China's new voices: Politics, ethnicity, and gender in popular music culture on the mainland, 1978-1997

This study views popular music as a site of interaction between various forces and social segments, in which multiple voices are heard. The study examines popular music in contemporary China in relation to three domains: politics, ethnicity, and gender, and aims to understand the dynamics among different groups and forces in each of these contexts.; The study is based on eleven months of fieldwork which I conducted in 1995 and 1996, and which included interviews, participation in various musical events, extensive reading of Chinese magazines and newspapers, watching of TV, and listening to radio, cassettes, and CDs. It adopts an interdiciplinary approach and draws upon theories and methods from anthropology, cultural studies, musicology, and literary criticism.; After discussing in chapter 1 my aims and theoretical framework, I procede in chapters 2 and 3 to survey the development of popular music on the mainland between the 1920s and the late 1970s, and between 1978 to the present, respectively, and examine the relationship between the development and the general historical context. Chapter 4 examines how popular music is used today both by the state/party to advance its political interest and by other forces to resist the former. In this chapter I also challenge the orthodox hegemony/resistance dichotomy and suggest that a new symbiotic relationship between musicians and the state has recently emerged in China, and that despite their resistance, rockers share much with the state/party. Chapter 5 examines the negotiation of ethnic identities and representation, and suggests that a new independent minority voice has recently emerged in Chinese popular culture after decades in which minorities were usually represented solely by the state/Han. Finally, chapter 6 explores the different constructions of masculinity and femininity in Chinese pop, and suggests that a new female voice has recently emerged in China.; The general conclusion of this study is that Chinese popular culture has recently turned into a rich polyphony, and that in contrast to the past, it is constructed through constant negotiation between multiple forces rather than dictated unidirectionally by the state. It also proposes that the study of popular music would benefit from adopting a more inclusive and flexible approach.