Chinese Folk in the Times

The New York Times has an interesting piece on some of the ethnic minority musicians on China's folk music scene—and the photographer captured Hurcha of Hanggai's awesome stage vest.

I do think the reporters overstate some of the political aspects. At the Hanggai festival referenced near the beginning (which was partially government-funded), the security guards seemed to be the same bored rent-a-cops you see at every music festival in China. I also don't think that the article gives the bands enough credit for being innovative musically, combining traditional music with contemporary forms—something that's just as important (I would say more important) to a lot of those musicians.

Still, a lot of what they bring up is true: the cheesy ethnic song-and-dance shows, the resentment among ethnic minorities over what they see as pro-Han policies, the environmental problems in Inner Mongolia.

Mostly, I'm happy to see these bands getting more attention, since I wrote the definitive articles on Chinese folk music (I am joking—people covered the scene before me—but I did have to make the case that these bands deserved so many pages in Time Out).