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“In China, emo is extremely underground,” Thompson explains. “Only about ten bands in the scene are making noise at any given time.”

The genre is still a relatively recent arrival in China, with the first local compilation album, “Emo China,” coming out less than two years ago. The album’s English title is significant in light of what Thompson describes as “a huge conflict in the scene about whether to sing in English or Chinese.” Some bands sing in Chinese to be more authentic, but many sing in English to be more accessible—Chinese rock has a very small following in China.

This discovery led to one of Thompson’s more surprising realizations: despite what Westerners might expect, Chinese underground rock isn’t particularly political. When it comes to emo and punk, Thompson says, “the only place a political battle is being fought is in Westerners’ imaginations. If the government got on their case, no one would care, because they’re such a small subculture.”

The occasional political messages that can be found in Chinese rock are often oblique or in English, which Thompson calls “complaining without complaining,” because it’s aimed at the West, not Chinese authorities.

Despite the cultural differences, Chinese emo often sounds a lot like familiar Western rock. Thompson compares Surprise’s sound to such American bands as Fall Out Boy and the Get Up Kids. He classifies the Raving Radio (Chinese: Diankuang Shouyinji), another band he studied, as “screamo” and compares them to the Canadian band Alexisonfire. Both bands include members from all over China, but like most underground bands they have migrated to the capital.
Emo scene

“Beijing is where you go to make it,” explains Thompson. Even in Beijing, the emo scene can only support three or four major venues—all bars—and the members of Surprise all have day jobs. For example, lead singer Duan Yumeng and drummer Zhang Yang work together at a North Face outlet as salesmen on commission.

At night, though, Surprise plays as often as possible. Thompson went along to most concerts as well as accompanying the band to practices and the recording studio. In the process he became better friends with the band members, whom he affectionately describes as “all really goofy characters.”

Thompson’s thesis, tentatively titled “Fading, Falling Tears: Authenticity, the Market, and Emo in Beijing,” will be the first close-up look at the Chinese emo scene when it’s completed this spring. When asked if he plans to stay in touch with the band, Thompson replies, “Of course. If I return to work in China, I'll need partners in crime.”

By Sam Feldman