Raising voices of discontent

The Guangzhou complaint choir performs in the street of the capital of Guangdong province. Photos by Zou Zhongpin / China Daily

A 'complaints choir' in Guangdong's provincial capital Guangzhou has a harmonious solution to social concerns - singing about them - which has far-reaching implications. Xu Jingxi reports in Guangzhou.

Residents of Guangdong's provincial capital Guangzhou are frustrated by high prices, never-ending workdays, overcrowded public transportation and traffic jams, and some of them have an idea of what to do about it - sing.

Young members of the "complaints chorus" performed at six of the city's famous sites on May 20, including Canton Tower, Chen Clan Academy and Shamian Island.

The 15 singers, most of whom are college students, donned white T-shirts and sunglasses and clutched yellow file folders. They caught the attention of passersby.

While their vocals weren't professional, the chorus' appeal comes from its humorous and thought-provoking lyrics about issues nearly all residents can relate to.

Such lines include: "The leather shoe I threw away became a pill capsule in a jiffy." The words express food and medicine safety concerns that arose after a China Central Television expose revealed some producers were illegally making medicine capsules with industrial gelatin extracted from leather waste.

He Zhirong and his family were so intrigued when they chanced upon the group that the 44-year-old man and his wife took a lyrics sheet and sang along.

"I have complaints about many issues they discuss, but I don't want to address them in violent ways, like protests, rallies or marches," the Guangzhou native says.

"I'm grateful the choir expresses many Guangzhou residents' concerns. And it's great that these creative young people worked out such an interesting and mild way for me to speak my mind."

The complaints choir concept was first popularized by two Finnish artists, who experimented with the idea in Birmingham, England, in 2005. People in 70 cities in at least 21 countries have since started their own, according to the website, complaintschoir.org.

Guangzhou's chorus, started by three college students in 2011, is perhaps the first and only of its kind on the mainland.

The idea came from a class on civil society, in which students were assigned to develop creative social services ideas. The founders stumbled on the online videos of a Hong Kong complaint chorus founded in 2009 that dissolved a year later.

The students promoted the idea in class and on blogs and micro blogs. They recruited 20 more singers and staged the first show last Christmas.

Sun Yat-sen University's School of Sociology and Anthropology professor Zhu Jiangang was the course lecturer and says he's proud the choir was born from his class.

"Some young Chinese are public-spirited, but many others are still indifferent to social problems and public services, and bury their head in study and job-hunting," Zhu says.

"But the founding and development of the complaints choir indicates young Chinese are becoming more aware of their civic duties."

Co-founder Chen Weixiang says he hopes the chorus will change the stereotype that Chinese college students are self-centered and materialistic.

"We do more than play computer games," the 20-year-old medical student says.

"We care about more than buying a car or a house."

Chen is a legend among choir members for being "a man of action".

He spent his weeklong National Day Holiday working in the Foxconn Technology Group's factory in Guangdong's Shenzhen in 2011, where 12 workers leapt off buildings to their deaths within six months in 2010 because of dire working conditions. Chen experienced the life of a migrant worker there.

"The factory seemed to be recruiting robots rather than human beings," Chen recalls.

"The interviewer just checked whether I was strong enough to handle the manual labor."

He described work and life at the factory as "monotonous and suffocating".

Chen wrote about his experience in the lyrics of his complaints choir's first show and sang especially loudly to appeal for migrant workers' rights.

Most lyrics-writing workshop participants proposed ideas from hot-button current affairs.

Zhu suggests the choir's members enrich their knowledge with field trips, such as traveling to a village near the city.

"The members will discover more issues worth singing about and gain firsthand experiences," Zhu says.

"They'll become motivated to take action to create change, rather than simply complaining. This will help young people mature and become the leading force for solutions to social problems, as they discover a new awareness of their citizenship."

The Guangzhou chorus has a more issue-oriented thrust than many overseas choruses, which often serve more as outlets for personal gripes, such as, "I'm fat, lazy and middle-aged", and, "My neighbor makes weird animal sounds".

Co-founder Wang Tao says: "We hope people will hear our singing and pay attention to social problems, and be bold to complain and air their opinions."

Wang takes heart from the fact that many of the recent audience members showed support and interest in joining.

A traffic warden suggested a place the group could perform because she wanted to join after her shift. A band traveling from Shenzhen to Guangzhou offered to compose original melodies for the chorus and expressed interest in starting the same kind of choir in their hometown.

Guangzhou citizen Ou Ciqiao says: "I prefer this lighthearted way of expressing my concerns and appeals through singing to serious discussions with an official in a reception room."

"Most officials simply pose for such talks and can't really resolve my concerns," the 38-year-old businesswoman adds.

"Perhaps the complaints chorus can't solve problems, either. But it will at least motivate more people to participate in public issues, because most people will find it easy to sing choral songs."

Some say the chorus only entertains members without actually having any ability to solve the problems they address.

"I don't expect to solve social problems just by singing," Wang says.

"That's not the point. The point is to get people to air their opinions. If a complaint grows to reach critical mass, the government will hear it and the problem will be solved."

The 20-year-old pharmacy student says he has thought a lot about how to promote and improve complaints choirs in China. He hopes to collect complaints from the public, rather than just from the choir's members, and to spread the concept to other cities.

Wang has encouraged the choir to be more humorous than negative.

The lyrics represent positive expectations of government initiatives and include self-criticism of local habits, such as standing on the left of escalators and clogging pedestrians' passage.

"The government shouldn't be the only one to blame for social problems," Wang says.

"Our silence, when we have concerns to express, might also be the cause of social problems."

Crowds sang as they traveled to their destinations under the overpass where the group sang.

People walking on the sidewalk burst into cheers.

"We complain because we love this city," Wang says

"We hope we can make it better. And we hope the complaints choir will strike a chord with audiences."

Contact the writer at xujingxi@chinadaily.com.cn.