Rap in China – In Search of a Hip Hop Hero
Speaker: Angela Steele
Summary
Traveling through the globalizing forces of media, marketing and migration, Hip Hop emerged in Chinese youth culture and popular music in the early years of 2000. While Hip Hop dance or “street dance” was the first element to capture the attention of Chinese youth and continues to be the most widespread, rap is fast increasing in popularity. In large and small cities throughout the country, thousands of Chinese youth are now using rap music as a form of artistic and personal expression.
Within the Hip Hop community, many disagree as to the best way to continue developing Chinese rap. While some advocate nurturing the underground scene, others encourage training select groups for mainstream cross over success. In this talk I will trace the brief history of rap music in China and examine the pitfalls and promise of both approaches. I will also explore the political implications of creating icons who legitimize marginal or oppositional dreams and address the question, “Who can be China’s Hip Hop Hero?”
Biography
Angela is a researcher with an avid interest in ethnography, popular culture and Modern China. She graduated from Stanford University in 2006 with a B.A. in Cultural & Social Anthropology. Her undergraduate thesis “Zai Beijing: A Cultural Study of Hip Hop” explored the history and social significance of Hip Hop in Beijing, China. From 2005-2006 she worked as a researcher at the Hiphop Archive at Stanford. She was a 2007-2008 Fulbright Scholar and researched the ways in which the production of Hip Hop music in China informs the construction of modern identities and mediates desire. You can access her work on www.dongting08.com and www.youtube.com/dongting08.
