Chinese Sociology & Anthropology Consuming Karaoke in China

This article was downloaded by: [Chinese University of Hong Kong] On: 01 March 2015, At: 00:51 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Chinese Sociology & Anthropology Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/mcsa19

Consuming Karaoke in China Anthony Fung

a

a

School of Journalism and Communication, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong SAR, China Published online: 20 Dec 2014.

To cite this article: Anthony Fung (2009) Consuming Karaoke in China, Chinese Sociology & Anthropology, 42:2, 39-55 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.2753/CSA0009-4625420202

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is

Downloaded by [Chinese University of Hong Kong] at 00:51 01 March 2015

expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions


Chinese Sociology and Anthropology, vol. 42, no. 2, Winter 2009–10, pp. 39–55. © 2010 M.E. Sharpe, Inc. All rights reserved. ISSN 0009–4625/2010 $9.50 + 0.00. DOI 10.2753/CSA0009-4625420202

Anthony Fung

Consuming Karaoke in China Modernities and Cultural Contradiction Abstract: Singing karaoke is commonly conceived as a leisure activity in which the performer releases his or her own energy and emotion by singing and performing in front of a peer group, colleagues, or public in a particular space. In the former British colony of Hong Kong, karaoke singing has also become a very popular form of entertainment among the young since the late 1980s. As with karaoke in the West, one finds the internal emotional roller coaster of a karaoke singer in action unleashing joy and sadness. In contrast, just across the border of the advanced capitalist society of Hong Kong—in the special economic zone of China, Shenzhen—the same musical notes in karaoke can indicate a very different set of sensations and undertones for those who live in the post-reform socialist market economy. This difference—a terrain in which empirical work is rarely done—is the focus of this article. Based on empirical data collected from mainland China, this article attempts to explicate karaoke consumption in China and one of its major sociocultural implications. The different kinds of “structure of feeling” of karaoke consumption in nonWestern settings have aroused a considerable amount of academic interest in the past decade, resulting in research work that ranges from thick descriptions of karaoke consumption to theoretical discussions of the liberating effects experienced by karaoke users. In her analysis of narratives of VietnameseAmerican karaoke videos, Deborah Wong (2004, 80) suggest that these videos Anthony Fung is an associate professor in the School of Journalism and Communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong SAR, China; e-mail: [email protected]. 39


40 chinese sociology and anthropology

provide a performative frame for immigrants and the Vietnamese diaspora to explore their identity in a confined space (namely, the karaoke box room) in which the possibilities of performance greatly exceed those in their structured lives in the real social context. In his analysis of karaoke consumption in China, Kenneth Dean argues that the postmodern capitalist nature of the karaoke craze in Chinese society provided opportunities for a more flexible “structural interface” between the state and the local, which is in turn loosening the conventional codes and symbols of official control (1998, 179). This study of karaoke boxes (KTVs) in China and Hong Kong will not aim at drawing a similarly broad conclusion about culture or politics. Largely based on data collected through interviews with karaoke goers and participant observation in karaoke box clubs, this article examines the cultural implication of the growth and consumption of karaoke in China. My analysis focuses on how different groups of karaoke users in China consume the nightlife format of the karaoke box, and explicates how karaoke—as a “cultural technology”—is being appropriated by different social groups of users (Otake and Hosokawa 1998), and what kinds of cultural contradiction are implicated in contested ways of consuming karaoke. Research Objectives Studying Karaoke in China and Hong Kong This study mainly investigates the nightlife format of karaoke box clubs in contemporary China, where the post-reform market economy allows numerous nightlife entertainment forms to prosper. Since 1991, spreading from South China, karaoke singing has also become one of the most popular leisure activities in urban China (CE.cn 2009). The largest Taiwan KTV chains, including Cashbox Partyworld and Holiday KTV, set up franchises in mainland China.1 I will draw implicit and explicit comparisons of the karaoke club scene in China with that in Hong Kong. Such a comparison highlights the unique characteristics of karaoke in China and enriches our understanding of karaoke consumption and consumers in China. One of reasons for the popularity of karaoke singing in China is culturalhistorical. The practice of publicly “drinking and performing boisterous music day and night” can be dated back to the sixth century in Chinese history (Lee n.d.). Karaoke singing is not perceived to be foreign and intrusive in contemporary China. Locally, karaoke is actually often seen as a very Asian thing. Although the deep-seated Confucian notion of modesty and humbleness tend to discourage public demonstration of one’s talent and emotions, it has not been powerful enough to suppress the local diffusion of karaoke.


