Trinity International Hip Hop Festival Part Two: Fullbright Scholar Angela Steele

After this, it was only a short walk down the hall to another classroom to listen to Angela Steele, a Fullbright scholar, present the research she did on a trip to China, following the emerging hip-hop movements in that country. I was particularly excited to talk to Angela because her experiences mirrored those of Joshua Asen, only in a very different country. The classroom was very small, and it again appeared that I was the only attendee who wasn't part of the class. I was able to set up a camera in the back of the room, and I started filming as soon as Angela started speaking... in Chinese. I started panicking, thinking I had misread the schedule or something, but the teacher eventually stopped Angela to tell her that the class was a beginners Chinese class, and her speech would probably be much more effective if she gave it in English.

So once I could actually understand the presentation, I was fascinated by Angela's account of Chinese hip-hop. I combined the highlights of the presentation into a video clip (including the awkward beginning), and although the film quality isn't too great, the audio comes through well:


I chose these highlights because they were the things that struck me as most interesting in regards to Chinese hip-hop. Rather than being driven by individual artists and communities, like in Morocco, the culture of hip-hop in China is drive by corporations and industry. Nike and the NBA have had a very strong influence in bringing hip-hop culture into China, and although fans get their music through mediums like Dakou cds and the internet, their culture is imported by Western transnational corporations. This is typical Americanization, with globalization occurring from above and being driven by corporations, and it dominates over the local culture.

To find out more about Angela Steele and her Fullbright research, you can check out her website, and her youtube page has plenty of great videos with plenty of artist interviews that provide insight into the spread of hip-hop in China.