This thesis investigates the changing meaning of Chinese rock music under the altering social, political and cultural contexts in contemporary China. Rock music is taken as a cultural practice with its meanings embedded in its specific historical condition....[ Read more ]

This thesis investigates the changing meaning of Chinese rock music under the altering social, political and cultural contexts in contemporary China. Rock music is taken as a cultural practice with its meanings embedded in its specific historical condition.

One important theme of the thesis is Chinese rock music's challenge of the hegemonic discourse. Rock's critique of the state is not addressed directly but rather through symbolism and metaphors, while its performative elements (such as Cui Jian blindfolding himself with a piece of red cloth) often helps to convey the hidden meanings more explicitly. It is also in its idiosyncratic style which embodies the rebellion and marginality of rock subculture that a symbolic war with the dominant culture is fought out.

As the most important youth culture in contemporary China, Chinese rock articulates the youngest and most rebellious sound of the youth. Entering into the late nineties, rock's battlefield has shifted to the struggle with the corruption of everyday reality. Its protest against the hypocrisy of the adult world and its celebration of youth bring Chinese rock into another cultural terrain; this is not a specific problem faced by the communist youth but is universal which is equally important to Western rock. Constantly opening up new possibilities for personal resistance, Chinese rock proves to be an important cultural form one cannot ignore.