The Tragedy of Old School Beijing Hip-Hop with Olivia Fu

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 

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