My attempted thesis will be divided into three chapters. To give a clear picture of the development of Taiwanese hip hop music and its relation among the East Asian countries, I will discuss its historical backgrounds, global dissemination to the analyses of socio-political accounts to focus on hip hop’s global experiences in the realm of popular culture and how the transnational cultural flow has affected its development in Taiwan and East Asia. To begin with, I first explore the history of hip __________________
7. See Eun-young Jung, “Transnatinoal Cultural Traffic in Northeast Asia: The ‘Presence’ of Japan in Korea’s Popular Music Cuture.” Ph. D. Diss., Univ. of Pittsburgh, 2007.
hop, from its origin in America to the later disseminations around the world to bring out some important ideas of cultural globalization and issues that have been addressed or concerned. I shall briefly introduce the history of hip hop culture, focusing on its influences of music form and politics; in addition to its background history, I also pay close attention to the language use of rap, a kind of African storytelling originally called “griot” (The History of Rap music 10), and since this chanted rhymes turns into a distinct modern black verbal communication, its diasporic feature has become part of “a transnational movement and collective, a transnational dialogue speaking to local political and economic conditions and providing cultural resources for local populations to find a voice and means of expression” (Wise 99). Yet, after rap records and videos have been spread globally, this cultural power of hip hop, as Lipsitz has viewed it “the radical nature of hip hop comes less from its origins than from its uses”
(Dangerous Crossroads 37). I will continue to focus on the globalization of hip hop around world and how it causes tremendous popularity and cultural phenomena since hip hop “demonstrates the various and particular flows of people, music and politics we’ve been discussing as crucial to understanding cultural globalization” (Wise 101).
My main focus in Chapter Two lies in the development of hip hop music in the contexts of East Asian countries, and I attempt to connect their interrelations by closely observing the cultural flow and the “transnationalism” among them. In addition to merely stating the development of hip hop music in each country, I would draw attention to Iwabuchi’s analyses of trans/nationalism among East Asian
countries and take Japan and South Korea hip hop (presented features as Korean Wave) as two main focuses. According to Iwabuchi, “[c]ultural flows among East Asian countries, particularly between Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea are gradually becoming active and constant more than ever”; however, cultural flows in East Asia circulating as transnationalism turns out to highlight “uneven power in the
region” (Iwabuchi 201). Japan, in particular, as a major role in constructing meaning under the system of global capitalism, intertwines with its nationalistic discourse to generate the transnational cultural power in Asia; in another word, the
transnationalism of Japan’s popular culture renders cultural superiority and
“postcolonial desire for ‘Asia’” (Iwabuchi 202). I will adopt this assertion and combine it with another significant notion “Korean Wave” (Hallyu or Hanryu in Korean), which recently has been considered a cultural invasion in the popular cultural studies to draw significance on how they influence the development of hip hop in East Asia, especially K-pop is considered, as Joon has put it “a localized hip hop” (92). This discussion will also be continued to the next chapter to show how Japanese and Korean hip hop makes great impact on transnational Taiwanese hip hop music.
I would like to draw attention in Chapter Three to Taiwanese hip hop music scene to foremost give an account for the development of hip hop music in Taiwan and the particular issues (Korean Wave and diaspora) concerning East Asian hip hop nowadays and later discuss their interrelationship among each other. This chapter is divided into three parts. I first introduce a brief development of Taiwanese hip hop history to further analyze what topics are most discussed and therefore contextualize the whole picture of the development of Taiwanese hip hop culture in East Asia. Then, I shall discuss that ever since the emergence of Taiwanese hip hop culture has become one of the globally hegemonic forms of popular culture, its transnational
interrelationship among those East Asian countries would trigger myriad social influences and generate cultural transformations. Second, I draw special attention to the rappers and hip hop groups as my image and lyric text to exemplify the trans-Asian collaborations in Taiwan. I will adopt Shin Hyunjoon’s concept of
“transbordering” to support my analyses. Transnational collaborations of music can
and always, in a sense, reflect and present the cultural and music flow. Taiwanese hip hop group Da Mouth (Da Zuiba 大嘴巴), and rapper Softlipa (Dan Bao 蛋堡) to be the cases (both image and lyrics context) to discuss the East Asian collaborations of Taiwanese hip hop music and what phenomena and effects they cause by examining and comparing their music style, modes of collaboration and their figure images.