winter 2009–10 41

When karaoke was first introduced to Chinese communities, it was seen as an adventurous private space devised for expressing suppressed desires and emotions. It allows personal desires to be released without strongly defying social norms. There are no accurate statistics on the number of karaoke box clubs and other karaoke nightlife establishments in China. Based on an informal estimate by media and industry insiders in 2008, there were around 1,500 karaoke boxes, karaoke bars, or KTVs in Beijing and 1,400 in Shanghai. Karaoke in China has increased at a rate of 20 percent in the past few years (KTV8848 2008), representing a rapidly rising demand in karaoke consumption. Many karaoke clubs in China are hostess nightclubs or hybrid forms of KTV/nightclubs where young women (or in some cases men) offer sex services (Pan et al. 2004; Zheng 2008).2 Official statistics showed that in February 1992 immediately after the introduction of KTV in China, cases of prostitution found in KTV clubs numbered 143,000 (Wang 2008). According to my informants, some of the karaoke clubs—one-fifth of Beijing’s KTVs, for example—are nightlife establishments that focus on drug consumption. This study will not deal with karaoke establishments that focus on sex and drugs. It will only cover karaoke clubs and bars in which singing and performing are major activities. In Hong Kong, a survey conducted by a youth outreach group in 2005 found that 20 percent of young people between the ages of six and twentyfour chose to go to karaoke as their “leisure spot” (Hong Kong Institute of Youth Studies 2006). Karaoke has basically been integrated into Hong Kong’s regular social life; it is a very common activity among the young as well as the young working class. It is not simply a trendy leisure activity of the middle class. Student bodies, Christian organizations, and youth centers often organize karaoke-singing sessions as a serious communicative activity for their constituents. Although there are hostess karaoke night clubs in Hong Kong, the young can easily distinguish between regular karaoke clubs and hostess clubs and they seldom visit the hostess ones. Beyond Karaoke Singing The consumption patterns and cultural implications of karaoke in China are significantly different from those in Western and other Asian societies including Hong Kong. Karaoke has never become a highly popular leisure activity in the United Kingdom or the United States, even though music videos have captured the younger generation via MTV channels. Japan invented the earliest prototype of karaoke—initially as an expensive fad—in the 1970s. But when karaoke traveled to China, its dissemination was not confined to



the original Japanese institutional and cultural form.3 It has been localized since the 1990s and it was transplanted into various social spaces including night clubs, bars, Chinese restaurants, and households, to name a few. The presence of multiple institutional and cultural formats of karaoke in China requires elaboration. One of the notable local characteristics of karaoke in China is that it often does not stand as an independent entertainment activity. That is, the consumption of karaoke is often connected with or subsumed under a largerscale leisure event. In other words, karaoke is not always the highlight of the event, as I have observed numerous times in my fieldwork observations as researcher. The profiles of karaoke users in China are also varied. Besides youngsters, there are businessmen and professionals to be found in karaoke boxes. They interact with each other through activities apart from karaoke singing. Drinking, gambling, chatting, entertaining clients, planning the balance sheet, negotiating a business deal, and signing contracts are some of the many possible activities that take place in karaoke clubs. For such groups, by and large, the ways in which they consume and partake of karaoke to different extents reflect their fundamental differences in socioeconomic status with young karaoke-goers. In contrast, in Hong Kong, almost all groups of subjects the researcher interviewed in the field are youngsters or young professionals who head out to karaoke for relaxation after work. Housewives who frequent karaoke after their household chores are also found, but they are more likely found there in the afternoon—after finishing the household cleaning and daily food purchases from the supermarket or wet market in the morning. Their purpose in going to karaoke is to socialize with friends. A Methodological Note Participant observation, supplemented with ethnographic interviews and in-depth interviews, are the main methods employed. Through participant observation in karaoke singing in Hong Kong and mainland China (mainly in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou) on about twenty occasions, I interacted with major types of consumers of karaoke boxes in a natural setting and observed how mainland KTVs and Hong Kong commercial karaoke box clubs operate. In Hong Kong and China, the fieldwork was conducted by joining in karaoke gatherings with friends, relatives, and colleagues. In China, I also actively planned and organized a few karaoke gatherings in which people from different interpersonal networks were asked to attend. In Hong Kong, the majority of karaoke-goers in my field settings turned out to be youngsters or young middle-class people. In China, the social background of participants in my fieldwork included students, teachers, media people, clerks, businessmen,


