Cultural Fusion in the Digital Age: Rock Music Scenes and its Subcultural Community in Contemporary China By Mengyao Jiang Canterbury Christ Church University Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2018 Abstract This PhD thesis is concerned with understanding the social, political, and economic transformations within China and their impact upon Chinese popular music and youth culture in terms of ‘cultural fusion’. The study employs an interdisciplinary approach combining the academic fields: popular music studies, media and cultural studies, sociology, youth studies and social geography. The PhD addresses Simon Frith’s (Frith 1978, 1996) positioning of rock as an umbrella term, inclusive of a variety of music genres such as post-punk, alternative, indie, and post-rock. Through the notion of cultural fusion, the study seeks to illuminate the rise and decline of Chinese rock in the contexts of marketisation, globalisation and the rise of new media. It also explores how rock’s revival through social media shapes urban Chinese youth identities through these changes. Ethnographic and textual research techniques are used in the thesis alongside autoethnography defining my research position as both a critical outsider and an insider of Chinese popular music. The data sets include analysis of rock magazines, documentaries, lyrics, interviews and observations with 80 research participants, who are musicians, critics, audiences and fans. In addition, the study employs content analysis and semiotics. Data has been collected in Beijing, Shanghai, Qingdao and Zibo. These research sites represent cultural diversity from different tiers of economically diverse cities in China. Data has also been collected in London, which is identified as a location offering cultural fusion as part of the music scene in Europe. The thesis explores how rock music has become an expressive tool for Chinese youth to carve out space from realities and controls. It focuses on Chinese youth from a middle-class background and those who migrate to study in the UK. These Chinese youths participate in Western music scenes and bridge popular cultural exchange between the East and the West. The PhD also examines marginal voices and positions within Chinese rock subcultural communities. It suggests rock music articulates subcultural resistance to the structural inequalities of class, gender and ethnicity. The ethnographic data indicates a cultural fusion phenomenon between the East and the West within the music scene, characterised by dynamics and complexities. It symbolises struggles and conflicts for Chinese youth, who face an increasing commercialised and globalised Chinese society. 1 Table of Contents Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Table of Contents ..................................................................................................................... 2 Notes on Romanisation ............................................................................................................ 6 Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. 7 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 9 Chapter 1: Literature Review: Studying Popular Music ................................................... 17 1.1. Debates in studying popular music ............................................................................ 18 1.1.1. Popular music studies ............................................................................................. 18 1.1.2. Cultural studies of popular music: Subcultures and post-subcultures .................... 24 1.1.3. The sociology of popular music: The music industry and global homogenisation 39 1.2. Popular Music and Youth Culture in China ............................................................ 46 1.2.1. Key themes and discussions on Chinese popular music and youth culture ............ 46 1.2.2. Theorizing Chinese youth ....................................................................................... 50 1.2.3. Understanding urban youth culture and popular music through socio, economic and political change .......................................................................................................... 54 Summary ............................................................................................................................. 68 Chapter 2: Methodologies: Fieldwork, data collection and interpretation ...................... 69 2.1. Research design, strategies and data collection ........................................................ 70 2.1.1. Ethnographic traditions and influences .................................................................. 70 2.1.2. Reflexivity of the research ...................................................................................... 73 2.1.3. Identifying research sites and locations for ethnography ....................................... 78 2.1.4. Interviews ............................................................................................................... 79 2.1.5. Participant observation ........................................................................................... 86 2.1.6. Autoethnography .................................................................................................... 90 2.1.7. Textual approach of content analysis and semiotics .............................................. 93 2.2. Data analysis and interpretation ................................................................................ 97 2.2.1. Thick description .................................................................................................... 97 2.2.2. Grounded theory analysis ....................................................................................... 98 2.2.3. From immersion to data transcription, translation and extraction ........................ 102 2 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 108 Chapter 3: Mapping out Chinese Rock Music Scenes and Youth Culture through Social Change .................................................................................................................................. 109 3.1. Chinese rock in transition: The emergence and decline of Chinese rock music scenes – exploring the cultural meaning of Chinese rock, past and present............... 110 3.1.1. Emergence: Social contexts and geographies of Chinese rock ............................ 111 3.1.2. Music and the politics of place: Towards cultural fusion ..................................... 114 3.1.3. The popularisation of Chinese rock as a resistant sound and its decline .............. 120 3.2. The rebirth of Chinese rock: Commercialisation, festivalisation and digitalisation ............................................................................................................................................ 128 3.2.1. Tensions and opportunities: Chinese rock in the continuing of economic reforms ........................................................................................................................................ 128 3.2.2. Dakou youth culture ............................................................................................. 129 3.2.3. New Sound Movement and D.I.Y. record labels .................................................. 133 3.2.4. Technological influences and the rise of virtual community ............................... 138 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 141 Chapter 4: Subaltern Sound and Disadvantaged Youth within Chinese Rock Music Communities ......................................................................................................................... 142 4.1. Introducing marginal voices of disadvantaged youth: A newly emerged Chinese working class and ethnic inequality ................................................................................ 143 4.1.1. Class and inequality in contemporary China ........................................................ 143 4.1.2. Subcultural community and marginal youth in Beijing ........................................ 148 4.1.3. The voices of non-Han ethnic minorities: The case of Shanren (Mountain Man)156 4.2. A new genre of Chinese rock music – agriculture metal and kuso youth culture ............................................................................................................................................ 166 4.2.1. The changing meaning of agriculture metal as a music genre: From positivity and eco-friendly towards negativity and sarcasm ................................................................. 167 4.2.2. Kuso reconstructions and subcultural resistance by ‘agriculture metal soldiers’ (nongjin zhanshi) ............................................................................................................ 170 4.2.3. Social media communication, friendships and subcultural authenticity .............. 174 4.2.4. Female voices, identity and sexual relationships.................................................. 177 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................