The Survival Struggle and Resistant Politics of a DIY Music Career in East Asia: Case Studies of China and Taiwan

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 224-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miaoju Jian
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Alternative Possibilities ◽  
Creative Industry ◽  
Music Scenes ◽  
Government Involvement ◽  
Music Market ◽  
Do It Yourself ◽  
Underground Music ◽  
Indie Music

Indie music in East Asia has experienced tremendous growth in popularity since the mid-2000s, especially in China and Taiwan. This trend has encouraged a number of indie bands to pursue more radical and alternative ‘do-it-yourself’ (DIY) careers within their local underground music scenes. Taking two bands from Beijing and Taipei as case studies, this article argues that their DIY music careers help them both to survive through their aesthetic freedom and to confront the paradoxical government involvement in the local music market. P.K. 14, a band from China, practice a pragmatic DIY music career with an oblique resistance to political authorities. Touming Magazine, a band from Taiwan, pursue a DIY career through punk ethics to fight against an overwhelming neoliberal discourse and a promotional state policy of developing a cultural and creative industry. While DIY career practitioners have opened up alternative possibilities to preserve the autonomy of making music, such a career path is still challenged by an unsustainable market, a shortage of financing, and the continued dominance of major music companies’ own platforms. The situations these musicians face illustrate a more ambivalent type of politics, beyond mere emancipation, in their pursuit of a DIY career.

Comparing Post-communist Authoritarianism in Russia and China

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheng Chen
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
East Asia ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Geographical Area ◽  
Context Sensitive ◽  
Elite Politics ◽  
Significant Divergence

The studies of post-communist Russia and China have traditionally been dominated by single-case studies and within-region comparisons. This chapter explores why the CAS of post-communist Russia and China is difficult, why it is rare, and how it could yield significant and unique intellectual payoffs. The cross-regional comparative study of anti-corruption campaigns in contemporary Russia and China is used as an example in this chapter to argue that a well-matched and context-sensitive comparison could reveal significant divergence in the elite politics and institutional capacities of these regimes that would otherwise likely be obscured by single-case studies or studies restricted to one single geographical area such as “Eastern Europe” or “East Asia.” By breaking Russia and China out of their respective “regions,” the CAS perspective thus enables us to better capture the full range of existing diversity of post-communist authoritarianism.

This must be the place: Venues and urban space in underground music scenes

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Schmisek
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Urban Transformation ◽  
Aesthetic Judgement ◽  
Music Scenes ◽  
The Face ◽  
Underground Music ◽  
Aesthetic Values

Art subcultures, and music scenes in particular, have featured prominently in academic discourse on gentrification in the neo-liberal city. Although scholarly accounts have done much to clarify the process through which music scenes become implicated and entangled within wider patterns of urban transformation and redevelopment, these studies often leave us with a flattened and undertheorized picture of the scenes themselves. Departing from David Ley’s conception of the ‘cultural field of gentrification’, I sketch out an analytical framework for understanding the heterogenous and contested character of music scenes in the face of urban change, focusing on a case study of the underground music scene in Rome’s Pigneto neighbourhood in 2017. As variegated waves of scene participants drift into new spaces, scenes coalesce into distinct territories, administered by venues and delineated by ‘scene ideologies’ ‐ matrices of ethical and aesthetic values and judgements constituting a collective scene habitus. This complicates any facile conception of artistic communities as either unwitting agents of gentrification or isolated underground enclaves; rather, premised on collective rituals of aesthetic judgement and differentiation, music scenes constitute a continuum of cultural production whose spatial practices both generate and subvert conditions for their eventual appropriation by market forces.

scholarly journals DEVELOPING CRAFT AS A CREATIVE INDUSTRY THROUGH TOURISM

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 03-22
Author(s):  
Greg Richards
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Tourism Development ◽  
Creative Industries ◽  
Creative Industry ◽  
Creative Development ◽  
Strong Basis ◽  
Ambiguous Position

This paper examines the position of crafts within the creative industries and considers how this has been affected by the growing links between the creative industries and tourism. A review of the creative industries concept indicates that crafts occupy an ambiguous position between art and tradition, which problematises their relationship with the creative industries. This is gradually changing at the creative and tourism sectors become more closely linked, and craft has become an important element of the development of creative tourism experiences. We review the role of craft in creative tourism, including case studies from Brazil, Finland, and Thailand, to examine how tourism can support the creative development of crafts. This analysis indicates that craft can be an important aspect of creative tourism development in different contexts and can provide a strong basis for placemaking initiatives.

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