The exemplary yaogunners are those that see yaogun's task as more than just playing music. This country has a tradition of seeing artists as important revolutionary workers: It is their responsibility to offer lessons to the nation of how to become better people, how to further the revolution -- because the revolution is never over. When these guys heard, and learned about, rock and roll, they saw a very similar responsibility, because they saw the '60s in America as analogous to the times in which they were living, when China was just starting to open up to the world, and allowing things and people from outside of the county in. Meanwhile, their entire universe was changing drastically: People were no longer tied to their danwei (work units), people were starting to be able to move around and make money.

The earliest yaogunners were confused on an existential level about the change sweeping their nation and saw in rock and roll a way to make some sense of it all. It offered them hope when there seemed to be very little around.

The message that rock and roll can change the world only sounds cheesy now because we, in rock and roll's home, have forgotten that it was what drove so much great music, and so much change. The best yaogun embodies that in a way that is extremely difficult for us to comprehend.

You describe Cui Jian as the father of rock 'n roll in China. How is he regarded in China? Is there any musician from rock 'n roll history you would compare him to?

Cui Jian exists in a very strange and rare space anywhere, but particularly in China. He is a celebrity. But he is a celebrity that is respected in ways that no others are. He's also the only celebrity that still has the street cred of yaogun approval. There are other "rock stars," but those stars aren't well-regarded in the lower levels of the yaogun world.

You'd have to compare him to several musicians throughout rock history: He was, in his earliest yaogun days, for most people, Elvis. His appearance on television singing the song "Nothing to My Name" was like Elvis shaking his pelvis, adding that roll to rock and blowing peoples' minds. He's Woody Guthrie or Bruce Springsteen, whose songs made people suddenly realize that there are things going on about which we don't know and ought to, and singing with the voice of the people not often represented in popular culture. He's John Lennon, as an artist to whom people look for ideas about life, living, art, culture, etc. -- a guy who can speak and have an extremely wide range of people listen to what he has to say. He's Mick Jagger, fronting the biggest band in the land, the embodiment of the lead singer (though not a dancing lead singer), with presence that you can spot a mile off, but, at the same time, he's also Neil Young, in that down-and-dirty kind of way, hidden away, almost a hermit, the silent type. He's also Kurt Cobain, and Chuck D, and more, because that only scratches the surface.