Jan & Dean China Tour 1986
Here's the recollection by Don Altfeld :
Here's a cute story.....I had originally put on a show at the Roxy Theatre here in Los Angeles for an artist named Larry Hart...it was a showcase...so that he could be seen and hopefully signed by a major record company. He was an exceptional songwriter.
I put on the show (my first) and afterwards a Chinese woman who looked like The Dragon Lady (if you know the old Terry and the Pirates) cartoon strip came up to me and said "Dr. Altfeld, how'd you like to bring this show to China." Well, at the time...about the only thing I knew about China was that if you dug a hole in the sand deep enough...you might reach it.
But, being an adventurous soul...I said "sure...but how do I know you're for real?"
She told me to come to China and find out. I asked her what other American acts had performed there and she replied "None!"
So, two weeks later I was on a Chinese jet (after landing in Hong Kong) and landed in Southern China...couldn't speak a word of Chinese..and my plane was early...so I ended up coloring in a coloring book with a little Chinese child.
Then boarded another Chinese plane to Shanghai...where I was met by the Dragon lady (Tiffany Chu) and twenty Chinese children bearing flowers.
I checked into the Jin Jiang Hotel...(quite famous as this is where Nixon stayed when he signed the Shanghai Accords)....twice each day I was taken to auditoriums of 5-10,000 seats and given private performances of the Shanghai Ballet, Shanghai Symphony etc etc. ..and on the fifth day I signed a letter of intent (not even a contract) to bring my artist Larry Hart and his Rocket of Love tour to China to perform in a 17,000 seat auditorium.
Well, I return to LA and Larry says he doesn't want to go to China...he wants to go on the television show "StarSearch" to try to win a hundred thousand dollars. It was now early November and our concert was set for November.
I had sent a proposal to United Airlines...and much to my dismay they responded quickly. We didn't even have a company and at the time had no real money. United wanted to fly out to meet us. Our headquarters was a restaurant in Santa Monica. I quickly called Jan and Dean and they agreed to play china in about five minutes.
We picked up the head of International Corporate Communication for United in a 32 yellow Ford Roadster. They loved it. Took them to the restaurant and I suggested that since I knew that there was a United DC6 on display outside in downtown LA at Exposition Park that we hold a press conference with Jan and Dean, the Chinese delegation...and circle the plane with hot rods and rollerskating car hops.
They loved the idea...and we did it ..we were now about two weeks away from concert time...United gave us about a quarter of a million in travel (forty people and 220,000 pounds of equipment) but we still lacked the money to do the show and pay other expenses. Well, one of our team, a woman named Mary Catherine was with Lorimar...and she had them tune in to the Press Conference....they loved the idea...and after intense negotiations ...right down to the wire...they ponied up 200K...which made the concert possible.....
Quite an experience. the first night was a total disaster...but I went to every taxi driver, barmaid, housekeeper and found out the American songs that they knew and we totally changed the show for the second night and it was an overwhelming success....and the rest is history. Quite a bit of history too....cause some of it tied into what happened at Tian an Men later.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++ CHINA DAILY, December 8 1986 +++
Shanghai rocks with US band
Ten thousand people, mostly young, filled the Shanghai Gymnasium to hear American rock ‘n’ roll, and it was not at all like what the musicians were used to back home. No earsplitting screaming, no dancing in the aisles, no sense of celebration that characterizes American rock concerts.
The heavy rhythms, sensuous melodies, wailing electronic instruments, dazzling light displays, and energetic contortions of the musicians left the audience a bit bewildered.
Not that rock ‘n’ roll is all that strange to the young people of Shanghai. They dance to it at parties, and sing along with it in the intimacy of their homes. But here in a crowd - just how were they expected to react ? (Dean’s note : they were subdues only the first night. All hell broke loose from the second night on).
