{"id":54873,"date":"2026-04-06T06:40:42","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T20:40:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chinaheritage.net\/?p=54873"},"modified":"2026-04-21T06:30:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T20:30:00","slug":"yinfi-on-how-chinas-velvet-prison-goes-global","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinaheritage.net\/journal\/yinfi-on-how-chinas-velvet-prison-goes-global\/","title":{"rendered":"Yinfi on How China\u2019s Velvet Prison Goes Global"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seeds of Fire<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n

\u5168\u7403\u756b\u5730\u70ba\u7262<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Yinfi is the artistic persona of Yin Lu, a UK-based screen composer, speaker and performing artist who described himself as \u2018a Chinese citizen embracing individual liberties\u2019. His performances feature songs whose \u2018lyrics preserving memories erased by the Chinese authorities\u2019. In a biographical note<\/a> on Substack<\/em>, Yinfi tells us that:<\/p>\n

My musical journey began at the age of ten, when I first touched a piano. Growing up in a traditional family in a remote town in Guizhou, China, I initially followed the expected path: studying diligently for the Gaokao and graduating with a bachelor’s degree in literature from Nanjing University in 2013. However, my true passion\u2014composition\u2014called to me, prompting me to relocate to Shanghai to pursue a long-held dream. Through rigorous training and assisting renowned composers such as Yu-peng Chen, I gradually established myself as a composer who has worked on blockbuster feature films, TV series, video games, and song productions for A-list Chinese pop stars.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Subsequently, Yinfi moved to the UK to study at the Royal College of Music. In doing so he was \u2018motivated by a desire to learn more about the music industry beyond the Great Firewall of the PRC.\u2019 He graduated with a master’s degree in Composition for Screen from Enrica Sciandrone and Howard Davidson’s classes in 2021.\u00a0As a screen composer, Yinfi\u2019s work has earned international recognition, including the European Talent Award, BAFTA Connect membership, and Arts Council England’s Global Talent endorsement.<\/p>\n

Yinfi has now expanded his repertoire to include YouTube<\/em> essays about the ideological and cultural limitations of the Xi Jinping era and China\u2019s expanding global influence. The first of these essays, titled The Strange Logic of China\u2019s Online Policing System<\/a>, was soon followed by How China Built Tech Power Without Critical Thinking<\/a>, and then by China’s Unfreedom Mirrors the West?<\/a>, in which Yinfi features the work of the political scientist Liu Yu \u5289\u745c and Chen Qiushi \u9673\u79cb\u5be6, a lawyer and becalmed citizen journalist. (For more on Liu Yu, see \u2018Silence, silence!\u2019<\/a>; and, on Chen, see How Steel is Tempered \u2014 Chen Qiushi Returns<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Below, we introduced Yinfi\u2019s video essays as part of our celebration of the fortieth anniversary of the publication of Seeds of Fire: Chinese Voices of Conscience<\/em><\/a>. They are relevant in particular as Yinfi\u2019s insights chime with our work on the Chinese Velvet Prison, a topic that we featured in the second edition of Seeds of Fire<\/em>, published in New York in 1988. Many of Yinfi\u2019s insights also resonate with the themes of Seeds<\/em> in the 1980s and with those featured in China Heritage<\/em> since 2016.<\/p>\n

The Chinese rubric of this chapter in Seeds of Fire<\/em> \u2014 \u5168\u7403\u756b\u5730\u70ba\u7262 qu\u00e1nqi\u00fa hu\u00e0 d\u00ec w\u00e9i l\u00e1o<\/em> \u2014 is a reference to the essay I published in\u00a0The Nineties Monthly<\/em> in 1987 in which I introduced Chinese readers to Mikl\u00f3s Haraszti\u2019s The Velvet Prison: Artists under State Socialism<\/em> (see \u793e\u6703\u4e3b\u7fa9\u7684\u201c\u8edf\u7981\u6587\u5316\u201d\uff1a\u8b80\u54c8\u62c9\u8328\u8482\u7684\u300a\u756b\u5730\u70ba\u7262\u300b<\/a>\uff0c\u300a\u4e5d\u5341\u5e74\u4ee3\u6708\u520a\u300b1987\u5e7410\u6708\uff0c\u7b2c96-97\u9801).<\/p>\n

Four decades on, Harazsti\u2019s The Velvet Prison<\/em> remains essential reading for those interested in the past, present and future of China under the Communist Party.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

This material is published as part of Kumbaya China: I\u2019ve Seen the Future<\/em>, a multipart chapter in Seeds of Fire: China Heritage Annual 2026<\/em><\/a>. It consists of the following sections:<\/p>\n