winter 2009–10 43

and traders. These karaoke-goers can be classified into two groups according to socioeconomic background and age: teenagers and adolescents who are financially dependent and the “new rich”4 who have privileged social status through business, work, and foreign trade in the rapidly rising Chinese economy (Goodman 2008). Most of them are middle class to upper class working in the business sectors or in senior management in large corporations. Besides participant observation, ethnographic interviews were conducted with the amateur singers, karaoke-goers (interviews done in corridors or toilets in karaoke clubs), waiters and waitresses, and other types of workers in the KTVs. Formal interviews were conducted with senior managers of KTVs in China and Hong Kong. The questions asked dealt with clients, consumption preferences, settings, decoration, song lists, and other details of the operation of karaoke clubs. I conducted in-depth interviews with the senior management of the two major karaoke chains in Hong Kong, namely Neway Group and California Red.5 They provided me with useful information concerning the business strategies of the chains.6 The Different Functions of Karaoke Political Functions One of the intriguing characteristics of karaoke singing in China is its provision of a democratizing space inside the private context of the karaoke room. It is a space that is partly sealed off from the social pressures and political forces of control in China. This disjuncture from the routine social world leads to a temporary disappearance of real identity for karaoke users, which in turn results in the leveling of power among them. They have equal rights to express their emotions and equal claim over access to the microphone. The single most important criterion of power is the quality of singing rather than socioeconomic status and political position. Both the freedom of expression and the fairness in power sharing sustain the democratizing property of karaoke spaces. The third kind of democratizing tendency involves the choice of songs to sing in a karaoke room. Almost every kind of song—from love songs to songs loaded with political overtones (including hegemonic and anti-hegemonic ones)—are accessible from the remote control. Nobody has to shoulder political or social consequences by performing even the most ‘‘liberal” ballads.7 Thus it is no surprise that the Cultural Bureau of the Communist Party has since 2006 tried to exercise strict control over the contents of karaoke. It tries to regulate the consortium of songs available in KTVs by pressuring the industry to adopt a centralized pool of music distribution (Wang 2006).



On the surface, it appears to be a legally practical way to settle copyright disputes among KTV operators and record companies. But actually, it was also conceived as a means to deter the effect of ideologically undesirable ballads available in these music outlets. Albeit unsuccessful, the attempt reflects the potential political effect of the karaoke boxes. Personal Functions Although karaoke spaces seal off their consumers from society and the state in certain respects, they at the same time preserve certain interpersonal dynamics of Chinese society. To karaoke consumers, karaoke works as an alternative space that accommodates behaviors that might be considered abnormal in the everyday social world. To conservative groups such as parents and educators in Hong Kong and Taiwan, karaoke is an aesthetic crime. As Brian Raftery (2008) observed, karaoke in China can be a kind of therapy that can transform a timid sense of self to bold and confident self-acceptance. Community Functions Besides the gratification of individual desires, the consumption of karaoke in China is arguably a function of community building (see, for example, Drew 2001).8 As Casey Lum argued, in many parts of the world including China, collectivism and individualism are not mutually exclusive in the karaoke space, and their coexistence produces a dilemma: a self-negotiation on the part of karaoke consumers regarding the extent to which they retain their individuality in front of other karaoke participants or opt for anonymity in exchange for privacy and security (1998). It is not exactly that karaoke provides the ambiance in which consumers conform to the norms of the group so that they can safely construct an individual identity without jeopardizing their group membership (Ban 1991). It is rather that karaoke can let a consumer sustain group membership and build trust and connectedness within the group by nakedly and maximally exposing his or her individuality, an action that does not take place in regular public settings. The philosopher Daniel Bell incisively points out the essence of karaoke singing: “The moral point of singing is not to sing well, but to promote harmony” (Cityweekend n.d.). Also addressing the function of community building, Ringo Ma and Rueyling Chuang argued that karaoke in Taiwan is an interface between Chinese culture and modern technology, preserving conventional values like guanxi in addition to liberating a consumer’s psyche and cultural identity (2002).

winter 2009–10 45


Class Functions While the community and personal functions of karaoke are operative in China, my argument emphasizes the function of class consumption in karaoke and in particular the contrast of social functions of karaoke for different classes. Otake and Hosokawa (1998), in their analysis of karaoke in Japan, acknowledge that it is a cultural practice in which consumers perform in order to appropriate images or texts that express their identity, but they also stress that as a Japan-exported entertainment form, karaoke is constitutive of a complex set of relations, including class relations and a specific mode of modernity that is associated with them. The cultural expressions in karaoke hence also manifest their different social functions for these different class groups, from celebrating egalitarianism and providing propaganda to simple self-expression (Zhou and Tarocco 2007). However, given the co-presence of interests of different classes in karaoke consumption, a more intellectually intriguing question would be how karaoke has been reshaped in China to accommodate the tastes, expectations, and uses of local groups of different socioeconomic status. How do Chinese karaoke establishments resolve the class dialectics between groups of karaoke users in a Chinese setting? Are the interests of the middle and upper classes overwhelming those of other users? How do diverse audiences and the young in particular respond to this overarching politics of power? For instance, one would expect that the ideal karaoke setting for businessmen to cultivate client relationships would be very different from that preferred by fashionable and leisure-seeking youngsters in terms of songs, atmosphere, and services. The business strategies of Chinese KTVs have to embody the social disparity and negotiate the cultural contradictions among different local social classes.9 Findings and Analysis Performative and Constantive Modernity in Karaoke While the theoretical approach of this study is in general consistent with Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital and class-based consumption (1984), it differs from his in a significant way: the explication of karaoke consumption in terms of the nature of modernities consumed. In China, KTV-going is one of the few entertainment activities through which the young can articulate and explicitly express their own lifestyles, attitudes, and values. Consumption of karaoke in China, similar to that in Hong Kong and Western cities, is more or less a cultural and subcultural consumption in which the young convey or project their attitudes, values, and identities through karaoke singing and



