China Discovers the Soft Power of Bad Rap

Fresh on the heels of last year's effort to popularize the 13th National Development Plan via a bizarre video (that somehow failed to take the world by storm) comes the next attempt at state-sponsored soft power: An English-language rap about China pride that attempts to portray the voice of the people by injecting some gritty realism into its lyrics.

"This is China" by the obscure Sichuan rap outfit CD REV mixes lines about the harsh realities of China (pollution, melamine and vaccination scandals, corruption, greed) with a positive patriotic refrain: "This is China / We love the country, we the Chi-phenomena / The red dragon ain’t no evil / But a peaceful place / The beautiful land with rich culture remain."

I gotta admit it's certainly an improvement over, say, reading a front-page editorial in the People's Daily, but not by a whole lot.

The problem, first off, is there's rap, and then there's bad rap. Seemingly inspired by the style of Eminem or Macklemore and Ryan Lewis' Same Love, CD REV's rapper (who goes by the English name Pissy) just doesn't have "flow" on this track. A successful track combines catchy beats with a unique lyrical delivery that inspires the listener to keep with the song, and in the process hear a message he or she may not have intended to listen to. Pissy attempts to cram so much "message" over the beats that the net effect is more sermon than anything, and the wordplay is clumsy. Frankly it's hard to make it through the track's full four minutes.

While the Pissy's Chinglish does give it a sort of street authenticity ("The policemen are kind to citizens but crucial to our enemies / We have tight gun control laws and we don’t fear gun slaughtering / Cuz only cops and soldiers are able to touch it"), the message doesn't come off as entirely genuine, especially when Pissy awkwardly crams in references to the Chinese discovery of artemisinin and KBBF crystals. Or when he, in perhaps an unintended lyrical pairing, equates WeChat Pay with world peace ("We can make a better world as we love peace and harmony / Through developing mobile payments").

Indeed, hip-hop heads are sure to quickly scoff at the clip, though they will likely be impressed by "This Is China's" subtler flourishes: the Sichuan Opera-infused vocals and the overall high production value of the video.

Historian and writer Jeremiah Jenne says the video is catchy, and he likes that its lyrics reference real problems like pollution and milk powder scandals. “The fact that they acknowledge there are problems adds to its credibility, so it doesn’t come across purely as North Korea Light,” he said.

Have a look for yourselves:

According to The Guardian, the video was produced by the Youth Communist League, who promoted on their Weibo channel to great fanfare earlier this week.

But this is not the first effort by CD REV. Before state sponsorship, the rappers has already developed quite a repertoire of gangsta rap tracks on their own – and a quick look at their lyrical output makes you wonder if the Youth League perhaps didn't bother to examine the group's back catalogue before choosing them as the spokespeople for their generation.

On "Force of Red" the group uses a vulgar, expletive-laden NWA-style to make their unsubtle point that the PRC, Hong Kong and Taiwan are one inseparable entity ("Why don’t all you zombies in the region don’t know you is your mom? Taiwan ain’t a country, bitch, at most a province"). They also of course blame the Western media for fanning the flames ("I wanna point out that all you faggots from the western better shut your mouth / You media punk ass white trash fuckers stop talking this talking that")

Then there is "Chengdu Nigga" which has Pissy demonstrating a rather extensive knowledge of offensive English terminology:

"Got my cock rooted in the bottom layer

Fuck every rapper

Y’all now ready for your ass

Bitches trynna go fuck with that

And get a punch like that

Fat ass shit kicked by an ass-cracked nigga like me

But I aint gonna call myself a G

Bitch I’m a ridah

On the street, fighter

Now y’all hustlers baby

Can fuck off my thug life

I got me semen on your face

Be straight lil sissy gay

I’ll pay for your 96 way"

Here's a transcription of the full lyrics of "This is China":

"Regardless of all the prejudice of the past

Today I wanna restore the impression you have on my country China

Which have been exactly fabricated by media for a long time

As an individual citizen based in south west of the country

I wanna speak it then

You guys can know better about what the truth is and

How Chinese people assess their own country

And how much we don’t wanna be disputants

First things first we all know that China is a developing country

It has large population and it is really hard to manage

Especially after World War II – almost perished

I mean what I say is true war is always scary

It is real that the pollution is severe at the present stage

In big cities like Beijing, Tianjin

Always pollution haze

Similar to 1950s London and LA

It’s painful with higher growth rate you see

People are too busy with business

Everybody wanna have a better life

Make money get married

But they are like the first or second generation of rich

Not well educated

But now young men like us aspiring and friendly

What’s your name

This is China

We love the country, we the Chi-phenomena

The red dragon ain’t no evil

But a peaceful place

The beautiful land with rich culture remain

At the second verse

It’s really painful to point out the problems as they are too much to even think about and mention

The food and drug security event

Melamine milk had affected so many babies

And they all suffered from malnutrition

What’s more, there was the vaccination issue

Illegal business operation has caused expiration and led to

The panic in domestic

What’s wrong with the businessmen

And its reasonless to do business riding on them babies

The question is there were still somebody who wanted the situation to be worse

And their name is

You know who?

They will get US dollar perks

The spy, the traitor, the liar and the money-making jerks

They are leading the public into another extreme and it worked

Also it is shameful to talk about some politicians

Because of their corruption and malversation in bidding sessions

Their sexual pics and the prostitution scandals

Are all as a disgrace to the country and its people

You are prolly also confused about the situation of Taiwan

As you don’t know the relationships between it and the mainland

Actually, for normal citizens, we just want us to be united as one

Cuz we think we are from one family, the same

What’s your name

This is China

We love the country, we the Chi-phenomena

The red dragon ain’t no evil

But a peaceful place

The beautiful land with rich culture remain

Although the country does have these terrible things to deal with

We’ve made a progress and we are trying to prevent these happening

The power of Chinese people in China are gradually proving

That we can make a better world as we love peace and harmony

Through developing mobile payments

We can now use apps to pay in nearly all the situations

Even to make an appointment with the doctors

We don’t have to wait in line and try so hard, cost so much to just pay to register

Meanwhile we can trust the public security

Cuz the policemen are kind to citizens but crucial to our enemies

We have tight gun control laws and we don’t fear gun slaughtering

Cuz only cops and soldiers are able to touch it

As for scientific achievement, we have Tu Youyou who discovered artemisinin

Also there are KBBF crystal and Shenzhou series in astronomy

We are now leading the developing or poor and backward countries

In technology, economy, science and other aspects

To make a better world just like the old, old history

Yes, we do want the recovery

Just for better living and our great great China dream

You see

What’s your name

This is China

We love the country, we the Chi-phenomena

The red dragon ain’t no evil

But a peaceful place

The beautiful land with rich culture remain"

We're all for an honest portrayal of the real China from pop culture acts from across the spectrum and "This is China" is a nice try but somewhat a shame that it's not more entertaining.