The Anti Neo-Democracy Theorist

Recently, I have become interested in the relationship between popular Chinese/Asian music and the notion of a Chinese/Asian “public space.” One of the things that people laugh at, including many journalists and academicians, is that Asian popular music and its political, societal and leisure implications is a topic actually worth studying. Considering that millions of East Asians, from Indonesians to Vietnamese to China to Japan to Korea sing karaoke and take part in singing competitions everyday, and that politicians have become apt at singing many of these popular songs to win votes, I don’t know how long journalists and academicians can laugh at this “trivial, similar and  subaltern culture”. Also many young Asians grow up with a favorite idol and many of them would actually sacrifice their daily lives to chase these idols across space and time when they are growing up. What did it mean to grow up with popular idols? How does the transnational nature of Chinese music unite or divide the Chinese and its diaspora? What did it mean to belong to a “fan club”?  How is popular musicians and music used by politicians (recall Zhang Hui Mei’s ban from Mainland China after she sang the Taiwan’s national anthem) to promote their own agenda? Why have popular musicians, with their huge following, remain largely apolitical or have chosen to support the ruling regime? How have musicians be co-opted into the political system? These issues deserve some serious thinking and research.

 Clearly these young people in their millions are not necessarily engaging in a public discourse within a Habermas’s public sphere in terms of their interests in popular Asian music, but something is going on that is beyond the control of the state.  For e.g., A ban of certain artists in Malaysia, Singapore, China, Vietnam, Indonesia has never fail to draw the people’s criticism or support towards the ruling authority.

To digress, it is interesting to see Sun Yan Zi’s song “我不難過” (I am not upset) being sang by so many different artists, predominately Taiwanese singers. The transnational nature of Chinese popular music can indeed be reproduced in many ways. For a lighter amd normative question, who do you think sang better?

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