I just released an international split seven-inch on my label, Gary Records, from the bands Hot & Cold (of Beijing and Toronto) and Skip Skip Ben Ben (of Taiwan). My heritage is Chinese and I spent my childhood in Taiwan. I also used to intern for this paper. The powers that be at the Reader decided to let me write a little something about my own release (a pretty obvious conflict of interest) because I had something to say about the new seven-inch in relation to the recent protests in Hong Kong—and because I had some pictures to back it up. A friend of mine who teaches English near Hong Kong attended the protests and allowed us to share the images in this post. He’d prefer to remain anonymous for fear of losing his visa—as you’ll see, fear is a recurring theme where China and protests are concerned.
When Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997, marking the end of more than 150 years of rule by the United Kingdom (beginning after the First Opium War in 1842), China made assurances that a “one country, two systems” approach would prevail for at least 50 years—i.e., those in Hong Kong would see no political change, and could vote for their own chief executive (governor). However, in August, China changed its mind and now states that candidates for the chief executive office must be approved by a committee loyal to the Communist Party, meaning that citizens in Hong Kong are no longer free to nominate anyone they choose for the election in 2017.
- Thomas Sauvin
- The cover of the new Gary release is by Thomas Sauvin, who created the Silvermine Project. He collected anonymous color negatives from a Beijing recycling zone and spliced them together. The photos cover a period of 20 years, from before digital photography started taking over.
For good measure, here’s a track from the split: “Nothing but Scared” by Hot & Cold.
