Hip-Hop Culture in China

Country/Region: Mainland China
Goal: To understand the meaning of Hip-Hop in a Chinese cultural context
Status: Completed

Hip-Hop, at its roots, was and is the heartbeat of a new generation – the generation that grew from racism, poverty, classism, and many other “isms.” Hip-Hop culture gave the underprivileged a voice, a vehicle through which life in the slums can be articulated to a widespread audience. In many ways it also served as a salvation that diverted teens away from gang life and encouraged them to become socially conscious. The energy of rap music is derived from the struggles of the African-American community against oppression, redlining, poverty, drugs and crime in America. Even the fashion trend of baggy clothes has been traced to circumstances of poverty. Destitute parents could afford only one set of clothes for their children, so kids roamed the ghettos sporting extra-large outfits until they grew into their clothes.

The key messenger in Hip-Hop is the MC; a multi-culturalist, a microphone coordinator, and a master of ceremonies that drives the essence of people through the knowledge of words and definitions. An MC is a versatile poet, a storyteller, an elder who carries the knowledge of wordplay to manipulate emotions in his/her audience.

Unfortunately Hip-Hop has a fierce enemy. Commercial pop media corrupts the youth and elders of Hip-Hop. Under the repulsive theory that Rap music ought to be “gangster /thuggish” in nature, poetic scripts of Hip-Hop originators are manipulated and homogenized to satisfy corporate interests. The hypnotic sound waves of the innocent poet are turned into advertisements for alcohol, sex, smoking, weapons, violence, and material goods. It is a capitalistic epidemic under which the artist (MC) is tricked into believing that a check is more important than the trust of his people, and that corporate vanity is worth more that the soul and heart of the culture. The knowledge of self is lost. Consequently the soul of Hip-Hop vanishes, the artist is lost, the people stop moving, and the true inspiration is not heard, seen, nor felt.

In China, Hip-Hop has emerged under this same umbrella of commercialism. But below the surface lurks a greater truth to this cross-cultural convergence, so I set out to explore its significance. In a tongue foreign to my own, I sought to bring Hip-Hop to the highest level, through friendships, dialogue, awareness and television media. Simultaneously, I had to ask myself, what could hip-hop really mean to a culturally homogeneous society like China? What original foundations of hip-hop still exist? What’s been lost? And what does it mean for some of the messengers (MCs)?

The results of this investigation were stunning. As I roamed the far corners of this vast country, with Beijing at the epicenter of my travels, Hip-Hop, for certain sectors of this society had also become part of a new generation. Unlike America, it did not grow out of oppression, poverty or racism per say, but as a way for the youth to express themselves in a society that’s been long-silenced by a communist past. For many of them, growing up in an environment strongly overshadowed by a devastative Cultural Revolution has brought about an energetic drive that molds perfectly into orthodox Hip-Hop philosophy. Here too, poets speak words of wisdom on the topics they understand most. Through their verbiage I found that same feeling that brought me back to the days of when Hip-Hop meant love…in its most pure form. And though the majority of listeners may never know the true essence of Hip-Hop, the microphone serves them just as well on the path to enlightenment and self-discovery. Respect due to the minority of brethren that have resisted the forces of self-corruption and remain strong in the battle for righteousness, and again, to those from the Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou undergrounds that communicate in verses. One Love, Always.

A Dedication – Click the following pictures to enlarge:

Listen, the Sound of China: