Beijing Bastards

Ten years on the seminal film about Beijing’s counter cultural scene seems dated, but its star, Cui Jian, still deserve credit for sticking with his music when times were tough. Nearly no one showed up at the Cherry Lane recently for a showing of Beijing Bastards, the film made in 1993 by Zhang Yuan and only recently legalized in mainland China.

The film centres around the lives of a group of Beijing malcontents, zeroing in on 20-something Karzi, a moody malcontent who tries to get his pregnant girlfriend to give him another chance. A half-dozen other characters include Cui Jian, who plays himself and contributes a moody score. The story line also includes his band being shuffled around like ducks between rehearsal rooms: locals don’t like, or understand, the din.

Today’s Beijing is unrecogniseable in the film: no traffic jams, no foreign business people/slackers, no Starbucks.  The Cherry Lane screening was interrupted by several of the mobile phone tones ubiquitous on today’s streets. There’s a lot more wealth in China, and some more rock n roll, but most youths have given up protest songs for the urban dream of apartment and car, more achievable than ever in go-getting modern China.

The Cherry Lane is an old Peking Opera house used as a non-profit artnouse film house on the weekends. Beijing Bastards has never been shown in a mainstream cinema in China.

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