Rolling Stones come to China
The Rolling Stones opened their first-ever concert in mainland China
Rolling Stone kicks on Saturday with “Start Me Up,” a song with suggestive lyrics that apparently made it past the censors who banned five other songs.
The so-called “world’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll band” played to a packed house at Shanghai’s 8,000-seat Grand Stage indoor stadium, where the audience was overwhelmingly foreign. Demand for tickets had driven up prices on the black market to $624.
Chinese rock pioneer Cui Jian, who was to perform a duet with Mick Jagger, said before the concert that the show was a “milestone” for him and all rock fans in China.
“It is a big moment. I will never forget this,” said Cui, whose songs were anthems for student protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989.
In a reminder of the communist government’s cautious attitude toward Western pop culture, the Stones were told not to perform five songs — “Brown Sugar,” “Honky Tonk Women,” “Beast of Burden,” “Let’s Spend the Night Together” and “Rough Justice” — because of suggestive lyrics.
However, “Start Me Up,” which also has suggestive lyrics, was not on the list.
At a news conference on Friday, Jagger said he was not surprised by the demand, and added sarcastically: “I’m pleased that the Ministry of Culture is protecting the morals of the expat bankers and their girlfriends that are going to be coming.” (Full story)
He said a planned nationwide broadcast of the concert by China Central Television — a first for a Western rock show — would help expose people to his music.
“I know what rock ‘n’ roll is, but I’ve never heard of them,” said a shopkeeper at a clothing stall in the city’s downtown Xiangyang Market, who would only give her surname, Liu.
The band had better name recognition among younger Shanghainese, although many said the band was a little “old” for them — a reminder that Jagger, at age 62, is just one year younger than Chinese president and Communist Party leader Hu Jintao.
“We like rock music and pop like the Backstreet Boys, Mariah Carey and also Jay Chou and Rain, too,” said Jamie Liao, a 17-year-old with spiked hair wearing fashionably low-cut jeans and Converse sneakers.
Chou, a Taiwanese rapper, and Korean singer Rain are among the biggest foreign stars in China.
“The Rolling Stones — they’re more from the early stage,” Liao said.
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