performance. Karaoke is not only a performative activity. It also manifests a performative modernity in which the young learn and seek to express such identities in a novel way, temporarily bracketing a structured social environment that strongly constrains their range of expression. On the macro and collective level, youthful consumers of karaoke co-perform to project and construct common identities that are distinct from the youth formations ideologically dictated by the Youth Communist Associations, formal party organizations, and schools. In contrast to the younger generation, middle-aged middle- and upperclass groups have no urgent and immediate needs to perform their class status through karaoke. Should they need to do so, they would be better off performing class through conspicuous consumption of material goods (Bourdieu 1984) instead of pop cultural practices such as karaoke singing. To them, the pursuit of modernity has nothing to do with difference, deviation, or fragmentation in the core value system. Instead, modernity for them is associated with the stability of a status quo that sustains their superior social position, wealth, and power.10 Their consumption of karaoke serves a functional purpose: partaking in a constantive activity in which they would constantly recall, rehearse, and rememorize the same collective values by performing ballads that are familiar to this group. They perform in order to reach the goal of “feeling” constantive modernity. They embrace both performative and constantive modernity but the latter is the core intentional activity of this group. They do not exactly sing to venerate the core values of society and represent themselves as part of the status quo. In the karaoke room, members of the middle-aged middle class claim to share the same aesthetics, tastes, and modernity through the songs they choose and the lifestyles and cultures they consume. Based on such commonalities, karaoke serves as a vehicle to enhance, catalyze, and enable other activities that reflect and represent constantive modernity. Making business deals and maintaining business relationships may be the most commonly intended pragmatic goals of karaoke. Quite commonly between their thirties and fifties, these groups of people share memories of the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, the uncertainties and hopefulness brought about by the Open Door Policy, political disappointment in 1989, and the rise of the post-socialist market economy, to name a few. They collectively experienced the stark contrast between traumas in the past and the abundance of being a petty capitalist (xiaozi) or a member of the new rich in the present. Despite personal differences, these individuals incessantly pursue wealth and money in their daily life routines—along with the ideals and romance in their ingrained memories. In karaoke spaces, these groups embrace and “freeze” the memories of the golden days when they started to accumulate their wealth rather than recalling the trauma in those politically confusing


winter 2009–10 47

days when politics was in turmoil. Such common constantive memories are the unspoken interpersonal basis upon which all financial and instrumental activities take place. I find that for the middle-aged, middle-class consumer, karaoke can also be experienced as democratizing—in terms of songs selected for improvised performance and in the sense that a song can be chosen by anyone but it can be performed by any combination of participants in the room. Because these groups of people prefer a pool of communicable songs that carry their common memories, the sizes of their repertoires are not large. Youthful consumers of karaoke, in contrast, have a larger repertoire to perform. They go for “songs of their generation” and songs that they can perform well. Oldies as Cultural Markers The emphasis on consuming constantive modernity leads middle-aged, middleand upper-class karaoke consumers to prefer a repertoire that is very different from that of youthful consumers mainly seeking performative modernity. “Oldies” constitute the most significant part of the repertoire of the former group.11 Their most frequently played and performed songs are not current popular hit songs, but folk songs from the initial reform era of China, old revolutionary songs from the 1970s, and mandarin songs from Taiwan which were disseminated in mainland China during the reign of the orthodox communists in the 1980s and early 1990s. Those were days the typical Chinese new rich grew up with. Unlike Chinese youths or audiences in the Anglo-Saxon context, they are not familiar with jazz music and rock genres, and they do not care to catch up with hip-hop, electronic dance music, or reggae. While the young index their identity through karaoke performance, dress, and lifestyle (as, for example, in Hall 1997), middle-aged, privileged groups sing oldies to mark their cultural identity and collective memory. The karaoke box club industry proactively reshapes its business settings in order to make middle-aged, middle- and upper-class consumers feel at home. For example, Chinese KTVs usually feature categories such as “oldies” and “folk” (minshu music) at the very top of the choice list. The former refer to the set of familiar songs of people who are in their forties, while the latter not only embodies values of Chinese culture, but also a specific connotation—patriotic or revolutionary—in the eyes of the communists. The audience can easily locate such cultural markers in any newly ventured karaoke club. I observed that groups of such karaoke consumers can easily find some commonly known oldies and folk songs to perform. They can quickly arrive at a consensus about what to sing. A male interviewee mentioned:



We are of the same generation. We don’t have to argue [about choosing what to perform]. For example, the song [The Moon Represents My Heart originally performed by Theresa Tang] is familiar to all of us. It is an old song but it really means something for our generation. We all survived the times in which we secretly listened to this “spiritually polluted” song recorded on audio-cassette tape . . . and actually, we believe that we still have the same feeling.

