Shanghai Memo: The Sound, Not Of Music, But Of Control

SHANGHAI, Oct. 24 — A song often heard on the radio these days begins with a light and upbeat melody, and lyrics that are even bubblier.

Dont care about loneliness, croons the lead singer. I dont think it really matters.

Another much played song tries even harder to soothe. Ah, little man, ah, succeed quickly, it counsels. Enjoy being poor but happy every day.

Marxists once referred to religion as the opium of the people, but in todays China it is the music promoted on state-monopolized radio that increasingly claims that role. Chinas leader, Hu Jintao, has talked since he assumed power five years ago about building a harmonious society, an ambiguous phrase subject to countless interpretations.

But Chinese musicians, cultural critics and fans say that in entertainment, the governments thrust seems clear: Harmonious means blandly homogeneous, with virtually all contemporary music on the radio consisting of gentle love songs and uplifting ballads.

In recent weeks, television networks have come under intense pressure from Beijing to purge their programming of crime and even mildly suggestive sexual references. Variety show producers are subject to new rules aimed at enforcing official notions of dignity. Art galleries and theatrical productions, meanwhile, have always been subject to review by censors.

Even without resorting to direct censorship, the state has formidable powers for controlling popular music and shaping tastes. They include state ownership of all broadcast media, the screening of lyrics for all commercial music and strict control of performance sites.

Many say one result has been the dumbing down and deadening of popular music culture. Fu Guoyong, an independent cultural critic in Hangzhou, likened todays pop music culture to the politically enforced conformity of the Cultural Revolution, when only eight highly idealized Socialist model operas could be performed in China.

Nowadays singers can sing many songs, but in the end, theyre all singing the same song, the core of which is, Have fun, Mr. Fu said. Culture has become an empty vessel.

Nowhere is conformity enforced more vigorously than on broadcast radio, where pop music programs are saturated with the Chinese equivalent of the kind of easy listening often associated in other countries with elevators and dentists offices.

Rock n roll is mostly limited to special programs that are allowed brief windows of airtime during the graveyard shift, and even then there are few hints of angst, alienation or any but the very mildest expressions of teenage rebellion.

Rock enjoyed a wave of popularity in China the early 1990s, but the works of the countrys most famous performer, Cui Jian, disappeared from the airwaves around that time because, many fans believe, his lyrics began to flirt with political themes.

By this year, the rock groups felt so unwanted that when the Chinese Olympic Committee called on musicians to submit songs for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, virtually none stepped forward, according to Shen Lihui, a music company executive who was consulted by the committee.

Liu Sijia, the bass player and a vocalist for an underground Shanghai band called Three Yellow Chicken, said alternative music in China today is much like Western rock in the 1960s, with its frequent references to social issues like war, poverty, civil rights and generational conflict. But alternative rock is rarely heard on the radio.

What prevails here is worse than garbage, he said. Because China emphasizes stability and harmony, the greatest utility of these pop songs is that they arent dangerous to the system. If people could hear underground music, it would make them feel the problems in their lives and want to change things.

Chinese cultural officials and radio D.J.s insist that the overwhelming prevalence of easy-listening pop merely reflects popular tastes. Many point to a commonly invoked generational shift in China, with todays young people too caught up in the countrys economic boom to dwell on social problems or ponder lifes bigger questions.

Its whether youre happy or not that counts, and not the substance, said Zheng Yang, a veteran D.J. on Music Radio in Beijing. Life is smooth, and so music is more about soothing things. Anyone can criticize or blame. What we need right now is guidance.

Critics of the countrys cultural policies acknowledge that compared with past practices, direct censorship of popular music is relatively uncommon. But in comments that hinted at the political agenda behind the states management of popular music, Zhang Zhuyi, an official of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, said he doubted that a radio station dedicated to rock n roll would be allowed in China.

New radio stations need approval, and regulators would consider whether the content fits with social trends and national policy, Mr. Zhang said.

Asked what those were, he said, Its about how to orient the audience, and provide them with a kind of spiritual food.

At a small performance spot in Shanghai, one of the few places where alternative music acts are able to perform, a group of college students dismissed mainstream Chinese pop.

Whats on the radio are brainless mouthwash songs that all copy each other, said Xu Jinlu, a 20-year-old junior. Whats produced here is all about You dont love me or I dont love you. Its lousy, and without layers.

At that, her friend Yu Yun spoke up. Once you hear the first rhythm, she said, you know the rest.

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