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Translation of ‘America’ during the early Cold War period: a comparative study on the history of popular music in South Korea and Taiwan

2009; Routledge; Volume: 10; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/14649370802605274

1469-8447

Shin Hyunjoon, Tung‐hung Ho,

Hong Kong and Taiwan Politics

Abstract The evaluation of the cold war influences played by the US on the rest of the world should not only be accounted economically and politically, but also culturally. In this paper we see the US influences on South Korea and Taiwan from the value‐laden concept of Americanization and through which we examine comparatively specific practices of domestic popular music development in these two countries. Setting this paper as a historical comparative study, we see the working of Americanization in relation to popular music as a value regime in which American is constructed as an ideal model imaginatively and discursively, which was made possible by economic, social and cultural forces in South Korea and Taiwan. Focusing on the Cold War period, circa 1950s to 1960s, levels and aspects of Americanization were therefore ways of translation, to use Said's concept of traveling theory analogically; Anglo‐American music genres traveled to these countries to be incorporated contextually as new or trendy conventions of music‐making, which in turn helped form local music genres. The socio‐historical contexts of South Korea and Taiwan, with respect to the presence of American army forces, and similar postwar anti‐communist political forces, in nation‐building (north–south Korea, red China–free China antagonism respectively) are central to our understanding of the visibility of Americanization in different music cultures in these two countries. This paper will go into each country's historical trajectory of music practices that took Japanese colonial influences up to the postwar time and then blending with Anglo‐American genres in indigenizing that eventually marked their different paths, as we comparatively reveal their institutional, political and national cultural conditions, which were necessary in shaping each country's music‐making conventions, entertainment business, and consumption cultures of popular music – and that might implicitly inform tentatively the present rivalry between 'offensive' Korean Wave and 'defensive' Taiwanese 'rockers' in the globalization era. Keywords: Cold War in AsiaAmericanizationcultural translationKorean popular musicTaiwanese popular music Acknowledgments This research was made possible with funding from KRF (Korea Research Foundation: KRF‐2005‐079‐AM0045) (Shin Hyunjoon) and funding from Fu‐Jen Catholic University (9991B04‐209631040193) (Ho Tung‐hung). Notes 1. The Korean Wave can be defined as the diffusion and consumption of Korean pop cultural products and pop stars by (East) Asian audiences. For a detailed analysis see Chua and Iwabuchi (Citation2008). 2. Taike – literary 'Taiwanese guest' – has in daily usage in the postwar era to degrade Taiwanese for their vulgar tastes by Mainlanders. Yet, within the last ten years, Taike has been deliberately displaced by media hype as a fashion and 'niche' lifestyle and mentality. For the discussion of this ongoing tug of war between commercial‐cum‐cultural appropriation and socio‐political seriousness, see Lee (Citation2006). In popular music, promoting 'Taike Spirit', famous Taiwanese rock star Wu Bai once said, 'Do not let Taike become another excuse for our degeneration' (China Times, 17 August 2005, recorded by Huang Jun‐jie). 3. The setting of a comparison between Japan and non‐Japan tends to conclude that the one is a beneficiary while the other is a casualty, especially when the research is limited to a bilateral relation. Another Japanese scholar, Marukawa Tetsusi, who authored Cold War Culture, argues that the continuity of Japanese imperial domination and Cold War structure in that 'division line running from the 38 parallel line to Taiwan straits is basically the same as before' and 'the independence of Japan includes the meaning of the treachery to Asia' (Marukawa Citation2005: 19). 4. Regarding the concept of 'cultural translation', besides Edward Said, we follow some postcolonial theories advanced by Homi Bhabha (Citation1990), Tejaswini Niranjana (Citation1992) and Rey Chow (Citation1995) and so on. We will not go into theoretical details and debates about the concept. Suffice it to say that we are cautious about the doing of 'denial', 'resistance', 'subversion' in cultural translation. Whether or not cultural translation engenders these results would, to some extent, depend on specific conditions and circumstances. So it might be probable that the translation has little to do with the challenge to the hegemony of dominant culture. 5. Singling out the US's military relationships with ROK and ROC here does not exhaust various aspects of American influences on these countries. There were other US agencies that helped to nurture American cultural and ideological hegemony in Taiwan since the early 1950s. For instance, see Zhao (Citation2001) for the US's educational and cultural exchange programs initiated by the US government. 6. Politically oppositional songs arose in the 1920s and began to disappear from 1937 during 'The imperial‐subjectification movement' (Kominka movement). In the postwar period, these kinds of songs reappeared only in the course of the 1980s' oppositional movement through the lifting of martial law in 1987 (see Yang Citation2008). 