Based on singing the same sort of oldies and folk songs, the participants were able to narrate the same ideology and aesthetics that constitute their constantive memories. Such cultural markings are sociopolitically relevant: karaoke has been shown to be socially liberating in current studies and one would expect it to be additionally so in the context of China’s political system. But the cultural technology of karaoke has been retuned in China so that it helps to maintain a stable, backward-looking, sociocultural aesthetic for socially privileged consumer groups and perpetuates the status quo. Those aspects of karaoke less central to cultural marking are less important for middle- and upper-class consumers. They care little about performance quality and singing skills, for example. I observed that they rarely teased each other about their poor performance and singing quality. They may probably recognize it but they seldom mind about problems such as unmelodic tune, coarse voice, discordant improvisation, and interferences from heavy drinking, loud chatting, or business negotiations. During fieldwork, I often heard a commotion next door or along the corridors of KTVs and poor karaoke performances produced by middle-aged participants. Youthful consumers of karaoke, in contrast, seriously care about their performance quality for a combination of reasons. Karaoke Clubs Designed in the Form of “Royal Palaces” While the young and middle-aged socially privileged groups consume the same high- and middle-market segment KTVs in China, most of these KTVs are designed to cater to the sociocultural preferences and functional demands of the privileged middle-aged instead of the young. Some of the senior managers of KTVs I interviewed admit that they intentionally targeted clients of higher socioeconomic status. A manager admits that but at the same time emphasizes that his KTV also accommodates the tastes of young clients. This manager is oblivious to the fact—which I discussed in the previous section—that the tastes of their youthful and middle-aged clients are in serious conflict. In Hong Kong, where karaoke boxes cater to youthful clients more than middle-aged ones, a karaoke box club is a trendy, chic, and cool place packed with youngsters. They dress casually or fashionably, occasionally in punk with skinhead, tattoos, greased hair, and glamour body piercing, or in


winter 2009–10 49

hip-hop style with black catsuits, metal belts and chains, caps, and sagging pants. But the scene and atmosphere of KTVs in China is very different. A typical KTV in the middle- and upper-market segment in China resembles an extraordinarily gleaming and majestic palace.12 In some KTVs, the entrance is a lofty, nicely carved wooden gate garnished with Chinese-style dragon embellishment, golden handles, and rounded spikes. Clients are greeted by female employees upon entry. A manager politely escorts clients to the KTV room that fits their taste and needs. In other KTVs, the grand palace setting is adorned in classic Greek style. The iconic use of white marble and limestone gate, arches, domes, and walls with columns of Ionic or Doric order are typical. This interior decoration choice is calculated to convey to the socially privileged consumers a sense of grandeur and self-importance, as senior managers and KTV frontline employee informants claim. Consistent with the grand-palace theme, the karaoke rooms in Chinese KTV clubs are large. They are significantly larger than average ones in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan. There are different sizes of lavishly designed karaoke rooms for various customers but in general most rooms feature an open, empty space located in the central part of the room. These spaces are carved out for social functions other than singing—as a variety of social functions ought to be able to happen simultaneously in a palace. The furniture arrangement inside these spacious karaoke rooms is also unique. Adjacent to the large television screen for karaoke singing, I often observed small coffee tables surrounded by sofas and benches. Much space in the KTV is not specifically designed to serve karaoke-singing purposes. People often make use of this alternative space for socializing and talking and, above all, dancing. For middle-aged consumers, a typical style is formal ballroom dancing performed to the oldies they choose as their music. I have observed such ballroom dancing in Chinese KTVs a few times. It includes social dance genres such as waltz, quick step, cha-cha, rumba, night-club two-step, salsa, and even tango. Ballroom dancing is not exactly an outdated chic feature of the Western world in the globalizing society of China. The new rich aspire to taste the global, and ballroom dancing is considered high class and elite. When they dance in pairs on the makeshift dance floor—both different-sex and same-sex duos—they partake of the civility and class supplied by the palace-like background. The Middle-Class Middle-Aged Karaoke Without Pop An interesting question is whether the exclusive performance of oldies undermines the pop element in karaoke consumption by middle-aged privileged



groups. At least, in the eyes of the beholders, karaoke is still considered as a fashionable and innovative activity. In my interview with a Chinese businessman (dressed in short-sleeved shirt, formal pants, and leather shoes) in a karaoke box in Beijing, he explains: We [people of my age and occupation] don’t have many hobbies. Some may go golfing but I don’t. Quite often, we don’t do much exercise. Now, [going to KTV] can be considered a very special activity for [me and my peers]. Using the young people’s words today, it’s really a “cool” activity, at least, in the eyes of my friends. . . . I like singing Taiwanese mandarin songs like those from Chau Wakin and Ren Xianqi. Their songs mark our feeling and our collective era. I grew up with these songs, I still think that they are not passé.

