Tianjin rocks its own style

Young indie bands like Stone Lion show a modern and creative side of the ancient city of Tianjin through their music. Provided to China Daily

For many years the people of Tianjin have taken pride in quyi, a term used to describe the various traditional local folk arts, such as storytelling, singing and cross-talk.

But Zhai Yi, a DJ at Tianjin People's Broadcasting Station's culture channel, says the focus on arts from the past is sad.

"It means Tianjin has nothing new to offer," he says. As a Tianjin native who loves the city, he wants to show the world it is not a place stuck in history.

When Zhai stumbled upon a group of indie musicians from Tianjin in 1996, he discovered that they shared many ideas about displaying a different side of Tianjin-"a much more modernized and creative side"-as Zhai puts it, to wider audiences across China.

Their idea evolved into a record label, Tianjin Feng Wei, meaning Tianjin style, with 11 original Tianjin bands on the books. They have released five albums and several of the bands will perform in Tianjin on Jan 11. Three of the bands will take the stage at Beijing's Mao Livehouse on Jan 12.

It's not the first time the bands have performed outside Tianjin. For the past five years, they have been touring China and sharing their "made in Tianjin" music.

The name of the label reflects the music they do. Walking the streets of Tianjin, Zhai says the feeling of Tianjin feng wei can be seen everywhere.

"Feng wei means something unique and exclusively belonging to the city. We used the phrase to describe our music label because those bands are from Tianjin and they have a style of music that originated from here," says Zhai.

The 40-year-old also changed one character of the word feng wei. Instead of using the feng character that means wind, he uses the feng character that means to be crazy, "because those singer-songwriters are crazy enough to insist on doing their music", Zhai explains.

Zhai says people from Tianjin have a good sense of humor and a positive outlook on life, which is reflected in their music.