7. There have been many committees serving as 'gatekeepers' that censored popular culture, and to which popular music is subjected – mainly the Ministry of Education, Government Information Office, which were both in the shadow of the General Headquarters of National Guard. 8. This Mandarin song is written by Li Jin‐hui (1891–1967), who is called a father of modern Chinese popular music (shidaiqu) and it was sung by his daughter Li Ming‐hui. About his life and art see Jones (Citation2001: 73–104). 9. KMT's target on decadent sound disregarded language‐use, which carried on until late 1970s and its moral regulation can be traced back to the 1930s in China. For historical discourses around decadent sound (mimizhiyin) by KMT in the 1930s, see Jones (Citation2001: 114–115). 10. Patriotic songs, such as the 'March Song for Anti‐communism (sung by Chao You‐pei), 'Songs for Anti‐communism and Against Russia (sung by He Nu)', 'Protect Our Taiwan (sung by Sun Ling)' among others, were adopted and rewarded by the authority (Zeng Citation1998: 109). 11. Even under the DPP regime now (as this paper was prepared), popular music somehow cannot shake away the spell of the state. A good example would be pop diva Zhang Hui‐mei, a.k.a. A‐mei. When she sang the national anthem in the presidential inauguration ceremony in 2004 and was later denounced by the Chinese government who threatened to ban her performances from China, her act of patriotism surrendered to commercial forces, which backed her 'Mandarin pop' stardom. Yet since then patriotic rhetoric in Taiwan was divided into two camps – either pro‐Taiwan or pro‐ROC, she is caught within a complicated political‐cum‐commercial situation where pro‐Taiwan is denounced while pro‐ROC is to be let off by the Chinese government. For a more detailed analysis about A‐mei, see Tsai (Citation2007). 12. About the continuity and discontinuity of 'Cultural Reunification' and 'Cultural Renaissance' see Chun (Citation1994) and Shyu (Citation2001). 13. The promotion of 'clean and healthy' songs can be seen as a long‐term exercise of counter‐decadency, especially towards Taiwanese songs. For example, a famous all‐male chorus called Lucky Choir, since the beginning of 1960s, used western classical music skills to interpret Taiwanese traditional folksongs and was highly praised as 'the graceful practice of popularizing artistic songs and artisticizing popular songs' (Fung Citation1986: 177). The strategy that popularized Lucky Choir in the 1960s can be seen as a logical progression of the 1950s' strategy of 'patriotization'. 14. It should be pointed out that Cantonese music and movies in Hong Kong were only to be popularized and became dominant forms later on in the 1960s and 1970s. 15. The first Mandarin film in Taiwan after liberation was Ali Mountain Legend, which was released in 1949 and directed by Zhang Che. 'Green Mountain', the theme song of the film, was also popularized in the 1950s and remained popular up to today, although there were some controversies about who wrote this song. If we can set aside the controversies, Zhou Lan‐ping was the most famous musician who played a major role in making Mandarin film music in Taiwan. 16. According to Allen S. Whiting, there are three types of nationalism: affirmative, assertive and aggressive. While the former concentrates on 'us', i.e. the positive attitude of the inner group, the second introduces 'them' as a negative referent group, which defies the interests and identity of the community (Whiting Citation1995). The third type of nationalism identifies a specific foreign enemy. Although we don't agree with his overall view, the tripartite typology of nationalism has some explanatory power that we borrow here. 17. Among those who were said to be kidnapped to North Korea, Kim Hae‐song was killed during the wartime. But it was not for sure whether he was forcefully kidnapped by the North Korean Army or voluntarily went to North Korea. For this ambiguous biography, his works were credited to Lee Bong‐ryong who was his brother‐in‐law. Lee Nan‐young, who is Kim's widow and Lee's sister and herself is the most famous singer, brought up and made her sons and daughters into professional musicians, The Kim Sisters and the Kim Boys. After some successful careers in US military camp shows, the Kim Sisters (afterwards, the Kim Boys, too) migrated to Las Vegas and continued a successful career there. Many more musicians followed the Kim Sisters' path, but with little success. About the Kim Sisters, see Maliangkay (Citation2005). 18. For example Son Mok‐in and Gil Ok‐yun secretly immigrated to Japan and made successful careers as musicians there. Many more musicians attempted to follow their path but were expelled by the Japanese government. Another S and K, who played important roles in the development of Korean popular music since mid‐1950s were castigated by Japanese police and forcefully returned to Korea after some detention (Hwang Citation1981: 201; Citation1983: 242–243). 19. Here we use 'category' and 'style' loosely and interchangeably not so much to tell textual differences of musical compositions as to tell different social mediations and functions upon which music was made, dissimilated and used. 20. During 1950–53, the political situation was represented in some popular songs. 