The Tragedy of Old School Beijing Hip-Hop with Olivia Fu

Sinica Podcast

Kaiser Kuo

Culture, China News, Hangzhou, Chinese, International Relations, Chongqing, Beijing, Sichuan, Currentaffairs, China, Politics, Chengdu, Shanghai, Guangzhou, China Economy, News, China Politics, Business, Film, Shenzhen

4.8 • 676 Ratings

🗓️ 7 September 2024

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week on Sinica, I chat with Olivia Fu, who this spring completed her year at Schwarzman College and wrote her Capstone project — a research paper that is required of all Schwarzman Scholars — on the rise and fall of the Beijing hip-hop scene. We explore some of the parallels to Beijing's rock scene, and how many of the same factors that stifled rock in Beijing ultimately led to Beijing's relative decline as a hip-hop city.

3:16 – Olivia’s background and connection to China, and what drew her to the Schwarzman Program and studying hip-hop

6:13 – Olivia’s Schwarzman mentor, Paul Pickowicz

7:47 – How Olivia dealt with censorship in her Capstone project

10:24 – The parallels and differences between the hip-hop and rock scenes in China

12:27 – The dakou CDs and the origins of the hip-hop scene in China

17:03 – The influences of Japanese and Korean rap and hip-hop and Black American culture

18:30 – The importance of studying Beijing hip-hop

23:05 – The spirit of Beijing and societal commentary in Beijing hip-hop

27:38 – The phenomenon of Rap of China

29:50 – The divergence of PG One and GAI, and the regulatory influence of the State Administration on Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television

35:13 – Sinifying hip-hop

37:21 – What the burgeoning hip-hop scene in China was like in the early 2000s

40:10 – Critiques of the Beijing dialect in rap and the Beijing rap style

45:16 – Iron Mic rap battles and Shanghai, and Chinese hip-hop’s critique of the educational system

48:34 – Why Beijing rap declined

59:09 – What’s next for Olivia

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Audible brings your wildest adventures to life, delivering heart-pounding thrills at the touch
0:05.8	of a button.
0:07.0	Take Richard Osmond's The Thursday Murder Club, where four retirees turned amateur sleuths
0:11.8	solve crimes in the most unexpected ways, brilliantly performed by Leslie Manville.
0:17.1	Ready to unleash your adventure aside, from pulse racing suspense to epic quests, from supernatural
0:22.6	chills to far-off romances, every story comes alive through world-class narration.
0:28.5	Explore exclusive audible originals, chart-topping new releases, and unforgettable bestsellers
0:34.4	that transport you from the very first word, because the next great
0:38.2	adventure is just a listener way.
0:40.8	Start your free 30-day trial at audible.com slash Wondery UK.
0:45.7	That's audible.com slash Wondery UK. Welcome to the Cynical Podcast, a weekly discussion of current affairs in China.
1:03.0	In this program, we'll look at books, ideas, new research, intellectual currents, and cultural trends
1:08.1	that can help us better understand what's happening in China's politics, foreign relations, economics, and society.
1:14.5	Join me each week for in-depth conversations that shed more light and bring less heat to how we
1:20.4	think and talk about China. I'm Kaiser Guo coming to you from Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
1:26.6	Cynica is supported this year by the
1:28.0	Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a National Resource Center
1:33.1	for the study of East Asia. The Cynica podcast will remain free, but if you work for an
1:38.0	organization that believes in what I'm doing with the show, please consider lending your support.
1:42.7	You can get me at Cinecapod at gmail.com.
1:46.9	And listeners, please support my work at Cinecapodcast.com. There you will find, in addition to the
1:53.6	podcast, the complete transcript of the show, a weekly essay from me, and now a wide range of offerings
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Kaiser Kuo, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Kaiser Kuo and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.