In the 1990s, two cultures crossed paths as they travelled to opposite ends of the earth. In 1993, specifically, nine rappers from New York would release their first album, launching their careers as one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed hip hop groups of all time. The Wu Tang Clan (named after the mountain Wu Dang in central China) were heavily influenced by Chinese culture and martial arts mythology, giving them a style and a sound which infiltrated popular culture through music, films, and fashion for many years to come.

At roughly the same time, hip hop was leaving American shores and making its way to mainland China. Although hip hop in China began to manifest itself during the early ‘80s, it was almost purely an imitation of the US import, with artists rapping in English rather than in their own languages. This began to change with the arrivals of American hip hop connoisseurs like Kyle Ching an  Dana Burton, whose influence helped Chinese artists to adapt and create a style of their own.

Rhythm & Rhyme

As hip hop began to creep its way into microphones across China, the rapping was mostly done in English. For a long time it was believed that Chinese wasn’t a suitable language to rap with, using drastically sentence structuring and rhythm patterns quite different from English, with the main obstacle being that Chinese is a tonal language, where words change meaning according to the pitch used for each syllable. [view video]

But according to Detroit-native Dana Burton, the one responsible for bringing rap-battling overseas and who is now considered the godfather of hip hop in China, this is no longer the case:

“I’ve actually come to like these Chinese battles more than the stuff going on at home in America. It’s a totally different direction they’re taking it, with the rhyming skills and the wordplay and how they perform. The energy level is much more intense with Chinese rap. There are more theatrics. The flow is faster. They’re rhyming words at a faster pace. And they’re starting now to use rhythm a bit more.”
Shanghai Rap Battle - Iron Mic Semifinals 2007 [view video]:

For the love of the music

The fledgling hip hop scene in China resembles the pre-bling golden era of its American counterpart. With fewer radio stations than the US and even fewer who are willing to play anything other than pop and rock, there simply aren’t millions of dollars to be made as a Chinese hip hop artist. As a result you won’t hear rappers bragging about their pimped out rides, their diamond-studded gold chains or their bottles of Crystal, because they just don’t have all the materialistic stuff associated with American hip hop these days. Instead you’ll hear from people who love the music without the fame and fortune, and you’ll hear the type of hip hop that used to exist when the streets influenced the rappers and not the other way around.

Polite Hip Hop

As is the nature of most Chinese art, Chinese hip hop is a reflection of their culture, as opposed to the western obsession with the self. Often referred to as “polite hip hop,” Chinese artists are more prone to rap about the monotonies of everyday life, love, and even food. It’s extremely rare to hear profane lyrics about drugs, violence, and racial oppression. Then again, theirs is not a musical genre that was forged in the fires of systematic and institutional racism, broken homes, drug-infested neighborhoods, a lack of well paying jobs, police misconduct, and inadequate educational facilities in the same way American hip hop was born. [view video]

The following song is rapped using a dialect from the province of Sichuan [view video]:

Here’s a sample of the lyrics translated to English:

You do not have real ability, why must you be a singer?
You think you sing something and you think you are smart.
With the spotlight on the stage, you go mad and you are taken bad
I say dude, you should consider others’ mood
Facing your fans, you should be honest and conscientious
Do not stay there wordily
Those children are simple
To be an idol, you need to control your words and actions
You do not have the real strength/ability, do not come out to show off
Do not be too arrogant, do not use abusive words to insult others’ mothers
In conclusion, do not pretend to be famous, do not show your authority, do not be huffish
Do not think you are a star or feel you have some international reputation, even if your pictures are on global section of entertainment magazines
You need to change, change, change, but must not be conscienceless
Do not lose the face of Chinese (do not let others feel ashamed of Chinese because of your behaviours)
Do not think you are somebody because you have some powerful backers

While the song shares the American rap tradition of “dissing” another MC, the lyrics emphasize respect for the music and the fans. The song promotes improvement as a person and as an artist, and is less interested in hurling nasty, violent insults at one another. Chinese hip hop is often accused of being weak and soft and too polite. This is naturally a western point of view, coming from people who don’t understand that politeness, respect, patience, and love, constitute many of the foundations of Chinese art and culture.