By Andrew Hamlin
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
Rose Tang
Economic inequality. Denial of due process. The squelching of democracy and any democratic aims. Government actions against high education and free speech. False imprisonment. Violence.
If that sounds to you like the United States over the last several months, you’re not alone. But Rose Tang, multi-disciplinary musician, writer, artist, and activist, saw it all before. She currently divides her time between Seattle and New York City—but she was at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, back in 1989, when protestors rose up over those same issues and the government attacked, shedding a great deal of blood all around.
“I often say that my first public gig was conducting protesters singing at an all-night sit-in,” remembered Tang, who recently released her newest album, “A White Horse Is Not a Horse,” with drummer Patrick Golden.
She staged the singalong outside Zhongnanhai, the compound for China’s top leaders near Tiananmen, the day martial law was declared.
“I gave the ‘Internationale’ (a traditional Western left-wing anthem) a pop beat. We often sang that song and Taiwanese pop songs in our marches throughout Beijing and in Tiananmen Square, even on the eve of the massacre. Tiananmen’s unique legacy, that’s hardly covered by Western media, is that it’s a cultural movement. Art, fashion, and music were organically made every day. There were many spontaneous forums in the square, on the streets and university campuses, where people from all walks of life gave speeches and debated democracy. It was when I realized creativity can only be possible when the person is free.”
As for comparisons to the Chinese government and the current Trump administration, Tang reflected that despite differing party names and government systems, the two show much in common.
“Both are colonial powers that committed multiple genocides on indigenous people and invaded other countries, both enslaved and exploited ordinary people en masse for a long time. Both systems have a dictator on the top trashing the laws. Politicians in both countries team up with oligarchs and corporate money. Both systems are good at killing its own citizens and promoting racism: the slavery in both countries, the massacres—Tiananmen Massacre, genocides of the Tibetans, Uyghurs, Mongols, Hongkongers, the U.S. genocides of native people, Kent State Massacre, the Tulsa Race Massacre, the ongoing police brutality on people of color, especially Black Americans and bloody crackdowns of pro-Palestine protests and encampments on university campuses over the last year.
“But there’s always hope! In both countries, it’s the student-led movements that changed history, it was people power that toppled dynasties. Tiananmen didn’t topple the Chinese government, but it woke up many people such as myself, and it was a catalyst helping to spark the collapse of the Eastern Bloc.”
She first became interested in Seattle during the city’s WTO (World Trade Organization) protests in 1999, reflecting that China’s joining the WTO made the organization a hot topic on Chinese soil. A bandmate invited her to visit Seattle in 2019.
“Strangely, I felt at home in Seattle on my first visit,” Tang recalled. “New York is actually a lot more grungy than Seattle. There’s a certain freshness and rawness of Seattle that’s refreshing to me, like the crisp sea breezes there. And the blue-collar culture and community seems more intact. Mount Rainier gives Seattle a unique and magical feel.
“I particularly like Ballard, Greenwood, and Fremont. Ballard still has some of that raw waterfront atmosphere and is less gentrified than Brooklyn [in New York]. The Salmon Bay Cafe at Ballard is my favorite restaurant. The Sakya Monastery of Tibetan Buddhism in Greenwood is my favorite spot. The Lenin statue in Fremont is quite unique. I had fun posting on social media my photos in front of it because it’s utterly ridiculous.”
She met drummer Patrick Golden at a Brooklyn backyard party in 2022, and began playing with him as part of a party game, where their names were drawn out of a hat to jam together. They recorded “A White Horse Is Not a Horse” in the summer of 2024.
As Golden played drums, Tang joined in on vocals, acoustic piano, electric keyboard, and electric guitar, plus Sichuan opera percussion instruments, Tibetan bells, beer cans, and her daughter’s childhood toys.
The duo cut each of the six tunes in one take.
“I brought the lyrics in hard copy to the session. I had not rehearsed them with Patrick before the recording session. I have improvised lyrics in gigs and other recording sessions, [but] I was tired at the recording session, as it was the day after I moved my daughter to her university dorm, so I relied on the hard copy.”
Asked how to continue opposing the Trump administration and oppressive forces generally, Tang pointed to the power of art.
“Music should not be a privilege for the few in institutions. Music is from the community and should be for the community. All the rulers go after artists and poets for a reason because of the power of art. By making art and building communities, we fight the fuglies (f**king uglies), preserve and nurture the beauty of humanity and nature.
“We need to keep reminding ourselves that they are afraid of us uniting as a whole. We’re in overwhelming majority, so we should keep doing what they fear the most—by being humane and beautiful and looking after each other, our community, and this planet.”