Chinese Popular Musics in Dialogue

This course provides an introduction to the major popular music cultures of the Chinese-speaking world. It considers a wide variety of genres, from Shanghainese shidaiqu to Cantopop to Taiwanese rap, with the goal of listening beyond the notion of a monolithic “Chinese popular music” to something more dynamic, multivocal, and translocal. Students explore what, if anything, is so “Chinese” about Chinese popular music, how popular music participates in the formation of identities for artists and audiences, and how it enables the articulation of diverging social and political values while also facilitating meaningful connections among disparate communities. The course approaches these questions through diverse source materials, including sound recordings, music videos, films, and online multimedia.