This week on Sinica, I chat with Olivia Fu, who this spring completed her year at Schwarzman College and wrote her Capstone project — a research paper that is required of all Schwarzman Scholars — on the rise and fall of the Beijing hip-hop scene. We explore some of the parallels to Beijing's rock scene, and how many of the same factors that stifled rock in Beijing ultimately led to Beijing's relative decline as a hip-hop city.
3:16 – Olivia’s background and connection to China, and what drew her to the Schwarzman Program and studying hip-hop
6:13 – Olivia’s Schwarzman mentor, Paul Pickowicz
7:47 – How Olivia dealt with censorship in her Capstone project
10:24 – The parallels and differences between the hip-hop and rock scenes in China
12:27 – The dakou CDs and the origins of the hip-hop scene in China
17:03 – The influences of Japanese and Korean rap and hip-hop and Black American culture
18:30 – The importance of studying Beijing hip-hop
23:05 – The spirit of Beijing and societal commentary in Beijing hip-hop
27:38 – The phenomenon of Rap of China
29:50 – The divergence of PG One and GAI, and the regulatory influence of the State Administration on Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television
35:13 – Sinifying hip-hop
37:21 – What the burgeoning hip-hop scene in China was like in the early 2000s
40:10 – Critiques of the Beijing dialect in rap and the Beijing rap style
45:16 – Iron Mic rap battles and Shanghai, and Chinese hip-hop’s critique of the educational system
48:34 – Why Beijing rap declined
59:09 – What’s next for Olivia
The Tragedy of Old School Beijing Hip-Hop, with Olivia Fu