lit a candle 4d agoThe Hong Kong Coliseum footage is still the best document of what Chinese rock was at its peak. He gave everything that night. Gone too soon.
Their story
He Yong (何勇; 1969-02-15 to 2026-09-01) was the Beijing rock singer-songwriter whose single album and one night in Hong Kong fixed him in Chinese popular memory as a voice that could scream for hope and then hush into hutong nostalgia. Born in Beijing into a four-generation household, he began formal…
He Yong (何勇; 1969-02-15 to 2026-09-01) was the Beijing rock singer-songwriter whose single album and one night in Hong Kong fixed him in Chinese popular memory as a voice that could scream for hope and then hush into hutong nostalgia. Born in Beijing into a four-generation household, he began formal music study around age five or six with his father He Yusheng (何玉生), a sanxian (three-string) virtuoso of the China Song and Dance Ensemble. As a child he appeared in the 1980 film Four Little Friends (四个小伙伴). He left school after junior high, took up guitar at fifteen, and by 1987 was in the Beijing band Mayday (五月天; not the later Taiwanese group of the same English name), which gave a much-publicised performance for students during the 1989 Tiananmen protests. In the underground that followed he crossed paths with Cui Jian, Dou Wei and other founders of mainland rock.
His commercial peak arrived in 1994. Under Moyan Culture / Magic Stone (魔岩文化), the Rock Records imprint that also released Dou Wei's Black Dream and Zhang Chu's Shameful Being Left Alone, he issued his only studio album, Garbage Dump (《垃圾场》, also titled 《麒麟日记》 / Qilin Diary). The title track, written amid the 1989 protests, builds on looping guitars and explosive drums into the screamed refrain "Is there any hope?" (有没有希望?). Other songs, including Pretty Girl (《姑娘漂亮》) and Bell and Drum Towers / Drum and Bell Tower (《钟鼓楼》), turned on materialism, gender, environmental anxiety and the demolition of old Beijing. 《钟鼓楼》 also appeared on the soundtrack of Zhang Yuan's 1993 film Beijing Bastards. The three Moyan soloists were marketed as the "Three Prominents of Moyan" or "Magic Rock Three" (魔岩三杰).
On 1994-12-17 they headlined the "Rock China Music Power" (摇滚中国乐势力) concert at the Hong Kong Coliseum with Tang Dynasty as guests, widely remembered as a landmark for mainland rock on a Hong Kong arena stage. He Yong wore a blue-and-white sailor shirt and a Young Pioneer red scarf, tore into Pretty Girl, and for 《钟鼓楼》 brought his father onstage in traditional dress on sanxian while Dou Wei played flute. He introduced him with a bow: "Sanxian, He Yusheng, my father." Before the show he told Hong Kong media that of the Cantopop "Four Heavenly Kings" only Jacky Cheung counted as a real singer and the rest were clowns; Jacky Cheung was reported to retort that mainland musicians all lived in caves. The shock and the night itself became legend; producer Zhang Peiren later called the three-and-a-half-hour show almost unbelievably intense.
Afterward the arc bent hard. Close friend and Tang Dynasty bassist Zhang Ju died on 1995-05-11. He Yong fell out over a record deal, sank into depression and alcoholism, and never released another studio album (a mainland paper famously asked whether he still had energy to rock). In 1996, at a Capital Indoor Stadium awards show, he publicly needled model worker Li Suli with "Li Suli, are you pretty?", a jab that ZH Wikipedia and later interviews treat as career poison in Beijing's large venues. In 1999 he spent about three months recording and playing in France and the Netherlands. Sparse club dates continued. Around Chinese New Year 2002 he set a fire in his Beijing apartment (EN Wikipedia: attempted to set himself alight); he was detained, then held for more than a month of compulsory psychiatric treatment and long medication afterward. He returned to major stages at the August 2004 "Glorious Road of Chinese Rock" near the Helan Mountains in Ningxia with his father and band, and later appeared at festivals including Midi and the 2010 Workers' Stadium "Blooming" rock concert that made CCTV news. Jiemian records him telling a crowd that the Bell and Drum Towers had not changed; the audience had grown up.
From about 2015 he largely left public life. China News critic Guo Zhikai said friends often could not reach him; he stayed in Beijing, played at home, and never delivered a second album. His Weibo account @何勇的钟鼓楼 last actively posted around mid-2015 about cancelling a Tianjin show for health reasons. Father He Yusheng died in 2024. On 2026-09-01 He Yong died in Beijing at 57. The Paper and multiple industry sources confirmed the death on 2026-09-04; no medical cause was published. Zhang Chu told The Paper they had not met in more than a decade and remembered him as "especially sincere, and also overly stubborn." What remains is one ferocious, folk-tinged punk album, a father-and-son Hong Kong tableau, and a generation still answering the chorus that asked whether there was hope.
Biography adapted from EN Wikipedia He Yong (rock musician); ZH Wikipedia 何勇 (歌手); The Paper (2026-09-04) and Zhang Chu remembrance; China News; DotDotNews English; Jiemian; Yangtze Evening / Sina reprint on Weibo @何勇的钟鼓楼; .
In their own words
“Is there any hope? (有没有希望?)”
Climactic screamed refrain of 《垃圾场》, written at the height of the 1989 protests
“Sanxian performance, He Yusheng, my father! (三弦演奏，何玉生，我的父亲！)”
Onstage introduction at Hong Kong Coliseum 1994-12-17 during 《钟鼓楼》
“Hong Kong only has entertainment, it has no music. Out of the Four Heavenly Kings only Zhang Xueyou (Jacky Cheung) can be considered a singer, the rest are all clowns.”
Pre-concert interview, December 1994
“Our life may not be perfect, but why does art exist? So we can create some perfect things, for example create a perfect song... including quality, and some cultural things that fit the age and the social breath.”
Quoted in The Paper / China News obituaries
“He is an especially sincere person, and also overly stubborn.”
Zhang Chu to The Paper, 2026-09-04
“The Bell and Drum Towers have not changed; it is we who have grown up.”
Later concert remark recalled by Jiemian