'Sleep Well, My Fellow Soldier' depicts a combat at Nakdong River; 'Be strong, Geumsoon' depicts the January 4 retreat; 'Busan Station with Parting' depicts the return of the capital city to Seoul. Three songs are written by composer, Park Si‐chun. 21. Let us give the titles of some songs which have the names of western dance rhythms in Korean song: 'Guitar Boogie', 'Deajeon Blues', 'Rainy Tango', 'Moonlight Rumba', 'Balloonflower Mambo', 'Song Melody Cha Cha Cha', and 'Arirang Dodomba'. 22. Despite that, there were some Mandarin and Taiwanese songs that had dance styles and surely they were influenced by Japanese songs. For example, the most remembered and covered Taiwanese tune is called 'Formosa Mambo'. 23. While Japanese songs such as 'Tokyo Boogie Woogie', 'Tokyo Shoeshine Boy', 'Ginza Cancan Girl', 'Samisen Boogie Woogie', released around the late 1940s and the early 1950s, represented the scenery in Tokyo occupied by the US Army, Korean songs with swing rhythms represented the scenery at Busan or Daegu (not at Seoul), where many people took refuge. 24. Authorized by the American Congress and initiated by Eisenhower in 1953, the USIA was to carry out three tasks on a global scale to facilitate American foreign policies via mass media. 25. English translation varies: base village or camp town, for instance. For a vivid description about Gijichon, see Seoulsinmunsa (Citation1979, especially Chapter 4 'Korean society and US military'). In the book, five representative Gijichons are: 'ASCOM city' in Bupyeong (near Incheon), 'Yongjugol' in Paju, 'Little Chicago' in Dongducheon, 'Hayaria (Hialeah)' and 'Texas' in Busan, 'Uncheonri' and 'Ssukgogae' in Pocheon. And we can include 'Itaewon' near Yongsan base camp in the heart of Seoul. Even recently, in a blockbuster TV drama Sad Love Story (2004), which was successfully exported to some Asian countries, a hero and a heroine grow up in Gijichon. 26. Music bands playing for American soldiers were divided into three categories: 'floor bands', which passed the audition as a part of show troupe and toured military bases around the country; 'house bands', which played exclusively at particular clubs inside the military camps without touring with a show troupe; the 'open bands', which played in private clubs surrounding camp towns, with the hope of passing the audition. They only occasionally filled in for camp shows in case neither the floor band nor the house band was available. 27. In a special report about Taiwan's remenyinyue scene from 1956 to 1968, it was estimated that in Taipei city in 1968 (Lo et al. Citation1968), there were 17 programs weekly on American popular music (the American Radio Station and other cities' programs were not included). When The American Radio Station began to broadcast its music programs, various genres were included: classical, jazz, easy listening, and popular music from the Charts. As the popular music songs had gained a mass‐market share in America from the mid 1950s onwards, in Taiwan, people could hear Wolfman Jack's rock and roll program, and Billboard's 'Hot One Hundreds' single chart, too. The same line was followed as US music genres developed and Taiwan's pirated records caught up (Ho Citation2003: 66–67). 28. From many of our informants' recollections, they hardly remembered any bands that recorded for the record companies. In our record collection, there were two famous cover albums' recorded by a famous band, The Sunshine Band, during late 1960s. The repertoire included 15 minutes of The Venture medley, 'Kansas City', 'Kiss My Goodbye', etc. The only album with self‐composed tracks in Mandarin recorded by a band that was popular in those clubs was released in 1973, but it did not sell well. In Korea, however, since 1964, famous bands such as Add 4 and Key Boys recorded not only 'cover songs' but also 'original songs' written by Korean songwriters. In the case of Add 4, the bandleader Shin Joong‐hyun wrote most of the repertoire of the band. Although the influence of these bands was limited to younger audiences in Seoul until the mid‐1960s, some of them became more successful during the late 1960s and the early 1970s. Regarding this kind of mutation, see Shin (Citation2005). 29. The question of whether the cultural transformation caused by Americanization is a 'melting pot or Cultural Chernobyl' was raised by Jon Roper. Roper defines the 'Americanization of culture' as the process of cultural transformation in which the consciousness of individuals and the character of national culture is changed by 'the idea of America' made through the projection of American popular culture (Roper Citation1996). But there are various cases between the two extremes and the cases of Korea (and Taiwan also) can be explained neither by 'cultural hybridization' nor by 'cultural Chernobylization'. 30. If we broaden our perspective by bringing in Japan and Okinawa, we can find more differences. While in Japan, where most of US military camps were withdrawn after 1952, 'America' had became less visible and 'internalized', unlike in Okinawa, which had been occupied by US Army until 1972. We can say that the cases of Taiwan and Korea lie somewhere between Japan and Okinawa and these similar positions in East Asian regions made them two 'sibling countries'. 31. As we can see in independent or just 'less commercial' genres, labeled as indie, hip‐hop, experimental music, collaboration has become common after 2000. One symbolic event might be 'Respect for da chopstick hip‐hop' (2005), which was initiated by Hong Kong‐based rap metal band LMF, in which numerous Japanese and Korean musicians joined in. Even in mainstream pop, Taiwanese pop star Wang Lee‐hom and Rain (plus another Korean singer Lim Jung‐hee) collaborated in a song 'Perfect Interaction'.