WP2 | Growing flowers without roots: Chinese liuxuesheng and their Hip-Hop
🔗 link to NetEase Music playlist:
🔗 link to full playlist in class Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1Qc0duU0Pohwe2LD9nrnRwbM01O_0ibd7
I’ve been having a hard time finding an English equivalent of the Chinese word “留学生 (liuxuesheng), ” which in the specific language context, means kids who grow up in China and go overseas for higher education. Americans call us “international students”, but it washes away the fact that we come from somewhere and sees us only as “others.” Sometimes we get lumped together with immigrants, which sounds even more off. Nowadays fewer liuxuesheng have the dedicated intent of permanently staying in the country where they study. As a product of the time, we, liuxuesheng, form a distinct expatriate community, living temporarily on foreign lands, experiencing both home and foreign cultures, and reflecting on our special identity.
In this playlist, I collected hip hop music written and produced by several Chinese liuxuesheng rappers in America. The playlist mainly includes tracks by PO8 (solo rapper from Chengdu to LA) and Straight Fire Gang (a trio, from Shanghai/Hangzhou to LA/Chicago), who are arguably the most outstanding liuxuesheng rappers, whose music share strong ties with American hip-hop and Chinese roots. (Easter egg: PO8 was an undergrad in USC.)
I’m fascinated by how a foreign music genre enables an emotionally repressed people to freely express their thoughts and opinions. The rising popularity of Chinese hip hop marks the awakening of self and social awareness of the Chinese youths, regardless of the physical land they stand on. As PO8 says, “I want to grow flowers on the land where I don’t have roots. (我想在这片没有根的土地上也种出鲜花。)”
We’re not here to stay, nor to return. We grow flowers wherever we go.
Chapter I: Coming to America
01 “慢慢升空 (Slowly Rising)”: PO8’s reflection on his life while he’s on an airplane departing at 5 am.
02 “爬墙少年 (These Kids Climbing Wall)”: SFG reflecting on their experience of leaving China for college in America and becoming famous self-made rappers.
03 “神秘来客 (The Mysterious Guest)”: HAN reflecting on his identity as a liuxuesheng rapper
04 “倒时差 (Jet Lag)”: SFG using jet lag as a metaphor for a confusing life
Chapter II: This is America
05 “Empire State Cypher”: Part of a liuxuesheng cypher project initiated by PO8. Musicians from NYC rap about their life experience as liuxuesheng residing in a city of prosperity and vanity.
06 “No Raindrops in Cali”: HAN using the dry weather in California as a metaphor for the flamboyant, cinematic vanity of Hollywood and LA.
Chapter III: We’re Asian — criticism of racial issues surrounding Asians.
07 “致美联航 (To United Airlines)”: SFG criticizes the 2017 United Express Flight 3411 incident where a Vietnamese American was injured while being dragged off a fully-boarded airplane.
08 “FDG (Fuck Dolce & Gabbana)”: SFG criticizes the 2018 D&G racist ad
Chapter IV: I’m Chinese, you’re Chinese — Commentary on the Chinese people and reflection on being Chinese.
09 “乌合之众 (The Crowd)”: SFG criticizes the Chinese public for being afraid of voicing their opinions and being mindless, only going with the crowd
10 “乐不思蜀”: PO8 criticizes some Chinese international students for indulging themselves in a rich, comfortable life in America and forget about their roots
11 “惊堂木 (Jing Tang Wood)”: PO8’s reflection on Chinese cultural output; criticism of new Chinese rappers who indulge in the sudden prosperity of Chinese hip hop (prompted by certain famous TV shows) and using culture elements in a superficial way.
Chapter V: The Tragic West — PO8’s reflection on black/African American issues, from the perspective of a non-American Asian.
12 “NEO”: The homeless in Manhattan
13 “EST”: The rapper in East Atlanta
14 “PAT”: The rich gangster in LA
The three tracks are a trio, released as an album called “血钻 The Tragic West” during the BLM movement. The three tracks narrate from the perspectives of three black archetypes (the homeless, the rapper, and the rich gangster) and three locations (Manhattan, East Atlanta, and LA).
In such a monoracial country as China where people don’t consider race as a vital issue, PO8 is one of the first rappers who release music to reflect on black culture and voice for black people. I think this trio is worth listening to because a lot of people only love hip hop music because of its coolness but ignore its history. How can we celebrate a type of music without celebrating the people who created it?
Chapter VI: This pandemic — Commentary on COVID-19
15 “镜子 (Mirror)”: SFG’s criticism on the Chinese government’s unethical practices during COVID-19
16 “takecare”: The first mellow song in this playlist. HAN encouraging liuxuesheng and other Chinese expatriates who are stranded overseas to support each other during such a hard time.
Chapter VII: Gaze back at China
17–21 These tracks are all part of PO8’s 2019 album “太空站 Space Capsule” which comments on the consumerism culture, fast-food-like daily entertainment, family education, the fading of humanity, etc. in the modern Chinese society.
Finale: You decide all
22 “udA”: collaboration between PO8 and SFG. When you turn your screen upside down, the name of the track is Vpn. But “udA” is also the abbreviation of “u decide all” which is repeated throughout the track. The song expresses the conflicting thoughts of Chinese who have been “outside the wall” and stresses the balance between being amazed by what’s outside the wall and appreciate how much we already have inside the wall. I think it’s a perfect track to end with because it discusses the constant inner battle of liuxuesheng in terms of how we should look at our roots and the western values that are presented to us. And the track ends with a strong note “you decide all”: No matter what we see inside and outside the wall, independent thinking is the most important; we ourselves get to decide all.
During the process of archiving this playlist, I bumped into a problem: I can’t find any American/international music platform that has all the tracks. The complete version of my playlist is only available on NetEase Music, a Chinese music streaming app. In this digital age, we think that national and cultural borders have been lifted by the Internet and that everything’s available within our hand’s reach, but language, copyright, etc. still remain barriers.
I do hope that in the future, Chinese music, including hip hop music, can be further distributed on an international level and let the beautiful culture and our philosophy be shared by music lovers all over the world, regardless of language and nationality.
