30-Second Overview: No Party For Cao Dong is a four-piece indie band formed in 2012 at the intersection of Jianxian Street and Cao Dong Street in Yangmingshan, Taipei. In 2016, they self-funded the pressing of 2,000 handmade CDs, which sold out in three days; at the 28th Golden Melody Awards in 2017, they decisively won Best Band (defeating Mayday), Best New Artist, and Song of the Year for 〈Big Wind Blows〉 with first-round votes of 19, 19, and 18. In October 2021, drummer Fanfan (Cai Yifan, aged 26) passed away in a quarantine hotel in Taipei, and the band fell into nearly two years of silence. On May 20, 2023, they released their second album, He Wei (Wa He) — the term "He Wei" appears in the Records of the Grand Historian: Biographies of Confucian Scholars, with the extended meaning "broken tiles joined together, though aggregated, are not uniform" originating from the Tang Dynasty scholar Yan Shigu's commentary on the Book of Han: Biographies of Li, Lu, Zhu, Liu, and Shusun. 1 In 2024, with He Wei, they won the triple crown at the 35th Golden Melody Awards: Album of the Year, Best Mandarin Album, and Best Band; on the night of the awards, the band was absent, and their manager accepted the awards on their behalf, declaring: "No Party For Cao Dong has never been just the 4 people standing on stage." This is a twelve-year story, centered on loss, silence, return, loss again, silence again, and return again.
On the evening of June 29, 2024, at the 35th Golden Melody Awards. No Party For Cao Dong took home three major awards: Album of the Year, Best Mandarin Album, and Best Band. But no one went on stage. 2
The band was performing at the Bubble Island Music Festival in Guiyang, China, that night, and was not present at the venue. Their manager went on stage to accept the awards on their behalf and said:
"In our hearts, No Party For Cao Dong has never been just the 4 people standing on stage, but everyone who wholeheartedly participates in these six characters." 2
That sentence caused silence in the venue. Everyone who knows their story knows that this "not just 4 people" is not a perfunctory thank-you speech from an artist, but a direct acknowledgment by a band to a member who passed away three years ago.
This is the best entry point to understanding the twelve-year story of No Party For Cao Dong: not the night they defeated Mayday in 2017, but the night they themselves were absent in 2024.
📝 Curator's Note: Cao Dong's story is not a band history of "rise, success, maintenance." It is a story of "explosion, disappearance, returning once, being interrupted by death again, and returning again." Understanding this rhythm is key to understanding why they are the most important voice in Taiwanese indie music over the last decade.
High School Classmates Riding Bikes in Yangmingshan
The story begins on June 9, 2012. 3 At the intersection of Jianxian Street and Cao Dong Street in Yangmingshan, Taipei (specifically near Yonggong Road 245 Lane 34), several students with backgrounds from the National Taipei University of the Arts, who usually loved playing instruments, gathered there. Wu Du (real name Lin Gengyou) and Zhu Zhu (Zhan Weizhu) were high school classmates who often rode bikes and played skateboards together in Yangmingshan.
The band's name went through three stages of evolution: initially called "Cao Dong Street Left Turn," then "Cao Dong Street Party," and finally settled on "No Party For Cao Dong" in 2014. 3 The first version was dance-punk inspired by Two Door Cinema Club; after the name change in 2014, the music direction also shifted: from dance-punk to grunge and post-rock inspired by Nirvana.
The act of renaming itself was a declaration: the party was over.
Liu Li, Sam, Fanfan: The Band Between Four Drummers
To understand Cao Dong's current four-piece lineup, one must first understand how their lineup evolved.
The first-generation drummer was Liu Li, who later switched to full-time music video production and film creation. He actually didn't leave Cao Dong; his role just changed from drummer to recorder. 3 The second-generation bassist was Sam, after whom the band was interrupted for nearly a year due to his military service.
