Shanghai, China: at around 25 million people living in the area, it is the world’s most populous city. At its epicenter, the Lujiazui skyline electrifies onlookers from across the Bund. The Oriental Pearl Tower shimmers alongside the China World Trade Center and other multi-million-dollar skyscrapers. The skyline is a “showpiece” of the booming economy of China, and wealthy businessmen leave the buildings in droves to take their luxury cars home. Their horns honk ceaselessly in the nightly traffic jam, which is mixed with the noise outside the vehicles of vendors shouting deals, shops blaring pop music and the odd drunk shouting at a taxi, but the people have become accustomed to such urban noise.
Like any city of its size, there is an underbelly with an undercurrent or art flowing through it. The underbelly holds clubs and museums which host deafening metal or trangressive galleries which would never be approved by the PRC, if they were aware of them. Of the 25 million people in Shanghai, there was one man who turned the noise of the city around him into a musical weapon. 
Junjun Cao aka Junky started Torturing Nurse, named after the John Zorn Torture Garden album in 2004. Donning a blue mask on stage and several effects pedals for his arsenal of noise, the live performance is a one-man wrecking crew, with Junky violently thrashing his body around while making sure to stab eardrums with his distorted rips, tears and punctures.
“The project was initially started because I was tired of the traditional rock band I had formed before, and wanted to break through from myself to make more free sounds,” says Junky, “ I started listening to a lot of Japanoise and American noise around 2000, and I was fascinated by it. I felt that noise is the freest sound possible to make.”
Junky’s influences come from a variety of places. In addition to music and life in China, he cites film as an influence, “I like watching movies very much, especially from the German director Werner Herzog, the Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini, the Japanese directors Shuji Terayama and Yasujirô Ozu, and the Greek director Theodoros Angelopoulos.”
Starting out wasn’t easy. He couldn’t find a venue and due to this, started his own Noishanghai events, which gradually evolved into a monthly performance, now featuring local and visiting artists of the experimental variety.
The sound of Torturing Nurse is inherently violent, though the crowds at the Noishanghai shows are more interested onlookers who wish to participate in the show than beer guzzling moshers. Junky encourages audience members to twist the knobs on his soundboards after thrashing about the room in a daze. “I try not to want anything during the show. The performances allow me to be uninhibited on stage.” 
In addition to the nightmarish sounds coming from the monitors, Junky will always be seen wearing a disturbing mask during the performance – a Face Gini mask to be exact, which is usually seen by women on the beach wanting to protect their face from the scorching sun, “Wearing a mask makes me more completely separate from the stage and reality. I like to create an image that is different from others.”
Eventually, word got around about this original and interesting artist from China and Torturing Nurse became an underground name abroad. The documentary Global Metal introduced Chinese metal bands to the worldwide musical landscape, but it was through releasing two albums in 2005 in the US and the help of social media that Torturing Nurse became infamous on its own.
“The international sites, through the use of a VPN, were very important for band promotion, because it not only made my voice have a chance to be heard in the world, but also to understand similar things that other people around the world do.” 
The live set has taken him to different types of venues throughout China, including livehouses, art spaces, and playing outdoors. He has also played in several different countries, including Japan, Denmark, Switzerland, France, Belgium, the UK, Spain and Germany. Junky recounts a notable incident during a concert in Osaka,“The audience in Osaka attacked other members of the crowd, and the attacked audience and I tore up the place.”
The lineup for Torturing Nurse had always included Junky, but he was joined by various musicians throughout his 15-year journey. As of now, his shows are solo and use a cut-up, Burroughs esque technique with “behavioral performances” from Junky.
In addition to playing in Japan, Torturing Nurse has collaborated with many Japanoise artists. “I think they work very hard. The number of artists and quality of noise in China and Japan are still quite different.” 
Recently, Junky began Life is Absurd, a record label which specializes in cassette tapes and vinyl. Each release is a DIY work with original, disturbing artwork. In addition to the many Torturing Nurse releases and collaborations with artists, some other artists published by the label include Thai metal band Wakk Thuu, Japanese free impromptu drummer Ryosuke Kiyasu, American noise artist Lackthrow, and Japanese noise artist Fumio Kosakai.
As of 2021, Junky shows no signs of slowing down – continually booking bigger and grander Noishanghai events and planning more shows abroad. Time Out Shanghai magazine even listed Torturing Nurse as one of the things you should see when visiting the city, so the name has become something of a national treasure, and as far removed from traditional Chinese music that it is, it is still inherently connected to Shanghai, even if just subtly.
“The city I live in must have an influence on me, consciously or unconsciously. I look for things within it which give me energy and encourage me to live freely.