This narrative reveals the particular nature of singing oldies in karaoke. First, although Chinese oldies are not found in current pop charts, they are not exactly outdated. I name them “oldies” because they preserve the same sort of feeling and aesthetics of middle-aged karaoke users. Second, karaoke singing serves as a cultural marker that clearly manifests and articulates the identity of this social group. While oldies are not current pop hits, the karaoke-singing of them is still perceived as modern and fashionable by this group. In fact, many “behind-the-times” activities of the new rich can be found in karaoke space. For example, middle-aged, socially privileged consumers often stand up holding a glass of red wine in the same way that people do in a restaurant. In these cases, karaoke activities function as a backdrop; what is vital is the informal social function among consumers. They dance and socialize to strengthen their bonding, which might lead to a series of instrumental outcomes such as contract signing and business cooperation. In some karaoke rooms, an extra couch is put on the other side of the room to facilitate private business negotiation. The Young Karaoke as Pop Practice Karaoke rooms in Hong Kong’s karaoke box clubs are very small. Given their limited space, the typical sizes of tables placed in karaoke rooms are disproportionately large. They are meant to serve as dining tables that can hold a large number of dishes and drinks. As a manager informant indicates, drinks and buffets (which are available in some karaoke clubs) are major sources of revenue. The primary activity inside these clubs is karaoke singing. This does not mean that the young do not socialize in such karaoke spaces, but that


winter 2009–10 51

they carry out interactions on the basis of karaoke performance. Birthday or Christmas parties often take place in a karaoke setting but these celebrations also prominently feature various kinds of choral singing, namely group singing, solo performance, paired singing, and mockery and appraisal of peers’ singing performance and emotional expressions. When the room is tiny and echoes are loud, chitchat, discussion and gossiping are not really practical. Though restrained by karaoke spaces, young consumers have great flexibility in terms of music choice. They in general do not select a particular set of songs that serve as social markers of their identities. Their repertoires continuously change: they consider whether the song can ostensibly demonstrate the performative talent, singing quality, and skills of the singer, and they pick the songs of idols and singers with whom they identify.13 But at the same time, the visual image of a youngster rapping a hip-hop hit in a grand palace is odd—the physical setting by no means matches the mood and sentiments of what the young person is singing. Learning a Different Aesthetic The logic of operation of karaoke in China tilts toward the expectations, tastes, and mentalities of middle-aged, socially privileged classes because of their prevalent spending power. The business models of karaoke clubs are reshaped by them. This demonstrates that a dominant market power can localize, distort, and modify karaoke or any other cultural technology imported from global contexts. The karaoke clubs found in China today deviate from karaoke in other parts of the world in terms of setting, interior design, practice, songs performed, and services. Some critical comments made by Hong Kong informants who have visited KTVs in China are telling in that they represent youthful resistance to the current reshaping of karaoke in China. The informants are angry about the crude materialism and exaggerated extravagance reflected in mainland KTV settings. They find that KTVs in China are seriously infested by the “vulgarity” of the new rich.14 The new rich are wealthy—a highly valued social attribute in Hong Kong—but they are conceived by Hong Kong young people as uncivilized and lacking in taste. The concrete point of conflict is that if all KTVs in China are reshaped according to the aesthetic preferences and functional needs of the new rich, the young in Hong Kong and China would then be forced to endure these unfashionable cultural practices of consumption. This is leading to an awkward incompatibility between the aesthetics of the young karaoke consumers and the grand-palace atmosphere of the Chinese KTV. Gradually, the Chinese young are prone to learn, become acquainted with, and be socialized into the aesthetics of the new rich through the institution



