Why rap is cool in China's official circles

The Communist Youth League, which is an affiliate of the Communist Party of China, recently posted a video titled This Is China on the Twitter-like Weibo platform. The video shows members of Tianfu Shibian, a band from Chengdu city in Southwest China's Sichuan province, rapping about the "Chi phenomenon".

With their faces painted in the form of Chinese opera masks, the rappers sing: "The red dragon ain't no evil, but a peaceful place."

The video, which analysts said is aimed mainly at young and overseas Chinese, is yet another example of the rising influence of rap in China's official circles.

Over the past two years, many government videos related to President Xi Jinping's political philosophies, the anti-graft campaign, top legislative meetings, Karl Marx and an armed forces recruitment drive, among others, have taken the rap or animation routes to draw the attention of the younger generations.

Analysts and people from the world of arts told China Daily in interviews earlier this week that rap's popularity in government publicity suggests a change in approach.

"The government is trying to appeal to the young who are more attracted to Western pop culture like rap," Kenny Ng, a professor of Chinese literature and culture at the City University of Hong Kong, said.

Other than the educated youth at home, he added, such videos also seek to reach out to mainland students studying abroad, returnees (haigui) and second-generation Chinese immigrants who may be interested in knowing what's happening in China today.

"And rap songs, they are quite fun, quite easy to remember," said Zhang Lijia, author and commentator.

Rappers (known as emcees) the world over use words and beats to communicate with their audiences in performances held in the streets or indoor venues.

While now a part of hip-hop that became a hit in 1970s New York, rap is said to predate that musical style with its West African roots.

Zhang, who worked in a State-run factory in East China for a decade before launching into full-time writing in the late 1990s, cites last year's video on the 13th Five-Year Plan titled Shi San Wu as a successful instance of how policy announcements can be made easy for young people to follow.

The five-year plans are developmental goals set by the government and may come across as dense while being read in newspapers or watched as graphics on television.

Chang Jiang, an assistant professor of journalism at the Renmin University of China, said old-fashioned publicity isn't as effective these days, because the newer generations of Chinese have grown up alongside the internet more than with television or newspapers, and they seldom get their news and views from traditional media.

The online world is also far more interactive, he added.

Chang said he began to notice the trend of such videos in 2013.

A year earlier, South Korean rapper Park Jae-sang (PSY to the world) had made a global splash with his song Gangnam Style, which to date remains the most-viewed video on YouTube. Besides, Korean popular culture has permeated Chinese society for long.

Wang Tianfang, a 24-year-old Beijing-based hip-hop artist, who goes by the stage name "FrankiD," said the spread of Korean hip-hop in China - especially of bands like Bigbang - is a key reason behind the acceptance of such music in a country where even until a decade ago rappers were largely unknown.

satarupa@chinadaily.com.cn