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A efficiency video of “Crimson Youngster’s Eighteen Wins,” a January 2023 music by the folk-rock band Slap (耳光乐队, Erguang Yuedui), has been attracting a lot consideration currently on Chinese language social media and Chinese language Twitter. The people tune combines iconic characters and scenes from the classical Ming Dynasty novel “Journey to the West” with biting satirical commentary on present and up to date occasions in China and the world.
The in depth lyrics—detailing 18 so-called “wins”—are chock-full of acquainted references to the occasions of the previous a number of years. There are sly mentions of China’s now-abandoned “dynamic zero-COVID” coverage, the mysterious China Japanese Airways crash, the continued Russia-Ukraine warfare, Nancy Pelosi’s contentious go to to Taiwan, Henan’s rural banking disaster, the “exodus” of disgruntled Foxconn workers, the Guizhou bus crash, the constructing fireplace in Urumqi that killed not less than 10 folks, Peng Lifa’s daring political protest on Beijing’s Sitong Bridge, and the nationwide “White Paper” protests towards political repression and extreme COVID controls. Together with well-known fictional characters from “Journey to the West” similar to Crimson Boy (Crimson Youngster), Solar Wukong the Monkey King, the monk Tang Sanzang (Tripitaka), and lots of extra, the music is peppered with real-life modern characters straight out of the headlines. Some are sympathetic: there’s Second Uncle of viral video fame, the mentally ailing mother-of-eight who was shackled in Jiangsu, the ladies who had been brutally overwhelmed by gangsters at a Tangshan BBQ restaurant, the lacking pupil Hu Xinyu, and the three-year-old boy from Lanzhou who died because of delayed therapy beneath COVID controls. Others are extra clearly solid as villains: the privileged and controversial Olympic skier Eileen Gu, the Tiantongyuan neighborhood committee members who famous {that a} man’s son was his “weak spot,” the tone-deaf Zhengzhou group secretary Liu Hongying (who, on the top of the pandemic, whined about lacking her daughter’s coming-of-age ceremony), and the BMW driver who plowed right into a crowd of individuals in Guangzhou.
Fashioned in 1998 in Baoding, Hebei province, Slap are a fiercely impartial band identified for his or her “new folkloric” (新民俗主义, xin minsu zhuyi) musical stylings and incisive lyrics. Regardless of being unsigned to any main label, they’ve carried out usually in Beijing and different cities, and have toured extensively. A current lineup options lead singer Zhao Yuepeng, guitarists Wang Dong and Zhou Kun, bassist Zhang He, and drummer Nie Bing. The band has written a sequence of eighteen songs centered round social points, and these movies can be found on YouTube, though some have been banned on main Chinese language media platforms. The tune “Crimson Youngster’s Eighteen Wins” seems to have been censored as effectively: a Chinese language-language seek for the band title and music title on Weibo at present yields no outcomes.
