银色灰尘 (Silver Ash)
Silver Ash was the first and only major visual kei band in Mainland China. A Beijing band formed in 2000, Silver Ash had been producing music actively under the Scream Records label until 2004. Supposedly, due to pressure from the Chinese government, the band members began leaving one after another. It was announced that the remaining members will be forming a new band called TOY with various musicians from other groups and would abandon the visual kei path.
However, Silver Ash still performed with the J-Rock band La'cryma Christi (just disbanded about a week ago) at the Star Live House in Beijing in August of 2006. There's a gap of information here between that announcement and the performance. I haven't figured out exactly what happened yet. I'm not sure why the 2005 album, "Wei Jin Ji" (未尽集) was still released under the name Silver Ash.
Edit: After finding the actual text of the official press release from 2004, now I know that Silver Ash was simply put on the backburner in favor of TOY. The press release specifically mentioned that TOY would be targeting the domestic mainstream market, while Silver Ash would be targeting the overseas market. Silver Ash hadn't really disbanded, just on a semi-hiatus. Their contract was also transferred to Scream Record's parent company, Jinwen Records. Of course, this was the "official" press release. In China, anything "official" means heavily sugarcoated. There are more details I need to uncover. Something still seems off. End of Edit
I'm still saddened by this whole problem with the Chinese government. Silver Ash could have become the X Japan of China. Alas, the band was getting strangled before it could have made a difference in the Chinese rock music scene. Almost everytime they get a chance to play overseas or join other major artists like Japan's T.M.Revolution, Pycho le Cemu, and Sons of All Pussys, the Chinese Homeland Security steps in and put a stop on the activities. Why did the Chinese government interfere? Why would it have such a problem with visual kei? Or is it actually due to the political content of Silver Ash's songs? I don't know and I'm terribly disappointed by the turn of events. I wish Silver Ash can just migrate to Japan and miraculously be able to sing in good Japanese.
But in the end, this post is a tribute to this pioneer Chinese band. As an initial introduction, I present to you Silver Ash's two music videos and my translation of the lyrics to these two songs. Please do not reproduce the translations (or any part of it) without getting explicit permission from me before hand (e-mail: nagetou [at] gmail.com).
Lunar Eclipse
This is a very poetic song. As a result, the lyrics are more difficult to translate due to the form and the usage of metaphors (and the ambiguity of pronouns and tense). I tried to preserve as much of the original Chinese meaning and form as possible in the translation, so as to not mangle the beautiful lyrics too much while maintaining coherency.
Title: Lunar Eclipse
The frozen moonlight, entangled in a dark room
Is dissolving in blue and seeps into the gray wall
The frozen moonlight, entangled in a mirror
Is dissolving in paleness and seeps into the gray wall
In the sunken depth of my eyes, glitters a nightmare from childhood
Trembling, I open both eyes, peering from the window at the...*
Moonlight that uncaringly burns my icy blood and frozen gaze***
In the dark, the iron window of ice, the mysterious melody is the imagination of happiness
The mangled shadow, careless scattered, is carved into my body
Seeping into my blood, the blue iciness freezes in my heart
The mangled shadow, careless scattered, is carved into my face
Seeping into my flesh, the blue iciness freezes in my heart
A beam of moonlight falls on my eyes, and pierces the shadow in the depth
Trembling, I close both eyes, dodging from inside the window the...**
Moonlight that uncaringly burns my icy blood and frozen gaze***
In the dark, the iron window of ice, the mysterious melody is the imagination of happiness
Moonlight that recklessly burns my icy blood and frozen gaze***
In the dark, the iron window of ice, the mysterious melody is the imagination of happiness
** Like above, conventional translation would be: "dodging the moonlight / outside the window" instead of "dodging from inside the window the... / moonlight". The reordering is to preserve the original form.
*** The original Chinese is 蓝色的血液, which is literally "blue blood". In the translation, I used the metaphorical meaning, "icy blood".
Liar
Well, this song is much much easier to translate. Half of it is in English and the other half in Chinese is straightforward enough. The video itself should also convey the political message clearly. Warning for the use of the "f" word.
Title: Liar
Liar, liar, liar!
You are such a liar, liar, liar!
You are a fucking liar, liar, liar!
You are such a liar, liar, liar!
You are a fucking liar!
I feel lied to as I wait
I wait in lies
Calmly swallowing the happy lies
I wait in happiness
Liar, liar, liar!
You are such a liar, liar, liar!
You are a fucking liar, liar, liar!
You are such a liar, liar, liar!
You are such a liar!
I feel lied to as I wait
I wait in lies
Calmly swallowing the happy lies
I wait in happiness
Liar!
Liar!
Liar!
Liar!
You are such a liar!
Silver Ash's discography can be found at Wikipedia.
As for where to buy all of their CDs, I wish I knew. Right now, it seems impossible for overseas fans to purchase their CDs because the popular international online music stores simply don't carry their works anymore or the CDs are out of print. However, your chances improve if you can read and communicate in Chinese. After searching on line, I found that eBay China sometimes has Silver Ash available. Yahoo! Auctions China (taobao.com) also seems to have an even bigger selection. However, the sellers on these auctions sites mostly only ship domestically. The good news is, Amazon China (joyo.com) does ship internationally, though it only has the most recent album (Wei Jin Ji).
The great thing about buying from Chinese artists CDs from Chinese sites is that everything is so damn cheap due to the exchange rate. At Amazon China, for example, Silver Ash's Wei Jin Ji album comes out to about $5, including shipping. I'm not kidding. So, grab a friend who can read Chinese and support the artists by buying their CDs. God knows, Silver Ash really really needs our support right now.
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