Buyi becomes big in Japan

"When I was young, I moved to Tokyo, working odd jobs while rehearsing in a band. Eventually, we made it big and became rock stars. But looking back now, I realize my happiest days were those early days of rehearsing and working," Funky says.

"I'd forgotten about that life, but meeting Buyi brought it all back. I remembered how happy I used to be, having a dream to pursue."

Funky immediately decided to move into the courtyard, invited a recording engineer to set up a professional recording studio and helped Buyi produce albums. He officially became its drummer in 2018.

Wu says that after meeting Funky, Buyi has been taken to a whole new level. "Before, we'd never even considered releasing an album. The cost was simply too high. Funky was our producer and recorded drums for many of our tracks. Almost all our albums feature his drumming. So really, Funky lifted us up several levels."

Funky also arranged this Japan tour. Apart from appearing as featured artists at the 40th anniversary reunion concerts of Bakufu-Slump, the band members also performed on the same stage and jammed with a number of well-known Japanese musicians.

"The session with the Chinese band Buyi was incredibly exciting. After this song, we played one of their songs, which I didn't know at all, in response to the encore. It turned out to be very moving," Japanese guitarist and singer-songwriter Kyoji Yamamoto wrote in a post on the social media platform X after his Nov 12 concert with Buyi.

"It became a wonderful moment of friendship between China and Japan. Music truly has no borders."