Bittersweet sympathy

During the 1990s, indie punk emerged as a solid musical force in Beijing and some bands rose to fame as they struck a chord with their frank lyrics and heavy rock riffs. Two of the most recognized proponents of the genre back then were Beijing bands New Pants and The Flowers.

They were named on the list of the top 10 most exciting new bands in the capital in 1999 by music critic Yan Jun and photographer Ou Ning, who released a book to document the city's vibrant rock scene. The 10 rock bands were known as the "New Sounds of Beijing", and are still embraced by the younger generation today.

Now, over two decades later, New Pants, led by vocalist and songwriter Peng Lei, keyboardist Pang Kuan, bassist Zhao Meng and drummer Hayato Kito, have teamed up with Zhang Wei－the former lead vocalist of The Flowers which split up in 2009－to release a new online single.

The release of Concealed Emotion has stirred up a lot of nostalgia on social media, with fans showering praise on the collaboration while sharing their memories about New Pants and The Flowers.

"I thought the collaboration would give birth to a punk rock song but I didn't expect that the song would be so romantic and peaceful," commented one fan on Sina Weibo. "I almost cried when I heard the song, which brought back a lot of memories. I miss the days when I listened to their songs as a high school student, now that we're all not so young anymore," added another fan.

"We wrote the song together to convey our feelings for each other," says Zhang, 37, a Beijing native, who launched his solo career in 2009 and has expanded his career into reality TV. "We both started out as punk bands and we shared the stage at many music festivals. However, we were shy about talking to each other, and we just watched each other's rise in the music scene."

"We were friends back then, but we used to tease each other playfully all the time. But this time, I really want to tell them how talented they are and how much I love their music. The song is a tribute and to our friendship over the past 20 years, and a reunion with old friends," Zhang adds.

"We enjoyed teasing and making fun of one another, which is our way of being friendly. But beneath the jokes and laughs, we both miss our young days of making music and sharing our life experiences as friends," Peng adds.

Born in Beijing, Peng is also an artist and film director, and he designed the cover art for the new single, in which two of the most famous characters in his animation series, Mimi and Gaga, can be seen looking at each other as they sit on a couch together.

The connection between New Pants and The Flowers dates back to 1996, the year Peng first met Shen Lihui. Shen founded one of China's biggest indie music labels, Modern Sky, the following year, where he signed New Pants as the label's first act.

The same year, Zhang Wei, better known by his stage name Da Zhang Wei, who was 14 years old then, founded The Flowers with his schoolmates: drummer Wang Wenbo, bassist Guo Yang and guitarist Shi Xingyu.

The Flowers gained instant success with their debut performance at a bar in Beijing in 1997. Among the audience were some of the biggest names in the country's rock scene, such as Cui Jian, Dou Wei and Ding Wu, who paved the way for China's developing rock music scene.

Since The Flowers split up, Zhang has gained commercial success with albums featuring dance music and is among the most popular celebrities who broke out into reality TV.

However, he lost a group of fans who missed his punk rock songs and received mix reviews about his music, which is heavily influenced by dance music.

This summer, both Zhang and New Pants participated in a reality show, The Big Band, produced by streaming platform iQiyi, which has successfully pushed Chinese indie music into the mainstream.

After Zhang sang the song Guo Shi (Outdated), while playing guitar and standing next to Peng onstage, Zhang said to the audience: "Maybe I have gained much more fame by appearing in reality shows but for me, New Pants is more famous than me and they are my idol".

"It was the first time that I expressed my love for New Pants out loud. It reminded me why we still rock after all these years," Zhang says.