Shanren Band is gradually becoming a limelight for its rock music in Yunnan. Having toured in many foreign countries, it gains the fame by playing music with Yunnan ethnic culture.

The band has been set up for 14 years, with four band members at present. Using Yunnan native elements as its market tag, Shanren Band searches for the particularities.

Shanren Band’s songs are endowed with a lot of unique Yunnan characteristics. They usually add many ethnic musical instruments of Yunnan minority nationalities into their songs, as well as singing skills of Yunnan ballads.

Shanren Band’s lead singer & guitarist, Qu Zihan(瞿子寒), performs on the stage. (Photo/ Lin Hai)

Ethnic characteristics are reflected in their musical instruments. (Provided to Inkunming)

Shanren Band has achieved success and got rid of the image of non-mainstream, by incorporating Yunnan national elements into rock and roll.

Shanren Band has performed in many domestic large-scale musical festivals in recent years, such as Midi Music Festival(迷笛音乐节), Strawberry Music Festival(草莓音乐节), and Snow Mountain Music Festival(雪山音乐节). The band has been invited to many performances abroad. They had just completed the performing tours in North American areas, Japan, and South Korea in the past nine months.

In the circle of rock and roll music in Yunnan, Shanren Band is considered as one of the most successful rock bands at present. It is said that,Yunan's rock music is sorely limited to geographical boundaries before the appearance of Shanren Band.

Time’s change in rock’n’roll circle

Some local bands learned after Shanren Band, but few of them are as good as Shanren over years. The success of Shanren Band is not easy to be imitated, because the band has been improved with the time.

Different time leads to different lifestyles. The youth who are pursuing their music dreams have two characteristics. On the one hand, they have more healthy profession opinions that regard music as an avocation. On the other hand, nowadays rock musicians do not regard performing in bars or singing backup for stars as shames any more.

"We regarded music as a revolution when we started to play music." Qu Zihan, the lead singer of Shanren Band, said, "a same trade may not always be suitable for everyone."

The economic effects caused by Shanren Band

According to Liu Hao, a music critic, the Long Tail Effect in economics may explain the reason why Shanren Band has so many fans nowadays.

Many rock bands played industrial metal, which was the mainstream of rock and roll music in 2000. But Shanren Band sticked to doing rock music with Yunnan characteristics, which was their original music dream. At that time, Shanren Bank’s songs were teased by people as "agricultural metal" and garbages.

However, computer and internet changed everything. Electronic music, grunge music and bubblegum gradually become out of fashion. People tend to expect something new and different, while Shanren Band satisfies them exactly.

"Success would be achieved as long as insisting upon anything meaningful." Liu said.

Fans shout and cheer at the end of the show. (Provided to Inkunming)

The decoration on a musical instrument (Provided to InKuming)　　　

Tour is their source of creation.

Touring around Yunnan minority areas is a tradition of Shanren Band, which was initiated by Qu Zihan before the foundation of the band and has been passed on ever since.

Most people intuitively think that folk musics are monotonous or hard to understand. According to Qu, folk musics would be understandable as long as being under some alteration. He said, "a music won’t fade away as long as it has vitality. To obtain vitality, the music should be firmly related to modern life and aesthetic appreciation."

Even if Yunnan musics have been spread abroad, Shanren Band still think they are promising, since there are many unique minorities in this province.　

Exploring out of the stage

Set up for 14 years, Shanren Band releases their second album this year. To carry forward Yunnan ethnical cultures, Shanren Band has to step out and explore out of the music circle.

Shanren Band is trying to play in other provinces of the country. They are also going to hold some theme activities, aiming at broadcasting Yunnan cultures and lifestyles, out of Yunnan Province.

They also plan to construct more music platforms. In Qu’s opinion, the problem of China’s music nowadays is lacking hardware facilities, such as theaters and museums.

(Editors: Tracy, Lynn)

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