In 2016, the drummer position was taken over by Fanfan (Cai Yifan), who came from another indie band, Triple Deer. Fanfan's official debut with Cao Dong was the performance at "Bu Dou Ma Sheng 2.0" on May 21, 2016. 3
In 2023, the original bassist Yang Shixuan announced an indefinite pause from front-stage activities; the original drummer Niao Ren (Huang Shiwei) returned to take over. The current lineup (as of 2026) consists of four people:
- Wu Du (Lin Gengyou): Vocals, Guitar, Main Songwriter
- Zhu Zhu (Zhan Weizhu): Rhythm Guitar, Backing Vocals
- Niao Ren (Huang Shiwei): Drums
- Dennis (Zhang Haotang): Bass
The most crucial position (drummer) changed four times in 12 years. And the third one, Fanfan, passed away in 2021.
That Handmade CD of 2,000 Copies
On February 19, 2016, the digital version of Nu Er (The Servile) was released; on March 11, the physical CD was released, pressing only 2,000 copies, all handmade, distributed only in 11 independent coffee shops and record stores across Taiwan. 4
Sold out in three days.
The album contains 12 songs, totaling 38 minutes and 57 seconds. The producer was Li Xiaozu, who brought in American mixing engineer Andy Baker and Georgia mastering engineer Joel Hatstat. The entire production period lasted four months. 4 The album funding came from Ministry of Culture subsidies, with no record label, no manager, and no mainstream distribution channels.
There is an abnormal detail in the musical design of this album: 〈Big Wind Blows〉 specially processed the overlay of live audience vocals with studio recordings — creating two coexisting "spaces" in the song: the space of being watched, and the space of solitude. 4 This technical choice foreshadowed the band's entire aesthetic: on the surface, shouting to the world; inside, talking to oneself.
〈Big Wind Blows〉 as a Wound Assessment
Six months after the release of 〈Big Wind Blows〉, YouTube views broke 95,000; within a year, it broke 500,000. 5 But the impact of this song lies not in the numbers, but in it becoming a common language for a generation.
This song was written against the backdrop of the trauma of the 2015 Taiwanese anti-high school curriculum micro-adjustment movement: in that movement, students took to the streets, and student leaders committed suicide. 6 Wu Du compressed these memories, along with his personal experiences of school bullying, into one song.
The lyrics superficially resemble the musical chairs game of the children's song 〈Big Wind Blows〉, but underneath lie three different layers of story: the generational metaphor of resource competition, the sense of existence trapped by time ("blame it on time / it gave the starting point / blame it on time / it gave the ending"), and Wu Du's personal experience of being bullied. 6
Later, music critic Ma Shifang positioned Cao Dong's generation as the "Loser Generation":
"The lyrics are sharp as knives, and at its core is a nihilism with no way out, becoming a favorite quote for the youth of the 'collapse generation' to recite." 7
This positioning became fact over the next decade: National Taiwan University of Science and Technology's "Song That Best Represents My Generation" vote placed 〈Big Wind Blows〉 in the top ranks for six consecutive years; MC HotDog sampled this song; Li Mingcong, Assistant Professor at the Department of Sociology, National Taiwan University, opened the course "Sociology of Losers" in Autumn 2017, with 600+ students filling the classroom. 8 A song can achieve these things not because it is good-sounding, but because it spoke the words for an entire generation that they themselves had not spoken.
