By Rebecca Wang
Based in Beijing, China, Second Hand Rose is a traditional Chinese all male rock band who is known for also being cross-dressers. Second Hand Rose combines both modern day rock and traditional Chinese folk music together and promotes Chinese culture in an innovative and compulsive way. Second Hand Rose held a press conference on Oct. 8th at UCT International Cultural Development to share their thoughts and experiences of the tour in America, and kindly interacted with people during the Q&A time.
Starting the press conference, Second Hand Rose showcased some of their distinguished outfits and new clothing lines. Lead singer Liang Long discussed the style of their collection, which there are a couple different reasons behind it. When Second Hand Rose went on tours in China, they noticed that their audience began to carry red and green colored fans and waved the fans while the band performed on the stage. Liang Long used to think that the colors of red and green are very old fashioned, but he then changed his mind after seeing how passionate their fans were from cities to cities so they started to develop their very own style in both their music and on stage to reflect the red & green colors design. Recently, Liang Long starts to collaborate his design with fashion designer and coming up with his brand.
Second Hand Rose did not just come up with their significant style in the beginning but built it gradually. The band designed two different lines; one is more stylish and unique including men’s skirt jacket and women’s qipao pants; the other line is for fans to wear and collect with products including red/green tshirts and funky hats.
Liang Long also explained how he started in the music business during the conference, when he was young, he actually did not get to listen to a lot of western Rock and Roll. In fact, all he listened when he was young was Bon Jovi. Later on through a friend’s introduction, Liang Long started to listen to崔健 (Cui Jian), a pioneer in Chinese rock music and one of the first Chinese artists to write rock songs. He then started develop his own Rock and Roll music combining the traditional instrument such as 嗩吶 (wind) with Chinese poetic lyrics.
Second Hand Rose also shared their experiences on the tour to America this time, especially their experience of performing Modern Sky Festival at Central Park. “It is fantastic and exciting” Liang Long said, which all of other member agreed. They felt familiar and touched when they saw a lot of Asian faces that came to see them perform and also fans have been very supportive from the tour so far. Although there weren’t many non-Asian audience, but they didn’t feel discouraged since this is the reason why Second Rose Hand is here in America to promote the band and their music. Guitarist, Yao Lan, and all other members believe that even though non-Chinese audience might not understand the lyrics from their songs, but the music melody is universal, people can still be touched by that.
Second Hand Rose is looking forward to the rest of their US tours to meet their fans and to perform their music and display their unique fashion design. Groenewegen-Lau, who is Dutch and acts as a translator for the group and also plays percussion instrument in the band, said since he joined the band, he has accepted to dress the very flamboyant clothes but this has been his full-time job and his passion to share the Chinese instruments, lyrics, music and culture to the world.
AsianInNY is a very proud media sponsor for the upcoming concert in Webster Hall (located at 125 East 11th St, New York, New York 10003) on October 19, 2014 Sunday from 20:00-22:00pm. For more, please visit: http://www.asianinny.com/?p=46868.
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