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China — news, coverage & facts — IJR

Overview

China is a hard rock band from Winterthur, Switzerland, founded in 1985. In 1988 they got a contract with Phonogram, releasing their debut album the same year. Their most successful song is "In the Middle of the Night", which peaked at No. 11 in Switzerland. All of the band's studio albums between 1988 and 2013 have entered the Top 40 album charts in Switzerland. Biography Formed in 1985, the original line-up consisted of vocalist Math Shiverow, guitarists Claudio Matteo (ex-Bloody Six, Danger) and Freddy Laurence, bassist Marc Lynn (ex-Stormbringer), and drummer John Dommen. By 1988, China had signed a record contract with the German branch of Phonogram Records, resulting in the band's eponymous debut album which made No. 6 on the Swiss albums chart. Their 1989 sophomore effort, Sign In The Sky, saw a couple of line-up changes as former Crown vocalist/guitarist Patrick Mason, also briefly with Krokus and Fast Forward, was brought in as the new lead vocalist and Brian Kofmehl (ex-Killer) took over bass duties for Lynn, who re-surfaced with Gotthard a couple of years later. The Stephan Galfas produced Sign In The Sky, recorded in New York, would become China's most successful album. It reached No. 2 on the Swiss albums chart, eventually achieving gold status, and cracked the Top 50 in Germany. The band supported the album with an extensive European tour as opening act for Yngwie Malmsteen. However, Mason's tenure would be short lived due to health problems and the band's 1991 Live album, recorded at the Marlboro Music Rock on September 29, 1990 in Locarno, Switzerland, featured yet another vocalist, American Eric St. Michaels, formerly with New Yorkers Big Trouble. St. Michaels would make his studio debut on Go All The Way, released in 1991. It would mark China's swan song for the Vertigo label. Upon St. Michaels' exit and return to the U.S. in 1992, China teamed with vocalist Marc Storace of Krokus fame for several shows in 1993, including a concert broadcast live on Swiss national radio DRS3, issued in 2000 as the Alive album.

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Notable quotes

“The United States welcomes the emergence of a China that is peaceful and prosperous and that supports international institutions.”
— George W. Bush, speech at the White House (April 2006), as quoted in "Chinese President Arrival Ceremony" (20 April 2006), C-SPAN
“The Chinese are less a nation than a fusion of peoples united by a common culture, and the history of China is the record of an expanding culture.”
— , China: A Short Cultural History (1965).
“The Chinese are industrious, courageous, honest, and intelligent. They created the splendid ancient Chinese civilization, and today, they're firmly committed to the path of peaceful development and are making continuous progress in the modernization drive by carrying out the reform and opening up program.”
— Jintao Hu, "President Bush and President Hu of People's Republic of China Participate in Arrival Ceremony " (20 April 2006), by J. Hu, Washington, D.C.: White House.
“The typical Westerner wishes to be the cause of as many changes as possible in his environment; the typical Chinaman wishes to enjoy as much and as delicately as possible.”
— Bertrand Russell, The Problem of China (1922), Ch. XII: The Chinese Character.
“The Chinese people have only family and clan solidarity; they do not have national spirit...they are just a heap of loose sand...Other men are the carving knife and serving dish; we are the fish and the meat.”
— Sun Yat-sen, China as a Heap of Loose Sand (1924)
“People who try to commit suicide — don't attempt to save them! . . . China is such a populous nation, it is not as if we cannot do without a few people.”
— Attributed to Mao Zedong by Wang Li, “历史将宣告我无罪” (History Will Pronounce Me Innocent), manuscript, Beijing, 1993, p. 7. This source is a privately printed collection of letters and documents concerning Wang Li's expulsion from the CCP. Cited in (2006) by and .

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.