The occasion was the China debut of the American rock stars Jan & Dean and their band on Friday as part of the cultural exchange programme sponsored by United Airlines. Earlier, the airline had brought a group of jazz musicians and dancers from Washington to Beijing. The rock ‘n’ rollers are from California, and in addition to their six concerts in Shanghai, they will give six more in Guangzhou. The Shanghai Cultural Exchange Agency billed them under the theme "Love and Friendship - the Beginning".
Travelling with them is the female singing group Sha-la-la performing songs composed by their director Jeff Barry - songs with titles like "Chapel of Love", "Leader of the Pack", "Da Doo Run Run", "Sugar Sugar", and "Tel Laura I love her".
Did Jan & Dean feel the audience was cool to them ? No. They were generouswith their applause and even with whistles, but they seemed a little slow to respond.
As Dean Torrence observed, "Every audience has its own way of showing its appreciation and ist own personality. I could see by their faces that they were enjoying us. As long as they enjoy me, I’m happy".
And at the end, when he and his friends walked around and touched hands, "I enjoyed that", he said.
Jan Berry said he felt the audience was really excited. "They smiled and laughed", he noticed. "I guess it’s hard for the Chinese to react to rock ‘n’ roll. But this is a good beginning".
And Dean added, "Someday I want to come back and get them out on the floor dancing".
Jan & Dean feature music of the 60s when rock ‘n’ roll reached its zenith, much of it associated with another famed California-based group, The Beach Boys. The 60s are when Jan & Dean, now in their 40s, were companions in high school.
Among the songs they featured here were "Good Vibrations", "Surf City", "California Girls" and "The little old Lady from Pasadena", all from the 15 albums of their music that have been released in the Orient. The songs are all catchy, sprinkled with love themes and filled with some of the innocence of their era.
Dean, who is a former art and architecture student, joked about the temperature of the hall in "southern" Shanghai, where there is no central heating. "Most places we play are too hot. This is Probably the perfect temperature for rock ‘n’ roll. We won’t have to send our shirts out to be washed so often, I can wear this one for three more nights".
+++ THE SUN, December 21, 1986 +++
20,000 march in Shanghai protest rally
... In Shanghai, the demonstrations were triggered by student anger over injuries to one or two Jiaotong University students who were hauled off a stage earlier in the week after they tried to join American singers Jan & Dean during a performance at the city’s biggest gymnasium.
Some 500 students took to the streets to protest that incident.
Thursday night, Mayor Jiang went to Jiatong to try to pacify the students, and he warned them against further demonstrations ...
+++ SOUTH CHINA SUNDAY MORNING POST, December 21, 1986 +++
Beijing warns on demonstrations
... Western diplomats in Shanghai said the protests had been sparkled by incidents at a December 5 concert by members of the US pop group Jan & Dean, at which several students were detained by police.
These students have apparently not yet been released, one diplomat said. Since the concert students have been holding meetings to discuss local conditions and democracy and in the past few days wall posters have gone up at several universities ...
+++ SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, December 22, 1986 +++
Third huge student rally in Shanghai
... Students said they had been angered when police earlier this mont beat up two students who went on stage during a concert by the American pop singers Jan & Dean.
Yesterday’s march followed an all-night vigil at the People’s Square ...
+++ SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, December 23, 1986 +++
Concert brutality denied
A top American rock band which has just returned from performing to packed audiences in Shanghai his denied reports that Chinese police had beaten exuberant fans.
Jan & Dean, the twoman band that shot to the top of the charts in the early 1960s with multi-million sellers "Surfin’ USA" and "Walk like a Man" arrived in Hong Kong yesterday after a three-week tour of China which included six concerts in Shanghai.
Some reports from Shanghai indicated that the recent student unrest had been inflamed by the way in which police treated fans at concerts. One report said a youth had been badly beaten by police after running on to the stage.
However, tour manager Mr. Peter de Krassel told the South China Morning Post he had "not been aware of any brutality at all".
"We were in Shanghai just over a week ago and certainly did not see any brutality inside the stadium," he said.
