Nezha is a mythology figure in Chinese literature. The first cover is an episode taken from the film "Nezha Conquers the Dragon King". In the episode, Ao Guang, the Dragon King sends out soldiers to capture young children to eat, but his soldiers are defeated by Nezha. Infuriated by his bold behavior, Ao Guang sends out his son Ao Bing to kill Nezha, but Ao Bing fails and get killed. As a consequence, Ao Guang gathers the other three dragon kings and creates thunderstorm and flood in the area, claiming to kill the whole family of Nezha and make people in the area miserable. Intended to negotiate, Nezha's father, the local commander Li Jing takes away Nezha's weapon and scolded him for good. He commands his son to confess his guilt, and even intends to kill his son to calm down Ao Guang, only that he doesn't have the heart to do that. Nezha refuses to regret what he has done, however, watching people suffering and children being flooded away, he stands out and says he will take the whole responsibility of killing Ao Bing and doesn't want his parents or anyone else to be implicated. Using a sword, he then slices his flesh and bones to make up for his debts to his parents and kills himself to stop the havoc dragon kings inflict on people. He then is resurrected by the power of his teacher and has a revenge on four dragon kings.
Nezha is actually an influential figure in Chinese literature. He never gives in to cruel authority figure and later swears to fight against any evils to protect Buddhism. The rock band "Miserable faith" employs the figure of Nezha as its logo, and as a symbol of fighting against suppression of government and pursuing liberty. They always take an extreme political stand and has made the Nezha figure somewhat classical in Chinese rock and roll field.
The first cover put above is from an album called "No". The picture depicts the scene when Nezha kills himself to save lives of his parents and people in that area. Nezha seems unyielding and angry under dragon king's suppression, even when he decides to kill himself. The cover depicts vividly the band's strong attitude towards (supposed) suppression of the government. The second cover above is from the album called "Don't stop my music", which is a surprisingly soft album compared to what they made before. In the album, Nezha holds his hand together, with his eyes calmly closed, and seems to be less aggressive outside but still tough inside. Corresponding to the cover, the music is less straightforward and outrageous as it used to be. It seems like the band has taken on a new ideology of rebellion and liberty. I decided to analyse the symbolic meaning of Nezha compared to other mythology figures like Sun Wukong, and the reason this transition in the ideology of rebellion takes place, as well as how common is this trend in Chinese rock and roll, and also the meaning of Nezha holding his hands together.
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