China Discovers the Soft Power of Bad Rap
Fresh on the heels of last year's effort to popularize the 13th National Development Plan via a bizarre video (that somehow failed to take the world by storm) comes the next attempt at state-sponsored soft power: An English-language rap about China pride that attempts to portray the voice of the people by injecting some gritty realism into its lyrics.
"This is China" by the obscure Sichuan rap outfit CD REV mixes lines about the harsh realities of China (pollution, melamine and vaccination scandals, corruption, greed) with a positive patriotic refrain: "This is China / We love the country, we the Chi-phenomena / The red dragon ain’t no evil / But a peaceful place / The beautiful land with rich culture remain."
I gotta admit it's certainly an improvement over, say, reading a front-page editorial in the People's Daily, but not by a whole lot.
The problem, first off, is there's rap, and then there's bad rap. Seemingly inspired by the style of Eminem or Macklemore and Ryan Lewis' Same Love, CD REV's rapper (who goes by the English name Pissy) just doesn't have "flow" on this track. A successful track combines catchy beats with a unique lyrical delivery that inspires the listener to keep with the song, and in the process hear a message he or she may not have intended to listen to. Pissy attempts to cram so much "message" over the beats that the net effect is more sermon than anything, and the wordplay is clumsy. Frankly it's hard to make it through the track's full four minutes.
While the Pissy's Chinglish does give it a sort of street authenticity ("The policemen are kind to citizens but crucial to our enemies / We have tight gun control laws and we don’t fear gun slaughtering / Cuz only cops and soldiers are able to touch it"), the message doesn't come off as entirely genuine, especially when Pissy awkwardly crams in references to the Chinese discovery of artemisinin and KBBF crystals. Or when he, in perhaps an unintended lyrical pairing, equates WeChat Pay with world peace ("We can make a better world as we love peace and harmony / Through developing mobile payments").
Indeed, hip-hop heads are sure to quickly scoff at the clip, though they will likely be impressed by "This Is China's" subtler flourishes: the Sichuan Opera-infused vocals and the overall high production value of the video.
Historian and writer Jeremiah Jenne says the video is catchy, and he likes that its lyrics reference real problems like pollution and milk powder scandals. “The fact that they acknowledge there are problems adds to its credibility, so it doesn’t come across purely as North Korea Light,” he said.
Have a look for yourselves:
https://v.qq.com/txp/iframe/player.html?vid=r0309kxu23o&width=500&height=375&auto=0
According to The Guardian, the video was produced by the Youth Communist League, who promoted on their Weibo channel to great fanfare earlier this week.
But this is not the first effort by CD REV. Before state sponsorship, the rappers has already developed quite a repertoire of gangsta rap tracks on their own – and a quick look at their lyrical output makes you wonder if the Youth League perhaps didn't bother to examine the group's back catalogue before choosing them as the spokespeople for their generation.
On "Force of Red" the group uses a vulgar, expletive-laden NWA-style to make their unsubtle point that the PRC, Hong Kong and Taiwan are one inseparable entity ("Why don’t all you zombies in the region don’t know you is your mom? Taiwan ain’t a country, bitch, at most a province"). They also of course blame the Western media for fanning the flames ("I wanna point out that all you faggots from the western better shut your mouth / You media punk ass white trash fuckers stop talking this talking that")
Then there is "Chengdu Nigga" which has Pissy demonstrating a rather extensive knowledge of offensive English terminology:
"Got my cock rooted in the bottom layer
Fuck every rapper
Y’all now ready for your ass
Bitches trynna go fuck with that
And get a punch like that
Fat ass shit kicked by an ass-cracked nigga like me
But I aint gonna call myself a G
Bitch I’m a ridah
On the street, fighter
Now y’all hustlers baby
Can fuck off my thug life
I got me semen on your face
Be straight lil sissy gay
I’ll pay for your 96 way"
Here's a transcription of the full lyrics of "This is China":
"Regardless of all the prejudice of the past
Today I wanna restore the impression you have on my country China
Which have been exactly fabricated by media for a long time
As an individual citizen based in south west of the country
I wanna speak it then
You guys can know better about what the truth is and
How Chinese people assess their own country
And how much we don’t wanna be disputants
First things first we all know that China is a developing country
It has large population and it is really hard to manage
Especially after World War II – almost perished
I mean what I say is true war is always scary
It is real that the pollution is severe at the present stage
In big cities like Beijing, Tianjin
Always pollution haze
Similar to 1950s London and LA
It’s painful with higher growth rate you see
People are too busy with business
Everybody wanna have a better life
Make money get married
But they are like the first or second generation of rich
Not well educated
But now young men like us aspiring and friendly
What’s your name
This is China
We love the country, we the Chi-phenomena
The red dragon ain’t no evil
But a peaceful place
The beautiful land with rich culture remain
At the second verse
It’s really painful to point out the problems as they are too much to even think about and mention
The food and drug security event
Melamine milk had affected so many babies
And they all suffered from malnutrition
What’s more, there was the vaccination issue
Illegal business operation has caused expiration and led to
The panic in domestic
What’s wrong with the businessmen
And its reasonless to do business riding on them babies
The question is there were still somebody who wanted the situation to be worse
And their name is
You know who?
They will get US dollar perks
The spy, the traitor, the liar and the money-making jerks
They are leading the public into another extreme and it worked
Also it is shameful to talk about some politicians
Because of their corruption and malversation in bidding sessions
Their sexual pics and the prostitution scandals
Are all as a disgrace to the country and its people
You are prolly also confused about the situation of Taiwan
As you don’t know the relationships between it and the mainland
Actually, for normal citizens, we just want us to be united as one
Cuz we think we are from one family, the same
What’s your name
This is China
We love the country, we the Chi-phenomena
The red dragon ain’t no evil
But a peaceful place
The beautiful land with rich culture remain
Although the country does have these terrible things to deal with
We’ve made a progress and we are trying to prevent these happening
The power of Chinese people in China are gradually proving
That we can make a better world as we love peace and harmony
Through developing mobile payments
We can now use apps to pay in nearly all the situations
Even to make an appointment with the doctors
We don’t have to wait in line and try so hard, cost so much to just pay to register
Meanwhile we can trust the public security
Cuz the policemen are kind to citizens but crucial to our enemies
We have tight gun control laws and we don’t fear gun slaughtering
Cuz only cops and soldiers are able to touch it
As for scientific achievement, we have Tu Youyou who discovered artemisinin
Also there are KBBF crystal and Shenzhou series in astronomy
We are now leading the developing or poor and backward countries
In technology, economy, science and other aspects
To make a better world just like the old, old history
Yes, we do want the recovery
Just for better living and our great great China dream
You see
What’s your name
This is China
We love the country, we the Chi-phenomena
The red dragon ain’t no evil
But a peaceful place
The beautiful land with rich culture remain"
We're all for an honest portrayal of the real China from pop culture acts from across the spectrum and "This is China" is a nice try but somewhat a shame that it's not more entertaining.