Jiang Xin

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Jiang Xin

[edit] Introduction

Jiang Xin is rather famous since the mid-1990s, not for her music though, but her personal relationship with Dou Wei and be the rival lover of Wang Fei – one of the most popular Chinese female artists. Jiang Xin, however, has made three awarded albums since 1996, and is one of very few female rockers who do not only survive in a male-dominant community, but also exert considerable influence on the development of Chinese rock, for example, her experiment on pop-rockization from her first album.^[1]

Jiang Xin started to play rock in 1988 after she made friends with Dou Wei, Zhang Ju, and Ding Wu who all surely influence the development of Chinese rock in the 1990s. She dropped out of university in 1989, and started to perform at clubs. Jiang Xin made her first album – <Flowers Bloom and Never Wither> (Hua Kai Bu Bai) in 1995 just because of He Yong’s idea – “let us make an album for Jiang Xin”. She became a female rocker without any plans. Jiang Xin is not a rocker by rock orthodoxy because she seldom writes music by herself, but works with other rockers as a lyricist. She also has no band of her own. The other rockers are generally famous in China, such as Zhang Chu, He Yong, Xu Wei, and Chen Jin. Possibly for her connection to the others, Jiang Xin is generally treated as a rocker in public.^[2]

In her special position, she told Qian Wang:

“In the early 1990s, I never thought about the gender issue. All the music I listened to was made by male rockers. Consequently, I unconsciously tried to play rock like a male rocker. Even when I was making the first album in 1995, I still had not realised my problem. Later, I started to listen to female rockers’ music, like Janis Joplin and Alanis Morissette, I sensed the difference between male and female rockers’ music, and realised that I needed my gender identity. I am a woman, not a man. I thus purposely wrote some lyrics in my second album <May> to stress my female identity.”^[3]

[edit] Further information

[edit] References

1. ↑ W. Qian (2007). The Crisis of Chinese Rock in the mid-1990s: Weakness in Form or Weakness in Content. Page 40. University of Liverpool.
2. ↑ W. Qian (2007). The Crisis of Chinese Rock in the mid-1990s: Weakness in Form or Weakness in Content. Page 266. University of Liverpool.
3. ↑ W. Qian (2007). The Crisis of Chinese Rock in the mid-1990s: Weakness in Form or Weakness in Content. Page 266. University of Liverpool. / Interview propably either Jul 26 2005 or Aug 4 2005

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