The Performance of Identity in Chinese Popular Music

Popular music in Chinese languages both reflects and influences how its audiences perceive themselves and their position in the world around them. This book analyses the role of popular music in identity formation through detailed comparisons of the pop star Faye Wong, the rock band Second Hand Rose and the electrofolk artist Xiao He, in five thematic chapters. Chapter 1, Place, follows the history of popular music through Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taipei and Beijing, concluding that language is defining. Chapter 2, Genre and Classification, argues that genre distinctions, and by extension class identities, are secondary to affiliations along region, gender, generation and marketability. The psycho-analytical approach of chapter 3, Sex, Gender, and Desire, explores how popular music reiterate and challenge stereotypes surrounding the passive beauty, coolness and brotherhood. Chapter 4, Theatricality, argues that theatrical performances negotiate the boundary between stage world and ordinary reality through make-believe and reflectiveness. Finally, chapter 5, Organizing Music, submits that music happens through reproduction, variation and selection, and in constant interaction with ecologies and collectives. In the end, this book itself strives to make these sounds, images and texts available for the incessant, piecemeal work of worldmaking.