of the KTV. This aesthetic goes against representative taste in other cultural domains of the young that embrace values such as cyber-savviness, trendiness, nonconformity, bubbliness, and restlessness. While youth culture can be broadly described as progressive, the karaoke consumption of the Chinese young is different. The results are already discernible. A young karaoke consumer whom I interviewed in Guangzhou exclaimed: “I don’t like this karaoke. It’s too shabby and mundane. The KTV room is a real muddle. Its decoration is subpar. I have been to better ones: they have a large front entrance, grand decorations, and high-quality service.” When the informant was asked to elaborate on her argument, she referred to grand palace–like decorations, gold-embellished interiors, and the collective greetings of formally dressed waitresses in the better KTVs. Despite their identity as young people, informants such as this one grumble about the “scruffy” look of KTV workers who actually dress very much like themselves, and complain about the minimalist design of lower market–segment KTVs. There are a few explanations for the interim cognitive dissonance of young Chinese on the issue of karaoke consumption. First, the normalized use of KTV settings with contrasting aesthetics narcotizes youth consumption. Since they see karaoke mainly as entertainment, the young do not seriously ponder over the incompatibility of karaoke aesthetics of different social classes. Second, there is also the impact of the collective social aspiration for money and wealth in post-reform China. Young Chinese are overwhelmed by the reality of extreme social inequality and their personal positions of relative deprivation. They start to identify with power and money rather than upholding the identities and values of the young. Conclusion Cultural Contradiction Reflected in Karaoke Consistent with studies of karaoke consumption in Western settings, karaoke in Asia largely serves the function of transforming participants’ subjective experience (Otake and Hosokawa 1998) and community building (Drew 2001). Beyond elaborating these individual and community functions, this article explicates the localized consumption patterns of karaoke in China and addresses the broader issue of cultural contradiction that is implicated in Chinese karaoke consumption. This cultural contradiction is an example of contemporary Chinese reality: a socialist market economy embedded within an authoritarian state and extremely unequal society. When there is a divergence of interest among social classes, the interests of the have-not, younger generation always give way to those of the privileged classes. This is evidenced by


winter 2009–10 53

the specific adaptation of karaoke in China: the use of karaoke as a form of entertainment is reshaped into an informal site for social bonding and business meetings for the socially privileged middle-aged. KTV operators retune the imported cultural technology of karaoke to match class consumption and mainly serve the new rich. As my previous analysis has shown, this results in an awkward incompatibility between the grand palace–like karaoke setting and the trendy taste preferences of young consumers. Paradoxically and unfortunately, the young in China do not offer any serious resistance to this localized reshaping of karaoke technology. They are silently compliant. None of my young informants from China has expressed concern about it. On the one hand, one sees that brute socioeconomic forces have successfully pulverized the cultural protocol of karaoke technology and reinvented a new set of rules for its nominal use in China, one that the young are forced to accept. On the other hand, we see that the young in China are willing to learn and embrace the aesthetics and values of the middle-aged, dominant socioeconomic class. Without shame and self-pity, they evaluate karaoke clubs using the aesthetics of the new rich while putting aside their own youth identity. If karaoke can be regarded as an example of the Chinese social world in general, youth culture in China is likewise overpowered and eclipsed by the interests of the middle-aged, privileged classes. How youth culture can survive and develop in the contemporary Chinese context is then an issue worth contemplating. Notes 1. The expansion of karaoke from Taiwan and Japan to other Chinese communities in Asia has strong theoretical implications for cultural globalization, but this issue will not be dealt with in this article. 2. Zheng (2008) studied the lives of rural migrant karaoke bar hostesses in Dalian who suffered from exploitation and sexual violence. This is not a special case since it was reported that sexual intercourse for money was offered by one-third of the KTV hostesses in China (Pan et al. 2004). 3. The agonizing pain of memory of the population also comes into play here: given the legacy of the Japanese invasion into China during World War II, people’s articulation of consumption, from material to cultural, seldom makes a connection with Japanese modernization. This does not mean that consumption of karaoke is not embodied in Japanese modernity. But this sort of modernity is perceived not so much as one that is made in Japan, but merely as a trendy technological form in which they can properly channel their emotions and self-entertainment. 4. The “new rich” has become a commonly used academic term that refers to wealthy social groups in China that have emerged as a consequence of globalization. 5. In Hong Kong, there are twenty-three chains of karaoke box clubs, with Neway Group and California Red occupying almost the entire market. Neway is the leader occupying 40 percent of the market with annual revenues of HK$1.7 billion.



6. They were interviewed in their capacities as personal friends and alumni to learn more about their marketing and business strategies. The marketing director of one major karaoke chain is an alumnus of the university where the researcher is teaching. The owner of another karaoke chain is a personal friend of the researcher. 7. The term “liberal ballads” in this context means songs promoting capitalist values, liberalism, and freedom, which are politically sensitive expressions in mass media. 8. Rob Drew’s ethnographic study of karaoke consumption on the American East Coast sees it mainly as a function of community building (2001). 9. In the future, such an analysis can be extended to other gender and race analyses in the karaoke site. 10. I find that in ethnographic interviews, karaoke-goers always talked about their careers and their plans to accumulate more money. 11. The definition of “oldies” in the Chinese setting is different from that in the West. Participants in karaoke refer to “oldies” meaning a wide collection of Chinese pop songs from the seventies and the late nineties. The essence of this collection of songs is not that they are passé. They are called oldies because they form the same set of favorite songs shared by people of their age group (most of them are in their forties or older). 12. In this study, only upper- and middle-market-segment KTVs are investigated. There are low-end KTVs that are not decorated in such a style. The business and service capacities of low-end KTVs are estimated to be lower than those of up-market ones. 13. Apart from being influenced by entertainment trends, the music choice of mainland Chinese youth was also found to be affected by their parents and nationalism, For example, they love the song “The Chinese” by the Hong Kong superstar Andy Lau (Fong 2004). 14. The exact words the Hong Kong interviewees used were “vulgar,” “royal,” and “extravagant.”

