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.