The Night "These Are Geniuses"
On June 24, 2017, at the 28th Golden Melody Awards. No Party For Cao Dong was nominated for 6 awards and won 3, and it was a first-round decisive victory: Best New Artist 19 votes, Best Band 19 votes, Song of the Year 〈Big Wind Blows〉 18 votes. 7
The Jury Chair, Huang Yunling, described this band as the "Explosion of the闷 (Muffled) Generation": "Bringing a huge impact, breaking everyone's understanding of sound." 7
The most story-rich detail at the time was Mayday's Ashin's reaction. After hearing Cao Dong's songs, he told Martha backstage: "Should we go get to know them? These guys are geniuses!" 9
The media quickly simplified the story into "generational succession": an indie band that self-funded CD pressing defeated the giant of Taiwanese rock. But Ashin himself did not buy into this narrative: "It has nothing to do with generational succession. It's tiring to always be positive and optimistic; it's great to occasionally have a different kind of energy to vent." 9
When Wu Du went on stage to accept the award, he also rejected this narrative. When accepting the Best Band award, he said: "This award belongs to everyone." With tears in his eyes when accepting Best New Artist, he said: "I am lucky that there is always a group of people, within this nihilism, constantly striving to find their own voice." And regarding Mayday:
"I don't look at this from a competitive mindset; Mayday's status is irreplaceable." 9
Two generations of bands gave each other's positions on the same night; this should have been the highlight of the evening. But the media grabbed the headline of "defeating Mayday," missing this moment of mutual acknowledgment.
📝 Curator's Note: Cao Dong and Mayday have never been rivals. They are two answers from two generations on "what rock can do": Mayday says public embrace, Cao Dong says private pain. Both answers are correct.
Potato, 14 Years, 15 Hours
October 30, 2021.
Drummer Cai Yifan (Fanfan) was found dead in a quarantine hotel in Taipei, aged 26. 10 She had returned from a tour in mainland China on October 25 and checked into the hotel, expecting a 14-day quarantine. Her beloved dog "Potato" had come to her when she was 14, accompanying her for 12 years. In late October, Potato was already a 14-year-old old dog, critically ill.
On the evening of October 29, Fanfan, while in quarantine, wrote her last public text on Instagram:
"What pains me the most is that I am in quarantine and cannot accompany you by your side, nor can I see you for the last time. I have cried until I broke down, not knowing how to face all this... The first thing my sister will do after her quarantine ends is take all her luggage and run to your side, to accompany you in the last moments of your life. Sister loves you." 10
15 hours later, she was found dead in the hotel room.
18 days later, on November 17, 2021, Wu Du publicly wrote to Fanfan on Instagram:
"For days, my thoughts have been chaotic, trapped in a cycle of self-doubt and regret... It is a great regret that I could not provide better companionship." 11
The band entered nearly two years of complete silence. No new songs, no interviews, no performances. In 2023, original bassist Yang Shixuan announced an indefinite hiatus from the band. 3 During that time, Cao Dong seemed to have completely ended.
📝 Curator's Note: A band entering a quarantine hotel after a tour and losing a bandmate is a narrative unique to the COVID era. It is not a heroic death, but a loss under administrative rules: quarantine policies separated Fanfan from her dying dog, causing her to be alone when death occurred.
The Seven-Year Wait for 〈Bed〉
On April 7, 2023, No Party For Cao Dong released the single 〈Bed〉 and a lyric video. 12 This was the band's first new song since Fanfan's passing.
But this song had actually been performed live for seven years. It started being performed in 2016, but was never recorded. 12 The reason this song was chosen as the return single at this point in 2023 was not because it was written well, but because it had been with them for seven years, existing before this loss.
〈Bed〉 is not a elegy. It does not directly mention Fanfan, nor does it contain tears or accusations. Its narrative is low: the state of a person lying in bed, unable to wake up and unable to sleep, sung in a tone with almost no emotional fluctuation.
The band used the low pressure of "can't go back to that time" to process loss, rather than using dramatic grief. This choice itself is why Cao Dong is Cao Dong: they never consume tragedy.
Broken Tiles Joined: Two Layers of Allusion from _Records of the Grand Historian_ to Yan Shigu's Commentary in _Book of Han_
On May 20, 2023, He Wei (Wa He) was released, seven years after Nu Er. 13
The allusion for the album title "He Wei" has two layers, a detail worth distinguishing precisely because it defines what the album title truly intends to say.
