Named for the signature rose singer Liang Long often wears behind his ear and the notion that rock in China is a second-hand endeavor, Second Hand Rose revels in taboos and tweaking the establishment: for their performance at the Workers’ Gymnasium, they brought pig statues on stage to reference the line “a group of pigs fly to heaven” in their song “Allow Some Artists to Get Rich First," an allusion to Deng Xiaoping’s slogan, “let some people get rich first” as China began its embrace of capitalism.
Their unique combination of Chinese and western sounds and their hyperbolic visual spectacles have earned them a reputation as the best live band of China, confirmed by over a dozen awards for "Best Band", "Best Album" and "Best Live Act" over the past decade. They regularly headline China's major festivals and made their US debut in 2014 headlining Modern Sky Festival's in Central Park, followed by a Northeast US tour. They have since performed in 2015 at Switzerland's Paleo Festival Nyon, Ulsan Word Music Festival in Korea, Lantern Festivals concerts in New Zealand and most recently The Golden Horse Awards (the Chinese world's equivalent to the Oscars) this year.

[Programming descriptions are generated by participants and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SXSW.]