CDT has translated parts of the lyrics—and added some explanatory hyperlinks—from the music within the efficiency video above, “Crimson Youngster’s Eighteen Wins”:
Crimson Youngster is a sage younger princeling
whose actual title is Niu Shengying
His mother and father, the Bull Demon King and Princess Iron Fan,
pampered and spoiled him,
which is why he’s a three-hundred-year-old adolescent
The denizens of Fireplace Cloud Cave are oft subjected to his wiles
The Gods of Earth and Mountains are accustomed to his pranks
Now everybody’s obtained Stockholm Syndrome
Crimson Youngster suffers from delusions of persecution
Within the Youngster’s world, all he does is win, win, win(musical interlude)
That yr, the monk and his disciples got here to Fireplace Cloud Cave
to save lots of the Gods of Earth and Mountains,
however the Gods weren’t grateful sufficient
So Crimson Youngster threw a match
and went to warfare towards the Monkey King
You’d higher not impede our
“Fireplace Cloud Cave dynamic zero-COVID” (applause)
The monk and his disciples are lying-flat “bandit vermin”
The God of the Earth mentioned, “Should you’re not wealthy
don’t go round beating people, pretending you’re Wang Sicong” (applause)
In Fireplace Cloud Cave, we’ve obtained our
very personal consultants to assist us win, win, win
Why would we let a international monk
such as you chant the sutras? (applause)[…] A fifth win on your social standing
a sixth win on your social gaps
Let’s touch upon the marvelous work
of these gents on “China Normal Time” (applause)
Women are saved out of school,
household constructions are medieval
Ladies worldwide chop their hair in solidarity (applause)
A mom of eight is shackled and chained
A scumbag who burned his spouse is sentenced to dying
You’ll be able to’t say Tangshan’s like Gotham Metropolis
as a result of not less than Gotham’s obtained a Batman. (large applause)(musical interlude)
[…] Counting 9 wins means you’re silly,
Ten wins makes me good
Take into consideration which issues in life
are necessary, and which aren’t—
A 3-year-old died of carbon monoxide poisoning
He had no COVID take a look at, so that they wouldn’t let him by means of
These three pandemic years had been his entire life (applause)
Secretary Liu missed her daughter’s
coming-of-age social gathering, boo hoo hoo
A one-year-old child by no means had a COVID take a look at
so that they let him choke to dying
“Adverse or optimistic” is all some people can see
however what they want is a few humanity
(large applause, shouts from viewers)(musical interlude)
[…] Crimson Youngster’s eighteen wins are all right down to
science, expertise, and exhausting work
Thanks for losing three years “defending” me
although it nonetheless sends a shiver down my backbone
Liu Bo, my bosom good friend,
I swear I’ll defend you to the dying! (applause)
I’ll always remember the fireplace, or the bus crash
or all that was coated up
Like a lone warrior strolling into darkness
Hear the start of those Nice Works
Chuckle that we’re fortunate to be
born into this Nice New Period (applause)
30% is future and 70% is right down to exhausting work
Onerous work wins out in the long run … [Chinese]
As a consequence of on-line censorship, many preliminary feedback in regards to the music have been deleted from Weibo and different social media platforms. CDT Chinese language editors had been in a position to accumulate some Twitter feedback in regards to the music, a few of that are translated beneath:
XiJPDynasty: Its incisive lyrics hit straight on the coronary heart of issues in our society, prompting folks to assume and mirror, and to look at social phenomena extra intently. […]
vivianzheng333: I couldn’t assist however really feel unhappy when he sang that half about “Batman.”
straycat_au: This can be a daring gambit, risking the second half of your life by “dashing on the ramparts” of energy. Respect.
yaoyaoio: The previous three years are nonetheless as clear as day.
ljbdba: That phrase “Onerous work wins out in the long run” has some profound that means behind it. [It is the title of a 1988 Hakka pop song by Taiwanese singer-composer Baitang Chen.]
cuixufeng50: Who trembled after they heard this? Who was moved to tears? Who felt enraged? [Chinese]
One other of the band’s songs, “How Ought to We Spend Our Lives?” was featured in an October 13, 2021 efficiency at 46 LiveHouse in Changsha, Hunan province. A portion of the lyrics from that music are translated beneath:
How ought to we spend our lives?
Will we sow and reap only for ourselves,
or work ourselves to dying for others?
Will we savor life within the second,
or endure for the sake of the longer term?
Will we go down our achievements to the subsequent technology,
or go away behind a reputation the world will keep in mind?Nobody has the right reply
Everybody has the ultimate say
Nobody will get a do-over
Everybody will get to reside their lifeHow ought to we spend our lives?
How will you spend your life?
How ought to we spend our lives? (repeat)
If we had the prospect to do all of it once more,
how would we spend our lives? [Chinese]
The band’s Twitter bio (@1998slap) describes them thus: “耳光乐队 (Erguang Yuedui, “Slap”), shaped in 1998. Creators of recent fables, performers of absurdist drama, counter-currents to the mainstream, bohemian vacationers amongst fellow peons, drifters, and dross.”
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