First layer: The characters "He Wei" appear in the Records of the Grand Historian: Biographies of Confucian Scholars — "Chen She rose from a commoner, driving a crowd of He Wei (broken tiles) exiled convicts, and within a month became King of Chu." 13
Second layer (more critical): The extended meaning "Broken tiles joined together, though aggregated, are not uniform" actually does not appear in the original text of the Records of the Grand Historian. It originates from the Tang Dynasty Yan Shigu's commentary on the Book of Han: Biographies of Li, Lu, Zhu, Liu, and Shusun. 1
Cai Yu fully verified these two layers of allusion in her 2023 review of the He Wei album. 1 This distinction is important because the literal meaning "a group of broken tiles gathering together" alone is merely the derogatory meaning of "a motley crew"; adding Yan Shigu's extended commentary "though aggregated, are not uniform" becomes broken individuals aggregating together, but retaining their own irregularity. This layer of commentary is the actual semantic direction Cao Dong chose for this name — not "repairing the break," not "unity," but coexisting with the break.
Producer Zhou Yidun said in an interview about the choice of this word:
"This is an album expressing regret, and various disappointments in life." 14
The album's title page reads: "Dedicated to Fanfan." 13 The last new song is 〈But〉 (English name: Damn): the vocalist almost shouts "I love you," dedicated to Fanfan. 14
In interviews related to the He Wei album, Wu Du said verbatim about how the band continued to write music after Fanfan's passing:
"Life is inherently fragile; the death of all things is never an end, but a continuation of companionship in another form." 1
This sentence explains why the He Wei album sounds less like "getting over grief" and more like living within grief while continuing to make music.
〈Cauldron〉 and 〈Empty〉: The Only Remaining Critical Works
The density of social critique in the works on Nu Er was high: 〈Lan Ni〉 (Mud), 〈Yong Gan De Ren〉 (Brave People), 〈Da Feng Chui〉 (Big Wind Blows), 〈Wo Men〉 (Us) — music critic Cai Yu calculated that in He Wei, works where one can clearly feel "critique and collision with society" remain only two: 〈Cauldron〉 and 〈Empty〉. 1
The chorus of 〈Cauldron〉 is the moment in this album closest to the sharp knife feel of Cao Dong in 2017:
"So we smashed the dye vat / smashed the dye vat / only to see the vast sea / yet you and I still do not know where we are" 1
The preceding sections build anticipation with delayed guitar effects and fast drum beats, finally dragging heavy guitar sounds, forming an acoustic contrast of "expectation and disappointment." 1 The main hook of the chorus, "smash the dye vat," is placed at the end, a structural arrangement not present in Nu Er.
The direction of other songs on He Wei, summarized by Cai Yu: "After 〈Ren Dong Shan〉 (Human Cave Mountain), it presents a trend of inward closing, compared to the past where we raised the banner of 'world-weariness' to shout and collide with the 'dream' but could not fulfill the system, it is like two different scenes." 1
This direction from "world-weariness outward" to "world-weariness inward" is a structural turning point for Cao Dong over twelve years. Cai Yu summarizes this as the "End of the Youth Generation": Cao Dong, along with their fans, is preparing to move to the next stage. 1 No longer writing social critique like "Mud," they turn to writing songs about "Daydream," "Bed," "Old Zhang," "Sprout," "But," focusing on the emotional gaps between oneself and loved ones.
📝 Curator's Note: He Wei is not an album that has become weaker; it is an album that has moved from "speaking for the generation" to "processing one's own heart." The courage Cao Dong showed in making this turn is something the Cao Dong of 2017 with 〈Big Wind Blows〉 could not do.
Music critics later also defined He Wei as "an album of suicide survivors." 15 The first three songs continuously push the theme of death (drowning, self-destruction imagery); the middle instrumental Interlude creates a "floating and elusive" atmosphere; the ending turns away from anger to "calmly mourn"; the last song, the vocalist "almost shouts" to express nostalgia and the determination to continue surviving.
