Cries of Joy, Songs of Sorrow: Chinese Pop Music and Its Cultural Connotations

摘要

This book fills in an important lacuna in research in the study of Chinese popular music. Asian popular music studies has seen a gradual rise over the past decade, with the biannual conferences of the inter-Asia popular music studies group as its academic highlight. When we look at academic studies that are published in English, we see a strong bias towards the PRC, privileging studies on rock music, folk music, and ethnic music. Mandopop that is produced in Taiwan has received little attention; yet, this is the music that has taken over Cantopop and become the most popular among Chinese audiences worldwide. As Moskowitz notes, since 2002, 80 per cent of the Chinese language music sales consist of Mandopop (p. 2). Despite its staggering