Category:Research

From Rock in China Wiki

Contents 1 General information 2 Who is conducting research 2.1 Universities 2.2 Organisations 2.3 Undergraduates & Graduates 2.4 Chinese music critics 2.5 Exhibitions and collections 3 What has been written already 4 Tools 5 Requesting information 6 Studies in relation to music worldwide

General information

This should help as a start to dive deeper into the issue of researching Chinese music, both traditional and modern, whereas within this project (RiC) a focus is laid on modern Chinese music, be it rock, underground, pop, jazz or electro music. The team behind Rock in China and numerous helpers all around the world have collected references, music samples, articles and first-hand-interviews with Chinese artists in the last twenty years.

The research section of Rock in China is connecting the various pieces of information available and putting them in a useful context for further exploration and use. E.g. the Band Forming Timeline combines in one page a graphical overview of the underground activities in China. Aggregated in a powerful chart, the boom time of the underground scene can clearly be identified.

This starting page is giving you an overview on the general research activites, surplus at the bottom of the page, divided in subcategories and specific articles, further information either on the topic of research or general and helpful information to conduct research, e.g. the History of Rock in China article, the Chinese Mythology article and other gateway categories that substitute and aggregate background information. Most topics, that only touch the music scene, such as traditional music instruments or Chinese myths that are used as theme in a song are not dived in too deeply yet, so if you feel they should be included, please feel free to do so.

Enjoy the hunt ...

Who is conducting research

At present there are several societies and researchers actively conducting research about contemporary music in China. Several others have touched the topic and written and published thesis or papers on this regard.

Universities

University	Department / Centre	Focus	Webpage	Remarks
University of Aarhus (Denmark)	Dept. of East Asian Studies			Assist. Professor Andreas Steen
University of Heidelberg (Germany)	Institute of Sinology	Contemporary Music	http://www.sino.uni-heidelberg.de/	University of Prof. B. Mittler
Leiden University (Netherlands)
Chinese University of Hong Kong	Department of Music		http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/mus/	Information on current and important holdings, history of the Chinese Music Archive, and current staff
University of London	Department of Music / Centre of Chinese Studies	Ethnomusicology; musics of China and Central Asia, especially Uyghur; recorded music; music and ritual, music, identity and politics	http://www.soas.ac.uk/music/	University of Dr. Rachel Harris

Organisations

• CHIME, the European Foundation For Chinese Music Research
• EACS, the European Association of Chinese Studies
• AAS, the Association for Asian Studies (general)
• Asian Studies. IIAS, the International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden University, The Netherlands:
• Asian Studies (general): ASEM (Asia-Europe Meeting) website offers info on activities, electronic document delivery, titles of academic articles and books and NGO reports. Updated weekly.
• Asian Music. Society for Asian Music, Kent State University, Ohio, USA. Journal: Asian Music.
• Journal of Music in China. Editor: Zhou Qinru. Published twice a year in Los Angeles. (NB: this website has been suspended!)
• Chinese Music Society of North America

Undergraduates & Graduates

This is only a selection of valid researchers. 
If you are conducting research, please contact us and add yourself to the list.

• Angela D. Steele and Lila Babb via their Hip Hop in China (Blog) on Hip Hop in general
• John Thompson, who wrote his thesis on emo music in China (including The Raving Radio and Surprise)
• Pawel Maciejewski, researching for his master thesis
• L.White, 2006, 'The Alternative Music scene in Beijing since 1989 and social change', University of Cambridge (Undergraduate thesis)
• Rebecca Cowell, File:Representin (online version).pdf, University of Cambridge (Undergraduate thesis), 2010.
• Michael Marshall, PhD at University of Washington in Seattle, working on Beijing rock/punk scene

Chinese music critics

Jereon Groenewegen has published a list of Chinese music critics.

Exhibitions and collections

There are a few collections available at various libraries and universities.

• The Andreas Steen Collection at the University of Heidelberg, Germany
• The Rock in China Collection at Rock in China (tbd)

What has been written already

list of articles / list of thesis / a list of references / list of books

Publication date	Author	Title	Range and genre covered	Download
2011	Lukas Kirschner	Zeitgenössische Chinesische Folkmusik	Beijing folk scene (Zhang Quan (Wild Children), Zhou Yunpeng, Wan Xiaoli, ...)	Abstract
2010	Rebecca Cowell	Representin' the Dirty North: The Indigenisation of Rap Music and Hip-hop Culture in Beijing	2009-2010 Beijing Hip-hop culture	[1]
2010	William Ace Rowles	What does it mean to be rock ‘n’ roll in China?	Chinese Rock	File:What does it mean to be rock 'n' roll in China (reduced PDF).pdf
2009	Stian Vestby	Signs and Sounds: Identity Projects and Postmodern Bricolage in a Chinese Punk Rock Community	Fall 2007 Wuhan Punk Scene	confidential, though available on request (stian.vestby@gmail.com)
2008	Thompson, J.	Tears that flutter and fade	2005-7 Emo Rock	---
2007	Meunier, A.	La longue marche du rock chinois	1980-2000 Beijing Rock	PDF
2007	Wang, Q.	The Crisis of Chinese Rock in the mid-1990s: Weakness in Form or Weakness in Content	Mid-1990s Rock, China	PDF
2006	Steele, A. D.	Zai Beijing: A Cultural Study of Hip Hop	2000-2006 HipHop Beijing	DOC
2006	White, L.	The Alternative Music scene in Beijing since 1989 and social change	--- ---	---
2005	Groenewegen, J	Tongue - Making sense of Beijing underground rock, 1997-2004	1997-2004 Beijing Underground	PDF
2001	Grillot, C	Dixia Chengdu / Chengdu Underground	1990-2000 Chengdu Underground Music	PDF & English Translation
1999	Kin-keung, C	Comparative study on rock music in Beijing and Tokyo	--- Beijing Rock	---
1998	Movius, L.	Popular Culture, Social Change and Political Reaction in Post-Reform China	1984-1995/7 Beijing Rock	url
1996	Steen, A.	Der Lange Marsch des Rock'n'Roll	1911-1994/5 Beijing Rock	English Translation

Tools

Conducting research projects about Chinese music needs eloquent language skills, but even the most knowledgable researcher needs tools that help him/her to decipher pinyin within a short time, give him machine translations of longer texts and correct Chinese characters for the thesis. Below are a few tools, we of Rock in China are using:

• Google Language Tools, be it for machine-made translations which are adapted or for cross-language searching with English terms in the Chinese web
• Adsotrans, a pinyin converter. Enter Chinese text and change it into Pinyin.

Requesting information

In general the Rock in China webpage is always available for intensive research (citation required), but you can furthermore directly contact one of our staff for interviews, specific requests or contact requests to other entities or artists.

Studies in relation to music worldwide

The following list of research papers are a selected list based upon RiC's opinion:

• LeVine, M. (2008). Heavy Metal Islam - Rock, resistance, and the struggle for the soul of Islam (1st edition). New York: Three Rivers Press.
  Offering a good introduction in the social struggles, chances and defeats a subgenre of rock, heavy metal, is facing in the Islamic world, represented by the countries Morocco, Egypt, Israel/Palestine, Lebanon, Iran and Pakistan.
• Other scenes in Asia provide further insight into the Asian music and youth cultures

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