ABSTRACT
This chapter is about the power of popular songs in the development of nationalism, communism, and globalization in China. There has been some discussion on the history and development of popular music, tracing back from the introduction of Western music into Chinese society in the nineteenth century to the growth of diverse popular music in the global age of China. The relationship between songs and politics in China has been much explored over the last two decades (Baranovitch, 2003; Ho, 2012; Ho & Law, 2012; Huang, 2001; Hung, 1996; Matsusitz, 2010; Mittler, 1997). Although scholarly attention to Chinese politics in relation to music has increased, there have been no in-depth, systematic analyses of twentieth-century popular songs in relation to the role of political ideology in the cultivation of people’s collective singing and identity with Chinese nationalism in the Chinese community.