References Ban, Satomi. 1991. “Everyone’s a Star.” Look Japan (April): 40–42. Bourdieu, Pierre. 1984. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. CE.cn. 2009. “1991: Karaoke Started a New Epoch of Entertainment” (January 9). Available at http://views.ce.cn/fun/corpus/ce/zsrs/200901/09/ t20090109_17917725.shtml, accessed August 22, 2009. Cityweekend. n.d. “China’s Confucian Resurgence and KTV.” Available at www .cityweekend.com.cn/beijing/articles/blogs-beijing/cw-blog/chinas-confucianresurgence-and-ktv/, accessed May 7, 2009. Dean, Kenneth. 1998. “Despotic Empire/Nation-state: Local Responses to Chinese Nationalism in an Age of Global Capitalism.” In Trajectories: Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, ed. K.H. Chen, 153–85. London: Routledge. Drew, Rob. 2001. Karaoke Nights: An Ethnographic Rhapsody. Lanham, MD: Altamira Press. Fong, Vanessa. 2004. “Filial Nationalism Among Chinese Teenagers with Global Identities.” American Ethnologist 31, no. 4: 631–48.


winter 2009–10 55

Goodman, David S.G., ed. 2008. The New Rich in China: Future Rulers, Present Lives. London: Routledge. Hall, Stuart. 1997. “The Spectacle of the Other.” In Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices, ed. S. Hall, 223–90. London: Sage. Hong Kong Institute of Youth Studies. 2006. “The Top Ten Youth Wandering Places: A Survey Report.” Available at www.youthoutreach.org.hk/20060220report_detail.doc, accessed July 28, 2009. KTV8848. 2008. “The Third China International (Guangzhou) KTV, Club, and Bars Professional Equipment Exhibition.” Available at www.ktv8848.com/ news/200811/11910.shtml, accessed May 6, 2009. Lee, Byong Won. n.d. “Music of Korea.” Available at www.ncktpa.go.kr/eng/ aboutg/pdf/musicofkorea_03.PDF, accessed May 11, 2010. Lum, Casey Man Kong. 1998. “The Karaoke Dilemma: On the Interaction Between Collectivism and Individualism in the Karaoke Space.” In Karaoke Around the World, ed. Toru Mitsui and Shuhei Hosokawa, 166–77. London: Routledge. Ma, Ringo, and Rueyling Chuang. 2002. “Karaoke as a Form of Communication in the Public and Interpersonal Contexts of Taiwan.” In Chinese Communication Studies: Contexts and Comparisons, ed. Xing Lu, Wenshan Jia, and D. Ray Heisey, 147–63. Westport, CT: Ablex. Otake, Akiko, and Shuhei Hosokawa. 1998. “Karaoke in East Asia: Modernization, Japanization, or Asianization.” In Karaoke Around the World, ed. Toru Mitsui, 178–201. New York: Routledge. Pan Suiming; Bai Weikang; Wang Aili; and Lau Man. 2004. Sexual Behavior and Relations in Contemporary China (in Chinese). Beijing: Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe. Raftery, Brian. 2008. Don’t Stop Believin’: How Karaoke Conquered the World and Changed My Life. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press. Wang Hui. 2006. “Cultural Bureau Building a System to Prevent Unhealthy Songs from Entering the Market.” Beijing News (July 19). Available at http://big5 .eastday.com:82/gate/big5/news.eastday.com/eastday/node81741/node81762/ node148853/u1a2189398.html, accessed May 12, 2009. Wang Long. 2008. “1991: China’s Era of ‘Karaoke.’” Available at www.china .com.cn/review/txt/2008–11/21/content_16800837.htm, accessed August 26, 2009. Wong, Deborah. 2004. Speak It Louder: Asian Americans Making Music. New York: Routledge. Zheng, Tiantian. 2008. “Complexity of Life and Resistance: Informal Networks of Rural Migrant Karaoke Bar Hostesses in Urban Chinese Sex Industry.” China: An International Journal 6, no. 1: 69–95. Zhou, Xun, and Francesca Tarocco. 2007. Karaoke: The Global Phenomenon. London: Reaktion Books.

To order reprints, call 1-800-352-2210; outside the United States, call 717-632-3535.