ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses the popular music scene in the region, and specifically in territories that might describe themselves as 'culturally Chinese', is an increasingly transnational operation. It describes this regional-global nexus as the regional turn in the economics of globalization. The concept of identity receives considerable attention in psychology and sociology. Identification is also invoked as a psychological mechanism, and different subjective interactions produce different degrees of identification. P. W. Preston has pointed out that identity studies focus on how agents acknowledge themselves as members of a political ensemble, how this acknowledgment is expressed in routinized practices, and how it is legitimized in the public sphere. The 'Chinese singer' as a uniform label for artists working across different Chinese cultural and political borders conforms to the market principle of 'cultural China'. From cultural fragmentation to synthesis, the Chinese singer works on desires for cultural integration and interpretive translation across Chinese communities.