Along with these two different types of hip hop artists and groups, I also address Nicky Lee (李玖哲 이철구), the former member of the Machi crew and now leading vocal of the Asian band (as they name it,) Aziatix and also Jae Chong, the famous Korean-American producer in East Asia to connect their trans-Asian collaboration to construct “Asian hip hop” in their debut album. With the analyses of Da Mouth and Softlipa, I tend to indicate that the recent emergence of the two seemingly wants to transform the impression that hip hop music used to bring to the mass from hatred, condemnation, sex or misogyny to a more urbanized and less hard-core preference. In addition, the members of Da Mouth come from different music and cultural
backgrounds, including Japanese, Japanese, Taiwanese, and Taiwanese-Korean descendants, which to a certain extent strengthen the notion of transbordering, no matter in music or in culture. As to Softlipa, his music style, by the cover slogan, is described as “rap with urban Jazzy hip hop style”; his Golden Melody Award-winning album Moonlight and new release Riding Bicycle were produced and collaborated by one Japanese hip hop producer, Shin-Ski, and an urban jazz group, Jabberloop. I particularly focus on the Japanese producers here because the transnational crossover collaboration, which Softlipa presents in his music; I argue that a different Taiwanese hip hop style of musical expression has thus been formed that Taiwanese local
independent rappers have no longer insisted on the way of making their music on their own for the purpose of national identity; instead, they turn to transnational
collaborations to seek a novel breakthrough. Last, I seek to address the issue of the
possibility of transnational Taiwanese hip hop music by arguing that there is no absolute “authenticity” in global hip hop, because under the age of globalization, any claim of any “authentic” cultural form would comparatively dubious when to comes to essentialism.
My thesis seeks to explore transnational Taiwanese hip hop music in the context of East Asia and therefore indicate the possibility of “trans-Asian” hip hop music in Taiwan. I combine contemporary globalization theories as analytical
backgrounds; I further address significant cross-cultural issues, such as Korean Wave and transnational Taiwanese hip hop music as my main observing focuses. I will also examine the transnational Taiwanese hip hop music as the case study to support my assertion. My main aim in this thesis is to offer a solid research of trans-Asia Taiwanese hip hop music and to develop its cultural routes and cause in East Asia.
Chapter One
A Brief History of Hip Hop Music and Its Globalization
Nobody knows how a rapper really feels A mind full of rhymes, and a tongue of steel Just put on the hammer, and you will be rewarded My beat is ever boomin’, and you know I get it started
MC Hammer, “Let’s Get It Started” (1988)
From the very beginning of hip hop culture, the African diaspora holds a large part of its cultural origin, just as many other music forms popularized in America (e.g., jazz, blues, rhythm and blues and rock ‘n’ roll). Hip hop’s African root later develops its spirit throughout the practice of the language form, rap, and other important elements (breakdance, graffiti and deejaying) to communicate messages of different social and life issues.
As hip hop culture emerges from the intertwined Black and Latin communities in America, its innate political nature has thus been presented in order to address the ongoing poverty, racial discrimination and social injustice. The hip hoppers who have an alternative mind in exposing their wrath and channeling their voice build their identity and subjectivity on rap, break dancing, graffiti and deejaying; their distinctive life styles soon receive wide attention in public and become one of the most
influential youth and popular cultures around the world. As Nelson George points out,
“[B]ecause hip hop has so many elements—music, dance, attitude—its essential mutability makes it adaptable worldwide” (Hip Hop America 203). As hip hop expands and grows as a contemporary global cultural form, its wider impacts on different groups, cultures and regions have thus become notable and researchable.