Music
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The Year in Chinese Music: Top Albums of 2025
From dream-pop haze to dialect rap and post-punk playfulness, a curated snapshot of the sounds shaping the year picked by leading tastemakers across …
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Chinese Rappers Are Turning Hometown Slang Into Chart-Toppers
Skai Isyourgod (Lan Lao) recently surpassed Jay Chou as the most-streamed Mandopop artist on Spotify, leading the charge for a new generation of rapp…
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Wildest Dream: What Taylor Swift Means To Her Chinese Fans
Five Chinese “Swifties” explain how they fell in love with the American popstar, and what she taught them about life
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The Stories That Shaped China’s Music Industry in 2023
AI singers, lip-synching, wars over tickets, chaotic music festivals…the biggest music news of the year in China
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Rock is Not Dead in Xinxiang, China’s Former Capital of Rock ‘n’ Roll
Nearly 30 years after it hosted “China’s Woodstock,” a small central Chinese city is still home to a music culture that rocks in its own way
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The Kids Who Rocked China
In “Rocking China,” Shanghai-based historian Andrew Field looks back at a momentous period of the underground music scene in Beijing
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Post-Pandemic, Are Chinese Music Lovers Ready to Rock Again?
Music festivals in China are back after the pandemic hiatus. But inflated prices, poor site management, and a lack of diverse lineups leaves attendee…
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Will Singapore’s Mandopop Scene Ever Flourish Again?
Singapore artists used to be Mandopop royalty, but new acts are struggling to make a breakthrough
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East Meets West Africa: The Growing Popularity of Afrobeats
From the first Afrobeat album to the first Afrobeat festival, the genre has been quietly making inroads in China’s music market
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For the Record: How a War Refugee Built His Vinyl Haven in Hong Kong
Record store owner Paul Au has escaped the Vietnam War, slept in the streets, and weathered two pandemics to pursue his passion for vinyl
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Is China’s Boy Band Boom Over?
Ten years ago, TFBoys spurred a boom in Chinese boy bands. But now fan fatigue, investor apathy, and the pandemic threaten to burst the pop star bubb…
