Rebuilding The Rights of Statues

Hua Dong - Guitars, lead vocals, keyboards 

Lumi Liu - Bass guitar, lead vocals, Synthesizer, Percussion

Huang Jin - Drums, Percussion

Founded in Beijing in 2003, Re-TROS (Rebuilding the Rights of Statues) is one of China’s most influential experimental rock bands. Their albums — including CUT OFF, Watch Out! Climate Has Changed, Fat Mum Rises…, and Before the Applause — reflect the band’s enduring creative vision: constructing precise, tension-filled sonic landscapes through rigorous structure and deep emotional weight, using extreme restraint to convey powerful psychological force.

Re-TROS’s live aesthetics are equally distinctive. On stage, the band avoids theatrical exaggeration, virtuoso display, or flamboyant gestures. Instead, they create an atmosphere of tension, suspense, and compression through exacting rhythm, controlled dynamics, and spatial awareness, allowing the audience to physically feel the density of emotion and thought. Their performances appear minimal, yet are intense and immersive — a form of “compressed catharsis.”

Beyond music, Re-TROS’s work is deeply shaped by the highly organized and hierarchical sociocultural context they grew up in. Their sound incorporates the absurdity, literary sensibility, and critical awareness embedded in that environment, drawing from the satire, symbolism, and existential expression found in literature, film, and contemporary art. This critical and literary consciousness is central to Re-TROS. Their lyrics are often nonlinear; their compositions unfold through repetition and subtle variation; electronic textures interweave with live instrumentation to create multilayered, multivalent sonic spaces. Their music balances minimalism with emotional tension, offering listeners a dense, nuanced emotional experience through attentive listening.

On the international stage, Re-TROS has gained recognition for their refined creative capabilities and cross-cultural expression. They have collaborated with musicians such as Brian Eno, Damon McMahon, and Hector Castillo, situating Chinese experimental rock within a global context of post-punk, electronic minimalism, and avant-garde music. The band has successfully transformed local social and cultural experiences into artistic expressions with worldwide resonance.

Overall, Re-TROS represents a fusion of restraint and intensity, discipline and emotion, locality and global perspective. Their work transforms minimalist techniques into profound emotional and intellectual spaces, while carrying forward the absurdity, critical spirit, and literary consciousness rooted in their socio-cultural background — redefining the expressive potential of post-punk and experimental rock.