Wang Wen new album Painful Clown & Ninja Tiger is named after the traditional Chinese method of chronology year name < Xin-Chou & Ren-Yin >(2021 & 2022).The two years just passed by.
The sexagenarian cycle of the Chinese calendar is like the 10-against-12 polyrhythm in music. Two separate paths that travel six times through the Heavenly Stems and five times through the Earthly Branches and then reunite.
However, this is just a superficial interpretation. The reality is the dark side has been approaching and countless miserable accidents occurred in front of us. All the savage and dictatorship come back, repeating itself over and over again in a dead loop in the history, which becomes less distant and fuzzy nowadays. They are not just “years”,“people” or “places” that we read in books. They jump out suddenly in front of us, turning into vivid and bare details that we are confronted with every day.
Painful Clown & Ninja Tiger is a record of Wang Wen life experience of the past two years.