BEIJING BUBBLES - PUNK AND ROCK IN CHINA’S CAPITAL

Α documentary about five bands in Beijing and also a film about being different in a country which is developing more quickly than any other country in the world. The musicians portrayed want to have nothing to do with China’s “rise as a world power” and the “dragon leap” we keep reading about in the Western media, i.e. the split between rigid traditions and communist drill on the one hand, and the latest rush for careers and big money on the other. Nor are they interested in political protest. The film describes a small and different island of resistance. None of the bands has ever played for more than a hundred people. And you probably won’t find their CDs in regular Chinese record shops. The musicians are self-confident outsiders and individualists. From a Western point of view, the passion and humour of these musicians remind us of the time when Punk Rock was the big thing in Europe.