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Representing Power through China Wind Music: The Soft and Hard Masculinities of the Nation

image of Representing Power through China Wind Music: The Soft and Hard Masculinities of the Nation
  • By Na Li
  • Source: The Intellect Handbook of Popular Music Methodologies , pp 372-385
  • Publication Date: June 2025
  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1386/9781835951033_24
  • Language: English
  • Accessibility Summary:  EPUB 3 and pdf file included; compatible with devices and software which can read these formats. Adjustable font size, spacing, contrast, text justification, number of columns (ePUB only). Alternative text for images. Tagged with a logical reading order to assist screen readers. Navigation between in-text citations and reference list, and endnotes and endnote markers.

The research of masculinity in Chinese music is mainly built around the dichotomy between wu and wen, two abstract and contrasting systems that are not only used to refer to two male gender types but also as gendered terminology to imply soft and hard masculinities/powers respectively (e.g. Louie 2002, 2014). By exploring the construction of hardness and softness through China Wind style music, this chapter emphasizes the impact of listening experience on the reception of gender identities.

This chapter examines audience as the subject to explore Chinese style popular music. Based on ethnographic investigations, it demonstrates the vital relationship between popular music and local cultures. The terms and concepts that are revealed through the interview data provide a way to rethink the structure and meaning of both the concept of (Chinese) style and (gender) identity in popular music.

Keywords: audience reception ; Chinese popular music ; ethnography and popular music ; gender dynamics ; identity and music ; style and popular music

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References

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  5. Blumer, Herbert (1969), Symbolic Interactionism; Perspective and Method, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
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  6. Brace, Timothy Lane (1992), ‘Modernization and music in contemporary China: Crisis, identity, and the politics of style’, Ph.D. thesis, Austin, TX:University of Texas.385
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  7. Brownell, Susan and Wasserstrom, Jeffrey N . (2002), Chinese Femininities/Chinese Masculinities: A Reader, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
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  8. Cohen, Sara (1991), Rock Culture in Liverpool: Popular Music in the Making, Oxford and New York: Clarendon Press and Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
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  10. Finnegan, Ruth H. (1989), The Hidden Musicians: Music-making in an English Town, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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  30. Nye, Joseph Samuel (2003), ‘Propaganda isn't the way: Soft power’, International Herald Tribune, 10 January, https://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/10/opinion/IHT-soft-power-propaganda-isnt-the-way.html. Accessed 15 November 2016 .
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  35. Schütz, Alfred (1973), The Problem of Social Reality, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.
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  38. Wang, Yu-wei (2011), ‘The transition in national identity and popular music in Taiwan: Chou-style in Mandopop’, Cultural Hybridity, in Professor Martin Irvine Seminar Wiki, https://irvine-cct.wikispaces.com/YWang. Accessed 5 March 2016 .
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