Dr. Mengyao Jiang

I was invited by Professor Karen Wells to contribute a chapter to the book 'Teen Lives around the World: A Global Encyclopedia'. This 2-volume encyclopaedia published by ABC-CLIO is intended for USA high school students and undergraduates.


The main purchasers of these editions are high school, college, and public libraries. It is a great opportunity to shape US students understandings of their peers in the world and of the connections and disconnections between their lives and the lives of teens elsewhere.


In this chapter, it introduces different aspects of Chinese teenage cultures, including country overview, schooling and education, extracurricular activities, family and social life, religions and cultural rites of passage, rights and legal status, inequalities and issues today.   

https://www.abc-clio.com/ABC-CLIOCorporate/product.aspx?pc=A5269C

Progressive rock came into China in the context of Chinese economic reform led by Deng Xiaoping in the 90s, when dakou CDs and tapes were sold in urban black markets (de Kloet 2010). Dakou refers to CDs and tapes that were dumped by the West. They were cut to prevent them from being sold and smuggled into China. Western progressive rock bands such as Pink Floyd, Yes and King Crimson were first heard by Chinese young adults and inspired the emergence of Chinese progressive rock bands.

This presentation contextualises the origins and development of progressive rock in China and analyses themes and subjectivities expressed through lyrical narratives. The core of the analysis is a content analysis of lyrics from Haiqing’s albums, including The Flesh and Utopian Daymare, and Wood Pushing Melon’s albums, such as The Birth of Tragedy, How the Steel was not Tempered, Mount Tai Shigandang (Part 1), Peacock, and People Clasp Imagination. In-depth interviews were also conducted and analysed to reveal musicians’ subjectivities, motives, and meanings behind progrock narrative construction.

The presentation suggests, while Chinese prog-rock expresses typical themes that can be found in western progressive rock, such as utopian, fantasies and escapism (McParland 2019). Chinese progrock lyrics articulate authenticity and often are derive from Chinese nature, as well as literary and folklore traditions. Concepts and metaphors are often used to critically respond to Chinese social, cultural, and political realities. Critique of authority controls, and resistance are also present themes in Chinese prog rock narratives.

Zines are understood as ‘non-commercial, non-professional, small-circulation magazines which their creators produce, publish and distribute by themselves (Duncombe 1997: 6). According to collected data, zines are also connected to underground, freedom of publication, addressing authenticity and anti-mass-produced commercialised cultural products. This presentation is an initial study of zine making and zine scenes in China, using data collected from in-depth interviews with Keykey Yan, a female photographer based in Fuzhou who has published photography zines. Keykey’s photographic work explores self-consciousness and intimate relationships through images, as well as the sensitive emotional-connection among young people. The presentation also analyses data collected from poetry zine creators in Shanghai, drawing from Johnathan Mulcahy, who is a Canadian poet residing in Shanghai involved in poetry zine self-publishing, and potentially other zine makers. The study seeks to initially map out poetry zine making scenes in Shanghai and understand the motives and meanings behind zine making and dissemination within the Chinese context.

Keywords: d.i.y. zine makings, photographic zines, poetry zine scenes, Shanghai