自由 [Freedom] has a relatively stronger Western connotation, related to the idea
of democracy. 自在 [spontaneous, or self existing] is more associated with the image of
a Taoist who wanders across worlds— “[flying] like Kun-Peng thousands of miles up in the air… carefree like little birds easing down to the field,” “being perfectly one with heaven and earth,” and “being heaven and earth” (Shang 131). These two images of Kun and Peng come from a story told by one of the earliest Taoist thinkers Zhuangzi in 逍遥
游 [Wondering Beyond]:

In the northern darkness there is a fish and his name is Kun. The Kun is so huge I don’t know how many thousand miles he measures. He changes and becomes a bird whose name is Peng. The back of the Peng measures I don’t know how many thousand miles across and, when he rises up and flies off, his wings are like clouds all over the sky.

One has to cultivate one’s ability to transmute in order to be free, to be 逍遥 [wondering beyond].

…

Deleuze and Guattari write that creating art is “always a question of freeing life wherever it is imprisoned, or of tempting it into an uncertain combat”

…

the late 1980s and early 1990s, people like Wang Fan, Yan Jun, Yangyang, and Li Zenghui were called Bei Piao. Bei means north, specifically referring to Beijing; Piao means floating or drifting. Bei Piao is an identity used to describe people who work or live in Beijing without a permanent residential permit or registered residence. These Bei Piao artists and musicians constitute lines of drift, improvising with the city and the world.

…

“music is only a means, freedom is the purpose.”

…

Utopia is a state of being.
State of being just exists. It is simple.
If the state of utopia has existed for one minute, does it still exist?
Its existence is eternal. If it was once there, it exists.
Many people deny its existence, because they didn’t catch this one-minute. We do not expect it to exist forever. One minute is enough.
We are quite satisfied with that.

…

A: What is music to you, especially to your 真我 (a true/authentic self)?
Y: Many bands treat music as a profession, but it is a part of my life. People often ask me “What do you want to express?” I do not want to express anything. I present myself. You hear it. That’s enough.

…

One launches forth, hazards an improvisation. But to improvise is to join with the World, or meld with it. One ventures from home on the thread of a tune.

…

Listen. Transform. Exist.

excerpts (from ://oemmndcbldboiebfnladdacbdfmadadm/https://etd.ohiolink.edu/apexprod/rws_etd/send_file/send?accession=ohiou1336097506&disposition=attachment)