Knock-knock-knockin' on China's Door
The 1980s rock band Guns n' Roses launched their eagerly-awaited album Chinese Democracy yesterday, 15 years after they first recorded it. Not surprisingly, the Chinese are not amused.
A leading Communist Party newspaper called the album an attack on the nation. The Global Times quoted Chinese netizens who said the album was part of a plot to control the world using "democracy" as a buzzword.
Prior to the release, the running joke was that there would be democracy in China before GNR released their album. Jokes aside, there hasn't been a lot of discussion on why the band named the album as such.
One of the band's public relations people told me that singer Axl Rose briefly explained the reasoning behind the title in an 1999 MTV interview with Kurt Loder. Here's an excerpt:
Kurt Loder: You're going to call this album "Chinese Democracy." What is the meaning of that, since there is no Chinese democracy, of course?"
Axl Rose: Well, there's a lot of Chinese democracy movements, and it's something that there's a lot of talk about, and it's something that will be nice to see. It could also just be like an ironic statement. I don't know, I just like the sound of it.
