Our Youth---Li Zhi
by LI Tao
In the summer of 2004, Li Zhi went to Ningxia to visit his classmate. He sang Wang Luobin's song Separated by a River Forever in the front of Li Yuanhao's mausoleum. It was very hot in that afternoon, with silence in Helan Mountain and Xixia King's Mausoleum, a desire of doing something struck him in a flash.
After returning to Nanjing,Li Zhi borrowed 5000RMB from one of his friend. With the help of him friend a drummer Liu Wei,he commenced to make a record at Changbai Street in the east of Nanjing city and Shuixi Gate located in the west of the city. It lasted for half a year off and on. Later this record which is included nine songs of totally forty during three years when he lived in the outskirts of Nanjing, was released by Koudai Music Record titled as The forbidden Games. Initially he carved 250 discs which were sold in the guitar stores by 20RMB.He obstinately refused to give a name for his album, and also didn't write his name. As mentioning about him, he used BB to instead. He said that it was the ID at his first time's surf on line.
In the spring of 2005, Li Zhi accommodated Wen Qingnian's home in Guangzhou. As long as there was sunny, he would go to Sun Yat-sen University to enjoy the sunshine, as well as watching the walking girls. He sang The Changeable Phenomenon in Huangpu Military Academy, also performed the song Fifty Yuan at Tianhe City, and he liked salty fried and almond tea. He bought a yellow Adidas lammy at the second-hand market, and then he went to Xinjiang Province alone in the summer. After returning, he launched to record his second album. With the friend's help in Shenzhen, he eventually finished the post recording, printing and packaging.
As same as the last one, he asked his good friend Song Yang to paint for the cover of album which was an general imitation a painting in 2005 Beijing Biennale ,but he had forgotten its name and writer. He returned to Nanjing from Shenzhen with the 500 records at Christmas Eve. At Peninsula Village Coffee on Qingdao Road, he played the simple depute .Before, the 8th song Mr. Van Goth. of the album was downloaded countless times from Rock Nanjing website. Then people called him Mr. Van Gogh on line, although it was not his most satisfying work. Several years later, I asked him the background and motive of this song, but he kept silent. Suddenly I got that why this song which gave him too much reputation could also cause the hurt. During those year, he always couldn't adapt himself both inside and outside, and failed to cease struggle with something illusory or groundless, and also couldn’t stop attempt for explaining. Finally he decided that never sing Mr. Van Gogh again because of people's difference, whose exact date was 18th Nov,2007.On that day, he performed with his fellow at Little bar in Chengdu, also on that day his matey got married in Shanghai. The buddy is namely "you" in his song No One Talked with Me since You Left Nanjing.
Li's first time's visiting Chengdu was in the summer of 2001; he took 3000RMB and went to Tibet with the buddy. Unfortunately he didn't find his buddy at train station but being fined 5 Yuan by city guard because of littering dog-end. Then he swore that he would never go to Chengdu again. He didn't except that he could visit there once again after six years past that his buddy had left long ago, and unexpectedly he stayed there for more than half a year. For several time when he past by his buddy's Alma Mater, he always sent me messages. Being in another city then, I couldn't image his expressions but I could get his feeling.
I knew Li Zhi in the autumn of 2004, which was the new semester of our middle school.From the classroom of second floor, I saw him rode an bicycle with taking a big wooden case on left and a bag of rice left. He looked so preoccupied that was extremely different with those students who were companied by their parents. Later, I supremely found that we were at the same class. During three years in high school, I Zhi didn’t indicative of any different from us in the most of time. As a farmer's son, he also liked playing basketball and eating red-cooked meat, as well as spent time at cinema .Merely, he would listen to some queer music which we never listened to and spoke some cynical words that we couldn't understand. Then during the National Day's holiday in the junior, with my company, we went to Commercial Hall and bought one guitar. From then on, he played guitar to rage everybody’s ear at every night.
Our school holds the evening party annually. The schedule was that, firstly every class must sigh up, then selected in grade, the last was final performance, which would be put on at the school's cafeteria the so-called auditorium. Li Zhi's depute was at the senior's party. He played guitar and sang Shen Qing's Youth. Especially for good result, he borrowed another better guitar from his elder brother. But because there was no tuner then, and the audience kicked up a fuss due to his pretty good interpersonal relationship, we heard nothing. He came and went silently---Those were all memory about Li Zhi's performance .We ate Duck in Salted Special Sauce and drunken beer after College Entrance Exam ended. Then he went to Nanjing while I left for Beijing. As he said that:” Although they are both Jing(city),1200 km apart from north Jing to south."
In the summer of 1999, Li Zhi dropped out from Southeast University and came to Beijing to call on me. He slept at my dormitory by day and went out to do something which I still didn’t know at night .Later, he returned to Nanjing, leaving the words that Beijing was a draffy city which had no rock n' rock but only bludgers ,which I couldn't understand. As an undergraduate studying technology, I only knew mudie of Zhongguancun.In that autumn, I visited him in Nanjing. He lived in a place called Luo Town in Pukou.I didn’t know what he was doing as well as I was doing. In his eight-square meters' room, there was only one desk one chair and one guitar, with various brand packs of cigarette on the wall and thick cigarette ash on the ground. Being bad buddies, we didn’t mention the ideal. As time flew quickly, I graduated from college and left Beijing, toiling and spinning, I changed several jobs and cities just for a better life.Li Zhi stayed in Nanjing all along. He didn't know what I was doing just as same as I didn't know him. And by and by we met each other less and less. Every time when I asked him what he was busy with, he always replied that: “recording, managing guitar store and bar, and performing, nothing else."
In the winter of 2006, he built his own sound studio at Yangying, Beijing, where he finished his third album Will the World Be Fine?. Attributed to different way of production and various cost, he was heavily in debt for the album. I didn't go to Polar Region 77 to watch his show, but many of my classmates did. By seeing his performed photos on the Alumni Record, I sighed with multifarious feelings and thoughts .Soon, our classmates held the 1st Mahjong Contest in 2007, to our surprise, the first card was Li Zhi's Dihu .He took the great pleasure in telling me that good fortune was coming. Yes he was right. In the same year, he held the special performances in Shanghai and Beijing, and he also performed in Midi Music Festival and Snow Mountain Music Festival, gained capacity crowd and critical crowd. I was also very glad for him; however, it seemed that he was more and more unhappy.
At the evening of one month ago, we talked about the tour in Guangzhou and Shenzhen on line. I asked him that why he chose these three cities but not others. His answer was that maybe he can choose more than thirty cited for touring if he did have to work. And then he talked too much thing about how was Guangzhou for him and how was Shenzhen. It was midnight after ringing off. And then I started to write this article as listening to this album. To be frank, it isn't the kind of music I like, but it's the record of which I'm very fond. I saw Li Zhi's youth through his sound, which was also mine.
--------All above is quoted from Li Zhi’s blog.
