Zhao Yiran

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Zhao Yiran (赵已然)

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Zhao Yiran (also known as Zhao Muniu, Zhao Lao Da)

Zhao is upwards of 40 years old and comes from Yinchuan, Ningxia. In his early years, he was a part of the “Zou Xue” movement (a special term for a troop of performers wandering from place to place to earn a living by performing) and early Rock & Roll revolution back in 1980s. Zhao chooses the most humble living style. In recent years, he drummed for bands such as Wood Pushing Melon. He is also a special kind of singer: one who seldom opens his mouth to sing.

His singing, whether singing his own songs or copying other people’s songs, has been heavily influenced by the blues and northwestern Chinese folk songs. In this respect, so far, no other Chinese singer has reached his level, combining blues and Chinese folk so perfectly, so much as that you might believe that blues is the music of streets of north west China, as well as that of the peasants from the mountains of Liupan Mountains. His singing style and guitar techniques are very much folk music: casual but superb, with strong emotions and feelings about the past. When Zhao sings songs from 1980s, you can feel his emotion for his youth and experience with him, the laughters, tears, happiness and sadness.

-- by Yan Jun

I should be a chmistry teacher. Mistakenly, I became a drummer. More than ten years have passed, and I have done nothing, except for muddling in the small underground music kingdom. I was trapped in the more and more confusing and absurd cartoon land. I thought I believed in the philosophy of leading a parasitic life by “loafing to the extreme”, which I preached before my limited friends decisively and sternly. I have never worked, so I make a living by borrowing money.

Gradually, I became another man. With a pair of slippers, and a toothbrush, I moved to the villages, farther and farther away from the city.

Gradually, my smile has become ugly. My money is running out. More and more I have to beg my family for enough money to scrape by on.

One day, I realized I could not struggle on, could not loaf any more. I was drunk the night before and vomited. In the morning on the next day, still drunk, I vomited again, after drinking a mouthful of tea.

That day, I looked at my face, it was so ugly, too ugly. I finally knew I was not pretty any more, not never had been.

I loved pretty woman all my life, and was infatuated with those pretty women that I dared not face or touch. But I was never pretty, not ever.

I also knew that I was never free, though I have longed for freedom all my life.

Finally, I was falling down – to earth.

Then, in the dark night, in the bright sunshine that you don’t have to pay for, in the smile and sadness that only spirits could see, I thought of those old songs that I used to sing.

Today, having no way out, I am sitting here, changed from a drummer to a singer. Feeling helpless and a little bit funny, I am sitting here, with those dreams I had when I was young, getting ready to sing.

-- by Zhao Yiran; October 20, 2002

Taken from Rivermusic.net