The June issue of So Rock! magazine (我爱摇滚乐) has a modified version of Edvard Munch's The Scream on the front cover, and a t-shirt on the back:

So Rock! magazine, June 2009

back cover

Under the silhouette of a tank on the t-shirt is the line "So you've got a tank?" (你不就有辆坦克吗), although the characters for "tank" have been blurred out. On the tank, covered up by the So Rock logo (but visible on another photo inside the magazine), is the word "POWER."

Stories inside this issue include:

• A profile of Pete Seeger, the American folk singer known for protest songs;
• The conclusion to The Story of the American Civil Rights Movement;
• A reprint of Lu Xun's essay, "In Memory of Miss Liu Hezhen," which is often used as a veiled reference to government-sanctioned killing. The editor's note to the piece reads:

Note:

1. I haven't amused myself by copying out lessons in a while. This text comes from a middle school textbook. The author is the great proletarian literateur, philosopher, and revolutionary Lu Xun.

2. Copying out lessons puts me in a befuddled state due to lack of oxygen to my brain, and I am not at all responsible for the content. Please do not cross provincial borders in pursuit of me; if you have any questions take them up with People's Education Publishing House.

Other, more rock-related articles include profiles of Fenriz, The Gar (嘎调), and Wang Jing and Hatch (王璟&孵化乐队), and a look at this year's Strawberry and Midi Music Festivals.

So Rock's irreverent attitude carries over into music as well. Here's an excerpt of a column by a new editor, the first woman to have that title at the magazine (she's apparently also the t-shirt model on the back cover):

Although I'm just a guest editor, I still aspire to be the only "three nevers" editor in the history of So Rock: one who has never bought So Rock, never delved into rock music, and who has never associated with musicians. For this, I am incomparably sorry, and totally filled with pride.

However, as a damn pipsqueak who still has respect for the position, I really ought to observe the professional composure befitting a So Rock editor. Lately I've started getting in to rock music, and day and night songs by classic rock band recommended to me by Zhuzhou ring in my headphones: Flowers, Mayday, Wu Bai, Dick and Cowboy.....and so on. Thank you, So Rock, thank you Zhuzhou, for letting me experience the boundless enchantment of rock music. This is far cooler than the Jay Chou and Jolin Tsai that I used to listen to!

Here, let me speak for myself to solemnly declare: working closely with the magazine agency, with XZ at its core, following So Rock's great road to bathroom reading, I will take care of my insignificant corner. In life, I'll live for So Rock; in death, I'll belong to it still. I will be prepared at every moment to fight for the cause of native rock!

Finally, in passing I'll commemorate all that stuff along with the oldsters, but I won't go on and on about it.

Listening to: Nicholas Tse. Always rock, never pop.
Watching: the complete Young and Dangerous. Those are movies with a real rock spirit.
Reading: Never Flowers in Never Summer, the Little Red Book for illiterate young women.