Lennon, and Kurt Cobain all rolled into one." This book leaves the reader with a much better appreciation and understanding of what rock musicians in China have had to endure, but also of the startling changes that have taken place in the past 15 years. Rea can take some pleasure in having had a hand in helping these changes to come about."
—Expose Magazine"Dennis Rea's book is a great read about a fantastic adventure. Rea is like a modern guitar-wielding Kerouac, cruising through a foreign culture and recounting outrageous stories with a wonderfully dry wit. This book also provides significant insight into the incredibly powerful force of popular music, even in a culture that was known for its repression of individual expression."
—Steve Wacker, Seattle-based recording artist and writer
"This book is a marvelous adventure story recounting the years that author Dennis Rea spent in China and Taiwan during the 1990s, initially and ostensibly as a teacher of English, but soon thereafter as a highly regarded musician who performed throughout China and Taiwan and became the first Westerner to record an album in China during its communist era. At the same time, it is a firsthand account of a time of great political and social upheaval in China written from Rea's unique vantage point. Rea writes in a highly engaging, witty style that adds to the exploits he recounts. At times gripping, such as his recounting of the uprising in Chengdu during the time of the infamous Tiananmen Square standoff between protesters and the Chinese military, and at other times hilarious, such as Rea's trek to an isolated region in western China, this is a book that will thoroughly satisfy any armchair adventurer, as well as anyone interested in learning more about China's robust underground music scene. I highly recommend it."
—Larry Trivieri, author, Health on the Edge
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The author has performed with many leading international figures in creative jazz, rock, and experimental music, from European jazz legend Han Bennink to Chinese rock megastar Cui Jian to acclaimed French composer Hector Zazou, as well as members of King Crimson, R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and the Sun Ra Arkestra. He has collaborated with many of the most important figures in contemporary Chinese music and was one of the first Western musicians to record an album for the state-owned China Record Company. In addition to performing and composing, he has acted as co-director of the long-running Seattle Improvised Music Festival, as co-editor of the Tentacle creative music journal, and as a panelist or consultant for the Experience Music Project, Seattle Art Museum, and Seattle Asian Art Museum. He has been interviewed by National Public Radio and numerous publications and has received grants for his activities from the Arts International Fund for U.S. Artists Abroad, Seattle Arts Commission, King County Arts Commission, and Malcolm S. Morse Foundation.
Rea has also been active as a professional writer and editor for more than twenty years, bringing his wide-ranging musical, cultural, and geographical expertise to bear in his contributions to the MusicHound Jazz Guide, Earshot Jazz, Option, Encarta World Atlas, and Expedia’s Mungo Park adventure travel magazine. He has written extensively about Chinese music for publications including the Routledge Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture and CHIME. He received support and encouragement for his book from the Washington State China Relations Council, New York’s China Institute, the European Foundation for Chinese Music Research, and the Richard Hugo House literary arts center.
For more information on Dennis Rea’s activities, visit www.dennisrea.com or www.myspace.com/dennisrea .