PHOTOJOURNALISM

PHOTO ESSAY: CHINA YOUTH  Part 1 of 2

From the grungy floor of a one-room apartment in a bohemian artists’ colony, I listened as a rail-thin twenty-something guitarist played Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain riffs. Turning his amp down, he asked in practiced English, “How about American kids? Which Chinese bands do they listen to?”

This exchange took place not in Seattle or Los Angeles, but in the Beijing suburbs. Thirty years ago you’d have a hard time finding a Mozart record there let alone something from the Monterrey Pop Festival. The fledgling musician’s question stuck with me because it seemed to symbolize a search for relevance and identity particular to a generation of young Chinese. These mostly only-children have the opportunity, (or burden) of self-discovery as they grow into a country that, in a way, does not yet exist. China is perhaps the world’s greatest “Work in Progress.”

continue to Part 2