Many date the birth of rock'n' roll on the mainland to 1986, when singer-songwriter Cui Jian appeared on a televised music variety show and performed Having Nothing.
Two decades on, Beijing is preparing for an influx of more than 10,000 rock fans in punk leathers, hippy hemp and indie-pop anoraks for China's largest annual music event, the Midi Festival, to be held from Monday to Thursday in Haidian Park.
'This is the only Chinese festival where you don't have a line of uniformed Public Security Bureau officers standing in front of the stage,' says organiser Zhang Fan. 'You can listen to music, pogo, dye your hair and just be yourself. We've worked very hard for that.'
Zhang is also director of the Midi School of Music, which was set up privately in 1993 as China's first school for modern music, with courses that now cover everything from heavy-metal guitar to Latin jazz rhythms. The school's name is a transliteration of the Chinese characters for 'magic flute'.
The 280 students call it the Rockers' College. The school has become to China's rock scene what the Beijing Film Academy has long been for Chinese cinema.
The teaching staff includes experienced musicians such as Zhao Nian (drummer from Beijing rock band Tang Dynasty), Huang Yang (bass player from Ziyue) and other rock and jazz veterans. Alumni are a who's who of China's rock, DJ and hip-hop scenes, including members of popular underground acts such as Brain Failure, CMCB and Muma.
Zhang says the festival started as a campus party in 2000, then quickly became the centre of a music revolution. This year will be the largest festival yet, with four stages and at least 80 bands and DJs - including about 20 artists from abroad - covering music from metal to jazz, with one stage set up for DJs and another for noise and avant-garde electronica.