How Chinese youth view/participate in hip-hop and other global cultures has been a subject of ongoing debate for me. One thing that constantly comes up in discussions is the imitators who really don’t appreciate the roots of whatever scene they are participating in. Some good examples are the really nice and friendly metal rockers, or the Wu-Tang fans who are adamantly anti-weed, or the MMA fighters who do back-flips after fights but never shake hands with their opponents. It seems that Chinese imitators are constantly missing the point, and zee’s post really hit the nail on the head. He wrote:
… The history of Hip Hop culture is lost in translation, as there is a lack of Chinese articles related to this knowledge, as well as a lack of interest on the part of Chinese Hip Hoppers, many of whom are more interested in imitation of the moves and clothing styles than the informed practice of Hip Hop.
A lot of China’s imported “culture” has this problem: what I’ve been calling the problem of a “direct translation.” Musicians especially try to get from point A (amateurs) to point C (rock stars) without going through the process of B (development of your own sound, style, etc.) From what I’ve seen, this is true not only to musical sub-cultures but also to a lot of other imported cultural elements in contemporary Chinese society.
As for hip-hop, it’s such a different kind of musical culture, because it requires so much self-expression. I think this is tied closely to the issue of language. The tonal aspect of Chinese can definitely make word-play harder, or at the least dramatically different. But what is more central to the role of hip-hop is to express a story, an experience, a perspective. This role necessarily requires the process (B), the life experience to express a specific cultural moment in time and place that defines what an MC or bboy represents. A lot of Chinese hip-hoppers can express who they want to be (Eminem), but how many can express who they are?
What I’m saying is that hip-hop is not a lifestyle you chase, but a tool of expression for whatever lifestyle you have. In this sense, participation in hip-hop does not require an appreciation for its history or a fluency of English. All you need is an appreciation of your own history and have something to say about who you are. Globally there are many examples that show this: France, Japan, even the former Yugoslavia (see my college thesis haha).
A lot of the time in China, I get the feeling that hip-hop, or rock, or whatever “cool” thing is not a platform for expression as it should be, but rather the entire end goal. Obviously, this is hardly unique to China and exists everywhere, but at least from my view, this attitude is disproportionately pervasive here. I’m beginning to suspect that the source of this difference lies in two ruptures in China’s cultural history: the first being the suppression of Confucianism along with a lot of traditional Chinese culture since the rise of Communism, and the second being a huge emphasis on money and all its trappings associated with capitalist reforms post-1978. Maybe a side-effect of these influences is a youth culture that is struggling not to express its counter-cultural identity to a broader society (as has been the case with a lot of booming hip-hop scenes), but to find it’s identity outside of China’s confused and noisy cultural landscape.
So the question then becomes: what role does hip-hop really play in China?