Mr de Krassel said there had been a rail in front of the audience in the Shanghai stadium and that on several nights a few fans had climbed over to dance on stage.
"The security guards let the kids dance until the end of each song and then escorted them back and helped them climb back over the rail," he said.
"We did not see anything happen inside the stadium and certainly did not hear of any police brutality elsewhere."
+++ TIMES, sometime after the China tour +++
This China syndrome shows how far apart we really are
A little over a year ago I was 1.000 miles inside China, sent there to write stories about our sister city, Chongqing. One night I was at the hotel bar - my choices of entertainment consisting of staying in my room and watching an electronics course on TV or drinking beer in the lounge - when I heard an American voice.
"l thought that was a stupid column you wrote," a woman said.
It turned out she was with a tour group, and that she lived in Seattle, and that she indeed believed I was stupid.
I mention this not to document my international appeal, but to point out that I am regularly reminded what a small world this has become. Let me tell you another story.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote a piece about Jan & Dean, the surf duo.
More than 30,000 people had taken to the streets of Shanghai.
China. with demands for democratic reforms. The origin of the demonstrations was the alleged beating of students at a Jan & Dean concert.
I called up Dean Torrence after he and Jan had returned to the U.S. He told me a fascinating story of how the duo was the first rock act to play in Shanghai, as part of a cultural exchange. The incident occurred, he said, when a young man jumped on stage, then onto a speaker. and started dancing. Such an act is unheard of in China.
After the story ran, I received a letter from Sally Williams. convention services manager for the Seattle Sheraton Hotel & Towers. It turned out she was in Shanghai during that time, opening a Sheraton hotel. Jan & Dean had been guests there. That's what I mean about this becoming a small world.
I also want to recount what Williams told me. It points up that although we can jet into China in a day, and make a phone call in seconds, it can be a misleading nearness. We are still two very, very different worlds.
If what had happened to Jan & Dean had taken place in this country, it would have made major headlines. What happened, Williams wrote, is that Jan's portion of the show was curtailed after the first night because he is disabled.
Jan Berry was in a 1966 car accident. "It's very obvious he doesn't have use of one side," Williams said. "One arm didn't function, and he walks with a limp."
Williams said the band crew was told that seeing someone disabled would make the audience feel guilty. "The explanation given the crew was that in the old days, Chinese mothers killed or starved disabled babies because they were dependent and there was no one to take care of them," she said.
I called Dean Torrence. He said that, yes, a Chinese official had made the request about Jan.
"I was told that seeing a handicapped person reminded most of the older people about the Cultural Revolution, when many people were maimed and killed. He used some quote about people being thrown out of windows," Torrence said. He went along. "I figured that was their call "
I called Anthony Kane, director of the China Council. a nonprofit educational group.
"The Chinese still don't have an open attitude toward the handicapped. They think it should be kept indoors and not flaunted" he said. "A handicapped child is somehow considered punishment by the gods. They don't even like left-handed people. Teachers try to force students who are lefthanded to become right-handed".
There could have been a variety of reasons why Dean Torrence was told that seeing a handicapped person was a reminder of the Cultural Revolution.
"The official who said that may not have wanted to be accused of having feudal, traditionalistic attitudes." Kane said. "He could have been shielding himself by cloaking it in a reference to the Cultural Revolution. That's a way for the Chinese to deal with a situation they don't like."
Or it could have been more complex than that. The son of Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping is a paraplegic, a result of being pushed out of a fourth-floor window by Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution. The son is now, head of the agency in China for the handicapped and aggressively promotes rights for the disabled. Perhaps too aggressively.
Asking that Jan not be seen so much may have been actually directed at his efforts.
Whatever the real reason, Kane said, what happened shocked him.
He added: "But then it wouldn't be the first time something in China shocks me."
We might be able to communicate instantly nowadays. It doesn't mean that we'll understand it any easier.
