Chinese Popular Music

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This course explores the complex relationships underlying Chinese music, Chinese language and Chinese literature. It focuses on Chinese music from the perspective of Chinese-language popular music produced in the People's Republic of China (PRC), Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore. These four economies have developed different strands of popular music in Mandarin and various Chinese dialects, due to different linguistic and ideological environments. Students will learn how Chinese-language popular music draws upon the aesthetics of Chinese literature and traditional Chinese music, and how Chinese popular music has hybridised influences from foreign musical genres, thus expressing different versions of "Chineseness".