This was a random post on the craigslist music forum from about 2-3 years ago. It's like a short I can imagine someone like Zhang Yimou directing.

I just was thinking about how much more music is than just collecting cd's like so many Hummel figurines. When I was teaching English in China (first year University girls at a teaching college). I made a mix tape for a lesson and discussion on basic music terminology. The tape included Chopin, Miles Davis, Lester Young, Neil Young, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Hank Williams and Clem Snide. 95% of my kids said they liked Chopin because it was "relaxing" and "made them feel good." I had difficult time generating discussion on most of the other pieces. After the lesson the room cleared except for the girl that called herself Fantasy. I should explain that the students all named themselves (often strangely, eg Smart, Firefly, Chocolate etc). For a second she just looks at me really scared like, which was not unusual. I was the first white person any of them had ever met. Then she said in a very quiet voice, "I like number 7." Number 7 was a two minute snippet from Voodoo Child off of Electric Lady Land. I asked her why she liked it and she said, she just closed her eyes and it made her feel different. I said "different how?" She said "different like going somewhere." She had a really passionate look on her face which prompted me to offer to lend her the CD. She freaked out and said no no no. I should point out that students had extremely limited access to the West. Their internet was heavily fire walled, TV and radio were state run. Plus the kids all spied and snitched on each other, especially the ones who were in the party. None of them were supposed to get too chummy with me and I was monitored and spied on to make sure I wasn't becoming too much of an influence on the kids. About two weeks later, this girl again waited for me after class and she had a folded piece of paper that she handed me. "A present for you," she said. Folded into the paper was a CD of traditional Chinese music. She looked at me very intently while I thanked her. The next week I folded all the exam papers in a strange way and handed them back as I called the names and the students left. I had arranged them so I called Fantasy last. Into her paper I'd folded my copy of Electric Lady Land.
She took it and walked out quickly. I never said anything about it and neither did she, but we often exchanged significant glances after that. That was a few years ago, but I recently got an e-mail from her. Things have opened up a bit since then. It turns out that she was a pretty accomplished pianist and she'd managed to get a keyboard and had a band that, until the recent SARS scare, was playing gigs at a kind of secret bar in Shenzhen, PRC.
Unless you lived there you can't really understand the kind of risks, real and emotional, that she has most likely taken to pursue music.