Exhibition reviews rock music history

Artist Huang Liaoyuan

When he had the idea for such a show, Liang first approached Huang, who has managed Second Hand Rose since 2001 and is also a veteran music critic and contemporary artist.

Huang contributed items from his personal collection amassed over 30 years, such as handwritten letters seeking permission from the government to hold live concerts, and a red flag with all the participants' signatures from the first Helanshan Mountain Rock Music Festival.

Huang started the festival in 2004 in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region. It was the first outdoor music festival on the Chinese mainland that both made a profit and attracted more than 200,000 audience members for the three-day event.

"From a music festival ticket to a staff card, I kept all the items as a mementoes that witnessed rock music's development in the country," says Huang, 49, who now works as a consultant for Modernsky Records, the largest indie label on the mainland, which publishes Second Hand Rose.

"Without much information, the old generation of Chinese rock musicians accomplished their own styles with their pure passion for rock 'n' roll," Huang adds. "They used rock music, a Western music genre, to tell Chinese stories, which deserves respect from the young generation."

As fellow curators, Huang invited Chang from Taiwan and Kwong from Hong Kong, two important figures who have witnessed and participated in the development of rock music in those regions.

Kwong, who launched the Hong Kong-based record label Wow Music in 2007, contributed the songwriting manuscript of Hong Kong rock band Beyond, and a pair of drumsticks used by legendary drummer, Donald James Ashley, who passed away on Oct 19, at the age of 58.

Chang, 46, who is better known as Chang43, founded Taiwan's indie music label, Taiwan Colors Music, in 1998. He also started the annual Taiwan rock music festival, the Hohaiyan Rock Festival, in 2000, which has become one of Taiwan's biggest celebrations of indie music and offered a platform to local indie bands to display their talents, including the bands Mayday and Sodagreen.

Of the items on display, Chang considers an entry permit for Cui to visit Taiwan in 2007 as the most important one. That year Chang had invited Cui to perform at the Hohaiyan festival.