The Moment the Manager Accepted the Awards
On June 29, 2024, at the 35th Golden Melody Awards. No Party For Cao Dong was nominated for Best Band, a group the media called the "Group of Death" — the other groups included Fire EX, Gossip, and five other strong bands. 16 Cao Dong won three awards: Album of the Year, Best Mandarin Album, Best Band (for the second time). 2
But the band was performing at the Bubble Island Music Festival in Guiyang, China, that night, and was not present at the Golden Melody ceremony. The manager went on stage to accept the awards, saying the sentence "No Party For Cao Dong has never been just the 4 people standing on stage, but everyone who wholeheartedly participates in these six characters" 2 was interpreted at the time as "including the deceased band member Fanfan."
This "absentee winning" itself is a statement from Cao Dong: We do not treat winning awards as the climax of life. They continued performing in Guiyang, turning the Best Band acceptance into a "ceremony of absence."
In the history of Taiwanese pop music, a band winning the Golden Melody Best Band award twice is already rare: Cao Dong's two wins were separated by seven years, spanning one member's death and two years of nearly complete silence. From the high-profile moment of defeating Mayday in 2017 to the low-key moment of the manager accepting awards in 2024, this band is redefining the word "success" in its own way.
Why They Don't Accept Interviews
From their debut to now, No Party For Cao Dong has rarely given formal interviews. 17 Wu Du has given very few interviews (mainly in 2016 to Blow吹 Music), but the band as a whole has adopted a nearly closed attitude towards the media.
This is not coolness; it is a professional ethic. They refuse to shape themselves into a "consumable personality": refusing to sell daily life on Instagram, refusing variety show crossovers, refusing to turn Fanfan's death into narrative capital. Wu Du's sentence summarizes their creative attitude:
"Many of our works sound violent, but actually they are full of... love." 17
This is the key difference between Cao Dong and most Taiwanese bands of the late 2010s: they believe the content of the songs should be larger than the personality of the singer. Fans can recognize the chords of 〈Big Wind Blows〉, but may not necessarily recognize Wu Du's face; this is a distance the band deliberately preserved.
This Is an Album of Suicide Survivors
Twelve years. Four drummers. Two albums. Two Golden Melody Best Band awards. One death. Two years of silence. One manager acceptance.
What No Party For Cao Dong left behind is not "a story of rise," but a story of how to piece oneself back together in the midst of loss. The dance-punk youths of Cao Dong Street in Yangmingshan in 2012, self-funding the pressing of 2,000 CDs in 2016, winning the Golden Melody triple crown defeating Mayday in 2017, losing drummer Fanfan in 2021, returning with 〈Bed〉 in 2023, and taking the Golden Melody 35 triple crown with the word "He Wei" (a term for losers in the Records of the Grand Historian) in 2024.
They also proved something even more difficult: a band can lose a member and still survive, but the way they survive will not be the same as before. The name He Wei itself says it all. Incomplete, un-repaired, just joined: continuing to be together with the break.
The manager said on the Golden Melody stage in 2024:
"In our hearts, No Party For Cao Dong has never been just the 4 people standing on stage."
At that moment, no one in the audience laughed, no one stood up to cheer. Everyone was silent for five seconds.
Then the camera turned to the next award.
