Hang on the Box was once billed-with a lot of fanfare-as China's only all-girl punk band. They aren't anymore. They don't do so much punk, and their guitarist is a man. After playing under a label at several massive US music festivals, the band is back in Beijing, labelless, playing in little bars and cafes to sedate crowds.
After some initial success, Hang on the Box is learning the next lesson of rock music: how to hang on.
Wang Yue is the band's lead singer. Shen Jing is the drummer, and Yi Lina plays bass. The three girls have been together since the band formed in 1997. Guitarist Gan Xin Pu joined the group in May 2003, replacing the original guitarist.
Wang, who is 25, wears cut-up T-shirts that show her tattoos and skirts over her jeans.
The first time I interviewed her was at a little cafe just north of Tsinghua University. It was the kind of place where tables had to be cleared out by the staff just to get enough room for people to stand, where the squat toilet overflowed if it was flushed and a sign on the bathroom door read, "Only pipi here," just in case.
Before the show started, only a small audience had shown up, a somber crowd of some expatriates and some Chinese.
I wanted to know-with the band having played in the US at several large music festivals, where thousands of people moved from club to club to hear all kinds of music-if it was enough for them to come back to
Beijing to play this kind of venue.
"It's tai not enough!" Wang said, slipping in the Chinese word for "too" and creating the kind of bilingual tangle that typifies her lyrics.
Wang generally looks mean, but when she sneers, or screams some of her more aggressive lyrics, she can be downright ferocious. Her favorite song is "No More Nice Girl." Nice or not, Wang is determined. She calls the shots for the band, and writes most of the music.
"The lyrics come from everyday life," she told me. "Some [about] boys, about love. For example, 'No More Nice Girl' is for girls. I will tell them nice girl is an old style. Be quiet. Be shy. Be stupid. Nice girl. We need more modern girls."
Then she paused, and added, "But modern is more than just fashion; it's a way of thinking."
Wang also sings about falling in love, being stood up, being an outcast, and most of the other themes from which rock sprung. Sometimes she's snide. Sometimes she's sweet. Sometimes she's angry. But, she said, even if the music is about the things from her everyday world, she doesn't intend for her music to really sway anyone.
"We don't think about whether people think about us or our songs," she said. "I don't want to control everybody's mind. I think whatever they think of the music, let the people have any freedom to get influenced by us."
She added, "There are many styles about society I don't like. But I don't want to mix that with the music."
And there definitely isn't any politics in Hang on the Box, she said.
"Politics in rock is past. It's stupid. There are many problems in society, but I don't want to put them in the lyrics," she said.
While we spoke, I noticed an orange sticker stuck to our table.
"Beijing Punx Are Coming," it said. But the sticker was old and faded, and punk music had already come to Beijing. Punk bands had formed in droves in 1999 and 2000, and you could find a live punk show just about every weekend back then. But then a lot of them simply disappeared, either because they weren't very good, or just weren't appreciated.
Hang on the Box made it through the first wave, but they weren't going to stay a punk band bound to a style of music with angst-heavy lyrics and simple musical constructions.
"We don't want to be the band that just plays punk music," Shen, the drummer, told me. "We don't want to be that band."
With the addition of Gan, his guitar, and his love of the funk of James Brown, the band's music has deviated from the simple chord structures of punk. With their developing style, they are looking to develop a Chinese fan base, playing more shows around
Beijing and China, as well as looking for international gigs.
"At first, we thought we could forget about the market in China," said Shen, who is just 21 years old. Now they have been looking to promote themselves more at home, something that hasn't been easy to do.
"In China, you haven't got a company or anything else, so you have to depend on yourself," Shen said.
That's been even more difficult now that their style is developing outside of the traditional punk rock parameters. Their first two albums, "Yellow Banana" (April 2001) and "Di, Di, Di" (May 2003) are clearly influenced by punk music.
Now the band is hungry to make a third album.
"We didn't think the second album could express our feelings enough," Shen said. "Now our feelings are different from 'Di, Di, Di.'"
The band is playing stronger than ever, she said, and "now we know what we should care about, and what we shouldn't care about."
The music is maturing with the band, she said. Now, thanks to Gan, there is more funk and some softer, almost ballad-like songs. They still play some of the punk favorites.
When the 23-year-old guitarist came onboard, he brought with him a love for his distortion pedals and the funk influences of James Brown and Jimi Hendrix, as well as surfer punk, classic rock and other influences.
When Gan came on board, "we got more powerful," he said. "There are so many styles in this band, you know. Because it's funky, it's electric. It's so many things."
By the time he arrived, though, the group was already having problems with their former label, Benten, a Japanese company. For the third new album, Shen said, the record company wanted too many rights to Hang on the Box's music. So the band dropped from the label. But they haven't yet found another one. That means they don't have an opportunity to record the next album. It also means they've lost out on the opportunities to travel abroad and make their music known outside China.
They also have to promote themselves solely on the quality of their music. When they were "China's only all-girl punk band," Shen said, "it was easy to make attention."
And with their changing style, they need to find their fan niche among the Chinese, something that hasn't quite happened yet. Most Chinese bands sing in Chinese. There's a thriving pop-rock industry, and rock-n-roll bands that perform in Chinese draw larger crowds.
Hang on the Box sings in English. Something that Wang is adamant about.
"Chinese lyrics in rock is a little stupid," she said. The language doesn't fit the melody, she said. And besides, the members got interested in music by listening to English rock songs.
"To sing in English is comfortable," Wang said.
In fact, the English lyrics are what make the songs appealing to overseas fans and foreigners living in Beijing. The grammar isn't always perfect, but the passion is there, making for some interesting contradictions, some syntactic fun, and overall good listening.
"If I don't have a CD player," Wang sings on "Di, Di, Di," "my life can't be go on/ Because listen to the music important in my mind."
With their new song list, Wang's lyrics are just as lively, fun and sarcastic as ever. Fun, like screaming Hendrix's "Foxy Lady" through a bullhorn. Fun, like singing about the freedom that comes with not wearing bras, or taking LSD, or breaking up with stupid boys.
The English lyrics are fun, yes, but there's a good reason for them, Wang said. "We want to become an international band."
To do that, they'll have to overcome the same kinds of problems encountered by every band since rock was invented. They'll have to find a way to get their music to the people who want to hear it. They have to deal with tours and promotions and recording contracts, and differences of artistic opinion. And through it all, they'll have to stay together.
"We will be strong to face the troubles with our rock-and-roll," Wang said. The band members' faith in one another will help, she said. Since China's punk explosion, "most bands have broken up," she said. "But we stay alive."
Members of Hang on the Box trust each other, she said, and their love of music keeps them going.
"Music for us is like," she said, and paused, "we feel music is waiting for us, and we will get it eventually.... Music is a star in the sky, and we're riding a roller coaster to that star. We feel we are a band, so we are fortunate."
Only time will tell just how fortunate.
