Dou Wei
The music that inspired Michael Timmins the most during the visit was found at Renmin Park, where a variety musicians would gather throughout the day, bringing their erhus, pipas, shangxians and various percussion instruments, and a mix of singers would perform. Timmins found most of the musicians to be great, most but not all singers were not as great, but all performed with passion. About half way through their visit, Timmins was introduced to Eric Chen, who was passionate about music, and had taught himself English by watching American movies. Chen told Timmins that he was "not only the only person in Jingjiang who had ever heard the music of Radiohead, but the only person who had ever even heard the name Radiohead". The two became friends and spent time together. Chen brought Timmins a variety of CDs and videos that showcased the Chinese rock scene, such as He Yong, Dou Wei, The Tang Dynasty, Xu Wei, and Zuoxiao Zuzhou (ZXZZ), plus others. The two which appealed to Timmins the most were Xu Wei (Cure-meets-Steve Earl pop) and ZXZZ (Leonard Cohen meets Nick Cave by way of Tom Waits). When the Cowboy Junkies were making "Renmin Park", they decided to cover a song by those two, with lyrics translated by Chen. The Junkies also asked ZXZZ to contribute an original lyric and vocal performance for a track on the album, "A Walk in the Park".