Cut-out: Music, Profanity, and Subcultural Politics in 1990s China Zhongwei Li A thesis submitted to the Department of Media and Communications for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The London School of Economics and Political Science London, September 2019 1 Declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the MPhil/PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without my prior written consent. I warrant that this authorisation does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. I declare that my thesis consists of 83,577 words. 2 Abstract This thesis examines the subcultural politics of the “cut-out generation” in 1990s China. It is driven by a double aspiration, and aims to bridge gaps in two main fields of literature. The first aspiration is a historical one: I offer a fine historical account of the “cut-out generation” as a slice of 1990s Chinese society, which remained overlooked in Chinese studies. The second aspiration is a theoretical one: I interrogate existing theories and concepts in the larger field of cultural studies, including music and materiality, subculture and profanity, regime of value and structure of feeling, with evidence found in this Chinese case, and point toward a comprehensive framework for the analysis of subcultural politics. The methodological approach consists of 72 in-depth life history interview and archival analysis of a “cut-out archive”, both conducted through an “ethnographic imagination” lens. The thesis unpacks subcultural politics by looking into the materiality of subcultural objects, the sensuous interactions between people and things, and the dialectical interplay between a subculture and its historical, structural settings. It has three main empirical foci corresponding to each empirical chapter and organized under three theoretical themes: politics of value, dialectics of profanity, and structure of feeling. The first empirical chapter (politics of value) investigates three contested materialities of the cut-outs as plastic scrap, defective records, and “music info”, demonstrating in this way the different regimes of value which the cut-outs travelled through. The second one (dialectics of profanity) reveals how the cut-outs became a music object whose profanity was realized in various sensuous and creative relationships formed with Chinese consumers. The last empirical chapter (structure of feeling) provides a historicized analysis of the structure of feeling of the “cut-out generation”, which functioned as an affective infrastructure which both “emerged” from and “penetrated” the historical context of 1990s China. 3 Table of Contents Declaration............................................................................................................................. 2 Abstract .................................................................................................................................. 3 List of Figures ........................................................................................................................ 8 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. 10 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 11 1.1 Overview ........................................................................................................ 11 1.2 Introducing the Cut-outs ................................................................................. 13 1.3 Historical Background: China in the 1990s .................................................... 18 1.4 Popular Music Landscape ............................................................................... 22 1.4.1 Gangtai .................................................................................................... 22 1.4.2 Tongsu ..................................................................................................... 24 1.4.3 Yaogun .................................................................................................... 25 1.4.4 Western .................................................................................................... 26 1.5 Previous Studies ............................................................................................. 28 1.5.1 Signs and Infrastructures ......................................................................... 28 1.5.2 The Rock Mythology ............................................................................... 31 1.5.3 Music Scenes ........................................................................................... 34 1.5.4 Gaps and Further Thoughts ..................................................................... 37 1.6 Thesis Outline ................................................................................................. 39 2 Subcultural Politics: A Framework .............................................................................. 41 2.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 41 2.2 Subculture and Profanity ................................................................................ 41 2.2.1 From Subculture to Post-Subculture........................................................ 41 2.2.2 Profanity .................................................................................................. 45 2.2.3 “Penetration” Reworked .......................................................................... 48 4 2.3 Subcultural Politics ......................................................................................... 51 2.3.1 Music and Materiality .............................................................................. 51 2.3.2 Politics of Value ...................................................................................... 55 2.3.3 Structure of Feeling ................................................................................. 57 2.4 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 61 3 Methodology ................................................................................................................. 63 3.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 63 3.2 Rationale ......................................................................................................... 63 3.2.1 The “Ethnographic Imagination”............................................................. 63 3.2.2 Fieldwork in the Archive ......................................................................... 67 3.2.3 Ethnography of Memory ......................................................................... 68 3.2.4 Biographical Objects ............................................................................... 69 3.3 Research Design ............................................................................................. 70 3.3.1 The “Cut-out Archive” ............................................................................ 71 3.3.2 Sampling and Recruitment ...................................................................... 72 3.3.3 Interviews ................................................................................................ 76 3.3.4 Thematic Analysis and Presentation ....................................................... 79 3.4 Ethical Considerations .................................................................................... 81 4 Politics of Value: Materiality, Knowledge, and the Cut-out Industry .......................... 83 4.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 83 4.2 Contested Materialities ................................................................................... 83 4.2.1 The Cut-out Pyramid ............................................................................... 83 4.2.2 The Thingness of Liao ............................................................................. 85 4.2.3 The Turnstile of Value ............................................................................. 90 4.2.4 The Vocabulary of Defectiveness............................................................ 93 4.3 Valuable Knowledge ...................................................................................... 97 5 4.3.1 “Music Info” ............................................................................................ 97 4.3.2 “Doing Titles” ....................................................................................... 100 4.3.3 “Preaching” Rock .................................................................................. 107 4.3.4 Cut-out Media ........................................................................................ 113 4.3.5 “Too Much Good Music” ...................................................................... 115 4.4 Conclusion ...................................................................................................