Ken and SNFU’s Origins

Kendall Steven Chinn, half-German, half-Chinese and the eleventh of twelve children, was born in Edmonton in 1962. A glimpse of Sid Vicious and Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols on TV set Chinn on a life-long path to punk rock stardom. Before graduating from Victoria Composite High School, Chinn became fast friends with twins Marc and Brent Belke at a southside skatepark in Garneau in the late 1970s. Practicing sets in the Belkes' basement in Malmo, the three formed the core of what would soon become an internationally acclaimed hardcore skate punk legend. SNFU--originally short for "Society's No Fucking Use", though Chinn maintained the acronym could stand for whatever fans wanted--began to rock local community halls in 1981. The band could hardly afford the cover charges to play at other venues, but this was a blessing in disguise. The affordable all-ages shows, and the band’s willingness to crash with fans on the road, built SNFU a loyal following across the prairies. Many of the lead singer's fans, even his fellow bandmates at the time, were completely unaware that Chinn was gay.

Chinn first became aware of his sexuality after an incident with a childhood classmate. The girl had stolen Chinn's jack-o-lantern, a gift from a teacher, and taunted him with it until it smashed on the ground. Through anger and tears, Chinn recalled vowing that he would never marry a woman, although he would later become renowned for his feminist lyrics. Although Chinn did not consider himself completely closeted, "he wasn't exactly leading the Pride parade," as biographer Chris Walter phrased it. His sexuality contributed to feelings of isolation throughout his youth, but it also contributed to his songwriting and what would become his stage persona of Mr. Chi Pig.

Lyrics

SNFU shows were always a spectacle with Mr. Chi Pig–“it’s Mr. “Chai” Pig not Mr. “Chee” Pig”–at their centre. The skinny singer "stalked the stage like a hyena looking for his next piece of meat to scavenge", sometimes wearing a pig mask or dressed as k.d. lang, and was known to pelt the audience with everything from puffed wheat and popcorn to the remains of stuffed animals, even spraying fans with water or chewed up banana from his mouth. Pyrotechnic displays were an SNFU staple, and Chi Pig would light dolls or even the outstretched hands of willing fans on fire as part of his act. His signature aerial leap became immortalized as one third of Wilburn and Folkmann's mural, an energy and exuberance that Ken Chinn brought to every show through his persona as Chi Pig.

SNFU's first album, …And No One Else Wanted To Play (1984), was full of lyrics Chinn had penned on break in the bathroom during shifts at Saveco ("Slaveco", as Chinn called it) on Jasper Avenue. Although SNFU's lyrics might as well have been "in Mongolian” according to some listeners and were wailed over music Chinn himself described as "like getting beat on the head with a hammer for an hour," they could be as poignant and personal as they might be “really smart but… really stupid”. Some of Chinn's lyrics, such as the repeated shout of "proved to the world he isn't gay" from Victims of the Womanizer, were both unambiguous and more significant than many listeners realized.

Although Chinn would offer a different explanation for his work each time he was asked, it is likely that several of his lyrics were expressions of his sexuality and resonated with queer fans. Biographer Chris Walter speculates about possible references to the singer's orientation in songs like Tears ("to keep your emotions locked up inside / means you're only living half your life"), or Lovely Little Frankenstein ("I wonder what Mom and Dad would say / I wouldn't want to bring them shame / I know one day I'll have to tell them / Oh yes I'll tell them about 'it'"). Some connections were more explicit, such as the references to the AIDS crisis in Bomb, while some were often more obscure. Painful Reminder was inspired by Chinn's crush on a male teacher, but the pronouns in the lyrics were changed to be more palatable to a heterosexual audience.

“Out” on Tour

SNFU broke up in 1989 after nearly a decade of screen-printing zombie t-shirts, growing Chinn's collection of props and horror memorabilia, and couch surfing with fans across the world. As the members went their separate ways and pursued new projects, Chinn moved to Vancouver for a fresh start. Musician John Kastner remarked that after his move, Chinn "definitely seemed to kind of come out a lot more… in every way." While the SNFU leader had not been closeted, Chinn began to be much more open about his sexuality. In an interview, Chinn commented that fans thought he had become "suddenly gay" after his move, to which he sardonically replied "dude, I was gay before I even knew where Vancouver was, hello?"

