Quite interesting article. One of the most difficult things to grasp for me on socialist nations - as was the Soviet Union and as is China - is their seemingly blind censorship of western music (and even other art forms). I understand the argument for it, but that is not the important point of this post.

To me this article exposes a fascinating happy accident, and the best way the Chinese population could get introduced to western music. Although this music was imported, it was not with marketing in mind - it was literally trash, after all - and its circulation was purely underground, so you’d have to have a prior knowledge of it and really be interested in getting hold of these CDs/tapes. I believe this dynamic mostly bypasses the concerns nations like China have with importing western music: there’s no corruption of cultural values as the music arrives not through mass propaganda but by a select few actively seeking it for curiosity purposes. I’d even go as long as to say in that way it actually has potential to enrich these cultural values, as some of the exemples on the article show.

You guys have any thoughts on this? and btw I’d never heard of China Quarterly, seems interesting enough?