As soon as the music from the Chinese Dub Orchestra starts, three masked performers, dressed in elaborate red, gold, and black costumes, step into the spotlight. The performers carry a secret skill that has been passed down to them through the generations. As they dance across the stage, the mysterious craft that they possess reveals itself as the performers dramatically peel off their colorful masks in less time than it takes to blink. As each mask is seamlessly removed, revealing yet more masks beneath, the audience becomes even more enthralled.
Bian Lian, as their art is called, is a theatrical tradition of mask changing first incorporated into China’s Sichuan Opera over 300 years ago. Mask changers wear as many as 20 silk masks at a time, each mask conveying a different emotion. The art of the smooth, instantaneous mask changing is a skill that takes years to master, and with less than 200 performers left, it is a highly guarded technique.
The Bian Lian artists are part of a performance with the 22-piece Chinese Dub Orchestra. The ensemble, complete with guzheng (zither), gao hu (fiddle), pipa (lute), and bamboo flute instruments, has a transporting effect. In fact, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine that you’ve taken a voyage to China if it weren’t for the vaguely familiar, and unmistakably Western, sounds lurking just underneath the mysterious melodies — the signature dub beats that bassist Jah Wobble (John Wardle) has honed for thirty years.
Though this may seem like a far cry from his days with British post-punks Public Image Ltd., Wardle is completely in his element with this project, one that has opened a new chapter in his music career. What began as a two-track collaboration with his children’s music school, the Liverpool, UK Pagoda Chinese Youth Orchestra (PCYO), Europe’s first and largest Chinese youth orchestra, blossomed into a UK-wide theatrical tour and a self-titled album, released in January 2009.
Wobble has dabbled with different elements of Chinese music for over a decade, but this is his first foray on such a grand scale. “We came up with some Chinese-flavored stuff, but in the ’90s, no one was really interested,” says Wobble. “Then we did it again, and the time is right because everyone is fascinated with China right now.”
The idea for the Chinese Dub Orchestra was sparked from Wardle listening to his children practice their music lessons. “I would hear [my kids] come back with these melodies, and I would just get brainwashed with these sounds,” says Wardle. “They would become entrenched in my mind.”
But fusing traditional Chinese music with dub beats was quite a challenge. “I think that Chinese is trickier,” he says. “You hear a lot of chords in Chinese music, but you never know what you are going to get once you’re in it. In keeping it simple, you can keep the true flavors like a good cook, and in combining two or three flavors, the whole becomes greater than each part.”
In December 2007, Wardle got the green light to record a few tracks and create a performance with his children’s youth orchestra. The partnership might have ended there, but a string of events that led to an album and tour fell into place serendipitously. Liverpool was designated as the European Union’s Capital of Culture 2008, a distinction that allowed the city to showcase its artistic endeavors throughout the year. Wardle’s project became commissioned to be one of three original music ensembles included in the festivities.
This opportunity led Wardle and his wife, Zi Lan Liao, the arts-development officer at PCYO, to incorporate a theatrical aspect by adding singers and dancers into the mix. “I absolutely did not have any intention to do anything visual in regards to this, but it just mushroomed and mushroomed,” he says.
They headed to China’s Sichuan Province for inspiration and in hopes of contacting some Bian Lian performers to see if they would participate in the Chinese Dub Orchestra. “We went there on the lam, hustled around,” Wardle says. “We went to one of the opera shows, and that is how we made our connections.”
Wardle met a group of dance students in Hangzhou who had performed in England before but had an awful experience. “When they came [to England], they were treated terribly, their bags were left at the airport, and there was no food,” he says. “I heard about this and said, ‘Get them together, and I’ll look after them a bit because it’s embarrassing for them to be treated this way.’” Wardle took the group out for a meal as an apology for his country’s inhospitable ways. “I thought that I would never see them again, but they had heard that we were looking for performers and felt that this was their chance to help us out.”
With all of the performers on board, Wardle returned to England to work on combining these elements into a cohesive show. While setting up the event, his fascination with the craft of mask changing grew. He found out the hard way just how secretive the artists are about guarding their centuries-old craft. “At first I would joke with them and say, ‘Oh, how’d you do that?’ and they would become stone-faced,” he says. “I do have some idea of how they do it, but even if I knew exactly, I wouldn’t divulge it because it takes the romance of it away.”
The group first performed at The Capital of Culture performance on July 5, 2008. Wardle was amazed at the diverse audience that came out. “A lot of people that came to the show are people that would not necessarily come to a Jah Wobble show,” he says. “It really struck a chord with people.” The project’s positive reception and critical success led England’s Art Council to fund a national tour.
Wardle is interested in setting up a tour of China as well, but he doesn’t see that happening in the near future because it has been difficult to work through all of the performers’ schedules. “We have to make a decision on what shows we do and when people are available,” he says. “One of our performers joined the army and the last that we heard, she was up a mountain in central China firing surface-to-air missiles.”
The group’s self-titled album was released January 19 on Wardle’s label, 30 Hertz Records, which he started 10 years ago in order to have the freedom to record and release albums that allowed him to explore his own musical interests. “I was going into a phase where I was going to be making lots of music,” he says. “If I was in a major company, there’s no way that they would let me release three or four albums a year. I wanted to make a lot of music and relax as an artist.” Wardle is also considering creating a follow-up album of additional tracks as well as a documentary of the entire experience.
Though many of the theatrical aspects of the project, such as mask changing, traditionally tell a folktale, Wardle insists that there is no narrative behind the Chinese Dub Orchestra. That may be, but there is no denying that this project chronicles the story of a family united by music and a musician who refuses to create music on any terms other than his own. “Everyone is trying to seduce you away from your path, and it never stops,” Wardle says. “I’ll give myself this: I’m headstrong, dogmatic, and a pain in the ass at times, but I have always stayed true to myself.”