Culture, Communication and Hybridity: The Case of The Rap of China

ABSTRACT

This paper proposes that cultural hybridity presents an important way of synthesizing the study of culture and communication in the context of globalization. It explores the historical development of rap and hip-hop as translocal cultural forms, that have their roots in U.S. African-American culture, but have been adapted in multiple ‘translocal’ contexts around the world. It takes the highly successful Chinese online entertainment program The Rap of China as a case study in how such a ‘foreign’ cultural form is adapted and modified in a distinctive political, cultural and media context, and how streaming services such as iQIYI are carrying new and innovative cultural product. It also notes tensions that surround rap and hip-hop in China, particularly around forms of cultural expression, the aspirations of young Chinese, the desire to reach international markets with Chinese television product, and the ambivalent stance of the agencies of the Chinese party-state towards it.

KEYWORDS:

• Rap
• hip-hop
• China
• globalization
• translocal
• hybridity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Terry Flew is Professor of Communication and Creative Industries at the Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. He is the author of 11 books (three edited), including Understanding Global Media (Palgrave), Politics, Media and Democracy in Australia (Routledge), Media Economics (Palgrave) and Global Creative Industries (Polity). He has authored 53 book chapters, 86 refereed journal articles, and 16 reports and research monographs. He is currently the President-elect of the International Communications Association (ICA), becoming ICA President in May 2019. He is on the Editorial Board of 13 academic journals, and was the founding Editor-in-Chief of Communication Research and Practice.

Mark David Ryan is a chief investigator of the Digital Media Research Centre and a Senior Lecturer in Film, Screen and Animation at the Queensland University of Technology. He has written extensively on Australian cinema and media production. Mark is a co-editor of Australian Screen in the 2000s (Palgrave Macmillan) and the Directory of World Cinema: Australia and New Zealand 2 (Intellect). His research has been published in New Review of Film & Television Studies, Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, Media International Australia: Incorporating Culture and Policy, and Journal of Australian Studies among others.

Chunmeizi Su is a PhD graduate of the School of Communication in the Creative Industries Faculty at the Queensland University of Technology. Her research interests are mainly focused on digital media, Chinese internet companies, screen industry studies, and cultural soft power. Her thesis was on internet-distributed television in China.

ORCID

Terry Flew http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4485-9338