Center Documentarian Finds Community in China’s Underground Punk, Metal, and Goth Scene
by John Rash
Starting in late May, I was given the opportunity to live and work in Shanghai, China, as an artist in residence at the Swatch Art Peace Hotel, a former luxury hotel built in 1908 and operated since 2010 as a multidisciplinary artist residency run by the same Swiss Swatch corporation that sold me the wristwatch I wore as a teenager. My three months as a resident artist were focused on documenting the burgeoning underground metal/goth/punk community that has flourished there in recent years. Admittedly, the growth of this culture in China is not a Shanghai-specific phenomenon, and a handful of legacy venues, bands, and promoters have been instrumental in building the scene across the country for the past couple decades. However, what seems to have nurtured the culture in recent years is the post–Covid 19 loosening of govern- mental restrictions and social media’s role in increasing accessibility.
I moved from Shanghai to Oxford in 2017, and upon returning to Shanghai this summer, I was surprised by the tremendous increase in punk and metal music events and audience sizes. I hit the ground running and quickly developed relationships with people I encountered at venues hosting punk, metal, goth, and indie music events. I was inspired to document the scene through portraits I made at these events and in the studio provided by the residency.
I decided this project should highlight the community aspect of this culture, and I would focus primarily on audience members rather than performers. Initial engagements began with portraits taken during breaks between bands and as people were spilling out onto the sidewalk at the end of the night. I would ask people if I could photograph them and later share the images digitally. This opened a line of communication that I used to extend invitations for formal portraits at my studio. This method quickly inspired word-of-mouth recommendations, and within a few weeks I had people approaching me, recognizing me from previous concerts, and asking if I would photograph them. The initial field photos became a great collection of faces and styles of people attending underground music events in Shanghai. The final work is a combination of photography and culturally relevant clothing constructed by printing the photos on small pieces of canvas and then sewing them onto a denim “battle vest” in the same style that many punk and metal fans sew patches representing their favorite musicians onto their own vests or jackets. The vest both documents the fans who comprise this community and reflects the culture it represents. As the audience, this community is an active participant in the music events, so my battle vest turns the camera away from the stage and onto the audience to acknowledge this reciprocal relationship.
In the studio, I created a formal series of portraits photographing individuals twice, each time wearing a different set of clothing of their choosing. Because many people wear quite elaborate outfits to attend concerts, I was curious about what they might look like at their jobs, in their classrooms, or going about their regular daytime activities. So, I asked each person to bring their metal, punk, or goth clothing and then something they might wear in a different environment in their life. I paired two images of the same individuals, linked by a visual representation of a spirit drifting from the mouth of each portrait into the other. The effect is created in-camera with slow-shutter techniques, inspired by late nineteenth-century spirit photography (also called ghost photography). Each participant was asked to sit completely still and to place a thin piece of cheesecloth or medical gauze in their mouth, which was then shaken by an off-camera assistant. The resulting images, displayed as diptychs, attempts to capture two different sides of an individual’s personality or identity.
My summer was one of creativity, collaboration, and cultural exchange—all set to a soundtrack of black metal, melodic death metal, folk metal, and the occasional punk band. I returned to Oxford just a few days ahead of the fall semester feeling inspired and full of ideas about new approaches to my work and methods of exhibition. Swatch’s intention for the residency is to “support artists and encourage creative exchange,” a much-needed resource for creative professionals and academics. Swatch facilitates this by hosting up to eighteen artists at any given time across all disciplines. The residency is an ever- changing creative community that inspires meaningful conversations, collaboration, and feedback. To provide structure for creative workflow, creative professionals tend to establish well-worn pathways of production and networks of trusted collaborators. This structure is paramount for staying creative while balancing other life obligations. The unintended danger, however, is that “comfortable” and “predictable” can drift into “mundane.” In this sense, our students are lucky to experience a constant rebirth of their creative environments, as each semester renews with fresh creative influences and challenges supported by a community of classmates and professors. The discussions that come from such an environment push creative ideas in new directions and inspire continuous growth.
My takeaway from this summer’s residency is to continue to seek new environments in which to do my work, to listen to new voices for feedback and collaboration, and to avoid letting the comfort of my routine lead to lethargy. I would urge others to do the same, even if, like in my case, the “new” environment is a return to a place you already hold dear. You might just find a new community in a place you thought you already understood.
This article was originally published in the fall 2025 Southern Register. The Center’s newsletter for Center friends, The Southern Register, is published three times a year and provides readers with Center-related news and updates. Read the full issue and past issues at the Southern Register here.
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Update: Rash’s work will be included in two exhibitions in Shanghai starting this month through mid-December. Battle Vest: Shanghai, Rash’s photo document of the Shanghai Metal/Goth community and is spirit portrait of Victoria Yajie are at Swatch Art Peace Hotel in their Swatch Art Playground group exhibit. His film about photographer Sam Wang is also on display at Nomad No Mad as part of their Intimate Size group exhibition.