By 1991, SNFU had reformed and relocated to Vancouver with Chinn with a busy tour schedule ahead. While the other members caught baseball games between shows, Chinn took the opportunity to explore the local bathhouses and cruising sites. From San Francisco to Berlin to Christchurch and even accidentally stumbling upon the cruising scene at the colosseum in Rome, Chinn had a wide range of locales to sample. Guitarist Marc Belke later speculated that SNFU's popularity in Europe especially might have had something to do with Chinn's "sexual orientation and general freakiness", which was not as well received in the United States.

Although life on tour left little room for long-term relationships, Chinn was involved in an open relationship with his on-and-off-again boyfriend "Lon" from Calgary and met the love of his life Bob while on tour in Kansas. Bob would receive phone calls and scrapbooks full of drawings and lyrics from Chinn over the course of their relationship as SNFU travelled the world.

Long hours on the road, and poor sleep and diet were all hard on the band and tensions ran high. Apart from the stress of being in close quarters with each other, the band also ran into dangerous encounters on tour. Skinhead fans would threaten Chinn or other members with violence when they discovered the lead singer of their favourite band was half-Chinese. After being attacked by one such "fan", manager Dave Fortune tactfully did not tell him that Chinn was also gay.

Struggles

In spite of SNFU's success, Chinn's personal life was deeply troubled. The death of Chinn's mother and a head injury triggered what would later be diagnosed as schizophrenia. After SNFU broke up for a second time in 2005 due to gruelling tours and interpersonal friction, Chinn had lost the most stable part of his life. Chinn had been introduced to crystal meth through the Vancouver gay scene, and his attempts to self-medicate with it and other substances resulted in an eviction from his apartment in 2005. Homeless on Vancouver’s downtown east side and struggling with addiction, Chinn sought help from friends and supportive housing. During this period, Chinn gave several interviews for the 2009 documentary Open Your Mouth and Say…Mr. Chi Pig, which gave fans and those close to Chinn new insight into his life and struggles.

After seeking help, and learning to sing again with the loss of his teeth, Chinn reformed SNFU for the third and final time as the last original member among a "revolving door of musicians". New and old generations of fans, few more loyal than his Edmonton hometown audience, flocked to concerts as much for the music as for Chinn's on-stage antics. The band's classic zombie t-shirts continued to be a hot commodity in Edmonton 25 years after their first printing, and the city would welcome SNFU to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their first album at the Union Hall in 2015. Mr. Chi Pig took to the stage until the band dissolved for the last time in 2018.

Chinn’s Legacy

After a lifetime of roughing it on tour, Ken Chinn was given one month to live in the fall of 2019. He outlived that prediction until July 16, 2020, when he died at age 57 surrounded by family and friends. Within two weeks, Wilburn and Folkmann sought space and funds online to immortalize Chinn in a larger-than-life mural in Vancouver and in Edmonton. Each mural featured portraits of the artist based on photographs by Jerry Cordeiro, a friend of Chinn's. The images chosen for "The Great Wall of Chi Pig" in Edmonton included what the Edmonton Journal called "a devastating yet beautiful portrait of Pig being theatrically (yet truly) vulnerable, having struggled with years of addiction, mental health and physical demons which would ultimately take his life".

Ken Chinn, or Mr. Chi Pig, left a legacy in Edmonton and around the world. He was a role model to queer youth in the punk scene during a time when sexual orientation was not a protected right in his hometown. After his death, the Garneau Theatre screened Open Your Mouth and Say…Mr. Chi Pig (2009) as part of NorthwestFest and Rainbow Visions, "a nice crossover for each festival's mandates of promoting innovative documentary and queer realities". The SNFU frontman even became the inspiration for the Ken S. Chinn arts scholarship at his own Victoria High School, where he graduated with honours in English and Commercial Arts in 1979. Wilburn and Folkmann's mural was unveiled with a concert at the Buck, just in time for the first anniversary of the singer's death, and sparked a remembrance and celebration of a beloved local icon across his "Crude Crude City". Chinn will be forever remembered as one of Edmonton’s boldest and brashest queer icons.