Further Reading:
- Wu Dai-xuan — Belonging to the 2010s indie music ecosystem, a control group for female vocal paths
- Constant's Variations — Belonging to the post-rock spectrum, but taking a vocal narrative path as a control
- Cicada — Taking a fully instrumental, no-vocal path, exactly opposite to Cao Dong's "lyrics as sociology"
- Lu Guangzhong — Another "song-type singer" path in indie music
- Pop Music and Golden Melody Awards — The stage coordinates for Cao Dong winning Best Band twice
- Taiwan Indie Music — The evolution of indie music from Natural Volcano to Cao Dong to Gossip
- Taiwan Pop Music — The environment of the Taiwanese pop music industry
References
- Album Review | No Party For Cao Dong He Wei | Now Just Knowing the Taste of Sorrow, Big Wind Blows into Human Cave Mountain - Xun Sheng Ru Zuo — Author Cai Yu 2023-09-16 review fully verifies two layers of source for "He Wei" allusion: "He Wei" characters from Records of the Grand Historian: Biographies of Confucian Scholars + extended meaning "meaning like broken tiles joined together, though aggregated, are not uniform" from Tang Dynasty Yan Shigu's commentary on Book of Han: Biographies of Li, Lu, Zhu, Liu, and Shusun; full quote of Wu Du verbatim "Life is inherently fragile; the death of all things is never an end, but a continuation of companionship in another form"; 〈Cauldron〉 lyrics verbatim quote and music structure analysis; He Wei vs Nu Er critique work density comparison (former 4首批判 → latter only 〈Cauldron〉 〈Empty〉 2 works); core argument "After 〈Ren Dong Shan〉 it presents a trend of inward closing" + "End of the Youth Generation". This review 2026-04-18 Cai Yu in Taiwan.md Cao Dong Spore #33 Threads comment section actively pointed out this article's original draft mistakenly wrote "Records of the Grand Historian 'broken tiles joined'", and provided this original text verification — this article's second version (2026-04-19) has fully corrected the allusion source according to its verification.↩
- Golden Melody 35 No Party For Cao Dong Absent, Manager Accepts Speech - CNA — 2024-06-29 At the 35th Golden Melody Awards, No Party For Cao Dong won the triple crown of Album of the Year, Best Mandarin Album, and Best Band with He Wei; the band was unable to attend as they were performing at the Bubble Island Music Festival in Guiyang, China, that night; the manager's acceptance speech: "No Party For Cao Dong has never been just the 4 people standing on stage, but everyone who wholeheartedly participates in these six characters."↩
- No Party For Cao Dong - Wikipedia — Formed on 2012-06-09 at the intersection of Jianxian Street and Cao Dong Street in Yangmingshan, Taipei; band name evolved in three stages: Cao Dong Street Left Turn → Cao Dong Street Party → No Party For Cao Dong (settled in 2014); lineup evolution includes Liu Li (first-generation drummer turned to video), Sam (interrupted by military service), Fanfan (took over in 2016 from Triple Deer), Yang Shixuan indefinite hiatus in 2023.↩
- Nu Er Album Production Details - Scientific American Taiwan — Digital release on 2016-02-19, physical release on 3-11; 2,000 handmade CDs sold out in three days; producer Li Xiaozu, American mixing engineer Andy Baker, Georgia mastering engineer Joel Hatstat; 〈Big Wind Blows〉 used live audience vocal and studio overlay technology; production period 4 months.↩
- No Party For Cao Dong Discogs — 〈Big Wind Blows〉 YouTube views broke 95,000 six months after release, broke 500,000 within a year, becoming one of the most widely spread singles in Taiwanese indie music in the 2010s.↩
- 〈Big Wind Blows〉 Lyrics and 2015 Anti-Curriculum Micro-adjustment Movement Interpretation - VERSE — 〈Big Wind Blows〉 lyrics were written against the backdrop of the 2015 Taiwanese anti-high school curriculum micro-adjustment movement (at that time students took to the streets, student leaders committed suicide); lyrics have three layers of meaning: musical chairs game (resource competition), generational dilemma (time trapped), Wu Du's personal school bullying experience.↩
- Ma Shifang "Loser Generation" Cao Dong Review - One Little Day — Ma Shifang positioned Cao Dong's generationality as "Loser Generation": "The lyrics are sharp as knives, and at its core is a nihilism with no way out, becoming a favorite quote for the youth of the 'collapse generation' to recite"; compared with Zhang Xuan "lyrics and melody咬合 (bite/fit)". 2017 Golden Melody 28 Huang Yunling Chair called it "Explosion of the闷 (Muffled) Generation", Cao Dong first-round decisive triple crown (19/19/18 votes).↩
