10 Most Devious Punk Rock Tricks And Hoaxes

A French journalist visiting China in the Cold-War days of 1982 discovered an underground network of young people risking their freedom – perhaps even their very lives – to play punk rock, which had only recently found its way into the then-secretive and isolated communist state. He smuggled a taped recording of one band back to France and released their debut album Parfums de Revolution (1982) along with a press release explaining their remarkable story, promising a fascinating fusion of traditional Chinese music and punk rock from behind the iron curtain.

Except… none of it was true, and the whole album was in fact a prank by a French journalist and a couple of Chinese ex-pats. In reality, there were no Chinese punk bands within China itself as far back as 1982, and it would be well over a decade before any did emerge there, at least publicly.

While it certainly makes for an unusual listen, and might possibly dodge some of the obvious accusations of racism and/or cultural appropriation due to the involvement of persons of Chinese descent, one wonders how much more interesting it might have been had they attempted a more serious fusion of the different styles rather than only staging a one-off hoax that was very quickly forgotten.