A Critical Anaysis of Identity, Media, and Popular Music in the Voice Of
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WHOSE VOICE?: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF IDENTITY, MEDIA, AND POPULAR MUSIC IN THE VOICE OF CHINA Xinxin Jiang A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY August 2018 Committee: Alberto González, Advisor Angela Ahlgren Graduate Faculty Representative Katherine Meizel Becca Cragin © 2018 Xinxin Jiang All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Alberto González, Advisor This manuscript explores the relationships among identity, media, and popular music in Chinese society through an examination of a televised singing competition franchise, The Voice of China. I attempt to understand what role popular culture, in the form of a contemporary popular cultural product, plays in Chinese people’s everyday life and how the show is a site where Chinese people articulate, interrogate and negotiate aspects of identity. I provide a textual analysis to interpret the meaningful details of each episode while employing a critical-cultural approach to understand the socio-historical contexts and the online discourse that are conducive to the uniqueness of the international franchise. More specifically, I examine how societal discourses on the blind audition and the voting systems of the show reveal growing public awareness of and concern with issues of equity and fairness in the cultural arena of traditional aesthetic standards as well as the societal arena of electoral politics. I also explore how the show reinforces the ruling Party’s appropriations of nationalism in a sophisticated way to highlight a unified and supreme national voice, how it reflects both a loosening grip of the central government on gender representation and a growing social leniency toward gender diversity, and finally how the voice diversity was constructed by individuals who are in possession of or in need of various forms of social capital and who are from geographically diverse and economically disparate social backgrounds. I point out that The Voice of China offers a prime site to understand how the discourses of politics, (trans)nationality, ethnicity, gender, and class intersect with each other in the situated context and hopefully, such a discussion can raise the cultural awareness to challenge institutional power and social norms in order to hear the diversified voices in Chinese society. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many people have helped me with work on the doctoral degree and this dissertation. My first and foremost gratitude goes to my advisor, Dr. Alberto González who has been a mentor, a friend, and a father along the arduous journey. I thank him for his wisdom, encouragement, and guidance that I hold in highest regard. I feel truly fortunate and blessed to have been his advisee. I owe a debt of gratitude to Dr. Katherine Meizel whose work greatly inspired me. She has always been willing to hear me when I felt confused and has constantly offered me musical expertise that I am not familiar with. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my other committee members Dr. Becca Cragin and Dr. Angela Ahlgren for their insightful feedback and support. I am also thankful for the conversations that I had with Dr. Timothy Messer-Kruse, Dr. Jeremy Wallach, Dr. Esther Clinton, Dr. Vibha Bhalla, and Dr. Susana Peña. I am especially grateful to my friends at Bowing Green State University who kept me company, gave me encouragement, and offered me different kinds of help on this lonely journey. They are Xidan Liang, Xiaoyu Hu, Siyu Wei, Kaitlyn Wauthier, Linsay Cramer, Andrew Donofrio, Aimee Burns, Tran Hai Ly, Wonseok Lee and Claire Semer. My special thanks go to my boyfriend Ke Ji who deserves endless credits for being supportive, helpful, and tolerant. My personal growth and academic accomplishments would not have been achieved if without him. Finally, I would like to thank my parents who show care and love in my pursuit of the dream. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION: POPULAR CULTURE, SINGING COMPETITION, AND THE VOICE ........................................................................................................................... 1 Research Questions .................................................................................................... 2 Rationale ............................................................................................................ 5 Literature Review ...................................................................................................... 9 Popular Culture in the West and in China .................................................... 9 Scholarly Inquiry on Televised Singing Contests ......................................... 13 Scholarly Inquiry on Chinese Popular Music ............................................... 16 Theoretical Framework and Methodology ................................................................. 19 The Voice in Discourse ................................................................................. 20 Methodology .................................................................................................. 25 Overview of Chapters ............................................................................................... 28 CHAPTER II. UNCHANGED THEMES: THE BLIND AUDITION, THE VOTING SYSTEM, AND THE MUSIC ............................................................................................................ 33 The Voice of China and Sing! China: An Overview and Some Highlights ............... 35 The Blind Audition: An Illusion of Fairness ............................................................. 42 The Voting System: The Controlled Democracy ....................................................... 49 Hybridized Music: The Everlasting Public Enjoyment ............................................. 56 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 65 vi CHAPTER III. PATRIOTIC SONGS, NATIONALIST RHETORIC, AND ETHNIC PERFORMANCES: THE REPRESENTATION OF NATIONAL IDENTITY AND NATIONALISM ............................................................................................................ 68 The Discourse of Nationalism in Chinese Musical Scenes ....................................... 70 Patriotic Messages in “I Love You, China” .............................................................. 77 The Reiteration of Two Nationalist Rhetorical Themes ............................................ 85 Minority Ethnic Groups on National Stages .............................................................. 93 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 102 CHAPTER IV. FICTIVE KINSHIP, MUSIC PLAYING, AND ANDROGYNY: THE PERFORMANCE OF GENDER AND GENDER ROLES .................................................. 106 The Genealogy of Gender and Gender Roles in the Chinese Music Scene ............... 108 Performing Gender Roles via Fictive Kinship .......................................................... 116 Gender Roles in Popular Music Making and Performing .......................................... 123 Performing Androgyny: Transgressed Bodies and Voices ........................................ 131 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 139 CHAPTER V. MUSIC TASTES, PROFESSIONAL AMATEURISM, AND SOCIAL DIVIDE: THE FORMATION OF VOCAL DIVERSITY .................................................................... 143 The Association of Music with Class Stratification in Chinese History ................... 145 Cultural Capital, Music Tastes and the New Class Culture ...................................... 151 Time, Money, and Quality: The Social Divide of Professional and Amateur Musicians ……………………………………………………………………………………… 159 The Overseas, Urbanites, Migrants and Ruralites: Voices from Everywhere ........... 165 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 172 vii CHAPTER VI. CONCLUSIONS ......................................................................................... 175 REFERENCES ...................................................................................................................... 184 1 CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION: POPULAR CULTURE, SINGING COMPETITION, AND THE VOICE On July 15, 2016, the singing competition show, formerly known as The Voice of China, aired as anticipated after a months-long lawsuit on rights to the brand name between the local partner Star China Media (SCM) and Talpa Global, the Dutch producer of The Voice franchise. But this time, the show had a different name, Sing! China. Audiences who had watched any episode of the first four seasons of The Voice of China could easily identify that the so-called new show still followed the old format: the same judging panel, the same competition process— blind audition, battle round, and live performance, and the same voting system. The major differences included a change of host, the redesigning of the stage setting, and a new logo. Due to the copyright controversy, the new show had to abandon its signature chair-turning trick in the blind auditions during which the judges turn their seats to face the contestants who they select to work with. In the new season, the judges sat on chariot-like chairs that slid down 15-foot high tracks and rushed towards the contestants. In its new incarnation,