- 〈Big Wind Blows〉 Cultural Phenomenon - PanSci + Vision Magazine — 〈Big Wind Blows〉 defined as representative work of "Loser Generation" / "Collapse Generation"; National Taiwan University of Science and Technology "Song That Best Represents My Generation" vote top ranks for 6 consecutive years; MC HotDog sampled; Li Mingcong (NTU Sociology) 2017 Autumn "Sociology of Losers" course 600+ students filled.↩
- Mayday Ashin "Genius" Comment Full Source - Business Today — After hearing Cao Dong's songs, Ashin told Martha: "Should we go get to know them? These guys are geniuses!"; facing generational succession controversy: "It has nothing to do with generational succession. It's tiring to always be positive and optimistic; it's great to occasionally have a different kind of energy to vent." Wu Du Golden Melody 28 acceptance: "Mayday's status is irreplaceable."↩
- Cao Dong Drummer Fanfan Passed Away During Quarantine + IG Original Text - China Times News Network — 2021-10-30 Cai Yifan (Fanfan, 26 years old) was found dead in a Taipei quarantine hotel; returned from mainland China tour on 10-25 and checked in; 10-29 evening IG breakdown post "The first thing my sister will do after her quarantine ends is take all her luggage and run to your side, to accompany you in the last moments of your life. Sister loves you"; 14-year-old beloved dog "Potato" accompanied her for 12 years critically ill, she could not return home to accompany the last journey.↩
- Wu Du IG Message to Fanfan - Mirror Media — 2021-11-17 18 days after Fanfan's passing, vocalist Wu Du publicly wrote on Instagram: "For days, my thoughts have been chaotic, trapped in a cycle of self-doubt and regret... It is a great regret that I could not provide better companionship."↩
- 〈Bed〉 2023 Return Single Seven-Year Live History - HackaZine — 2023-04-07 Band released first single 〈Bed〉 and lyric video after Fanfan's passing; this song had actually been performed live since 2016, waiting seven years to be recorded and released. Public statement new album dedicated to Fanfan.↩
- He Wei Album Concept and Records of the Grand Historian Allusion - Vocus — 2023-05-20 He Wei released, seven years after Nu Er; album title "He Wei" characters appear in Records of the Grand Historian: Biographies of Confucian Scholars "Chen She rose from a commoner, driving a crowd of He Wei (broken tiles) exiled convicts, and within a month became King of Chu"; extended meaning "broken tiles joined" complete allusion seen in [^19] (Cai Yu verification from Book of Han Yan Shigu commentary); title page "Dedicated to Fanfan"; 〈But〉 (Damn) is the last new song, singing "I love you" dedicated to Fanfan.↩
- Zhou Yidun Producer Interview: Cao Dong is "An Album Expressing Regret" - Blow吹 Music — Producer Zhou Yidun interprets He Wei: "This is an album expressing regret, and various disappointments in life." And self-reports production philosophy: "The thing I worry least about is the sound quality itself; I care about whether the result matches the musician's vision, and whether they feel comfortable in the collaboration. 'Cao Dong's attitude towards music is completely honest.'"↩
- He Wei "Suicide Survivor Album" Review - Vocus — Music critic defines He Wei as "an album of suicide survivors"; first three songs continuously push the theme of death (drowning, self-destruction imagery); middle instrumental Interlude creates "floating and elusive" atmosphere; ending turns away from anger to "calmly mourn"; last song vocalist "almost shouts" to express nostalgia and determination to continue surviving.↩
- Golden Melody 35 "Group of Death" Best Band Competition Analysis - The News Lens — 35th Golden Melody Awards Best Band nomination combination (Cao Dong, Fire EX, Gossip, etc. 6 groups) called by media "Group of Death"; analysis of the competitive context of Cao Dong emerging with triple crown with He Wei.↩
- Wu Du Creative Philosophy — 2016 Blow吹 Music Full Interview — Wu Du's few 2016 formal interviews: creative process "When this character is sometimes, mostly us (projection), we take material from people and things around us"; musical intent "Actually there is no special setting to do what"; emotional core "Actually it is all full of... love"; explanation for violent appearance: "Sounds violent, but actually it is all full of... love, opposing violence."↩