From punk rebellion to happy consumerism: Utopia and alternatives in Chinese popular culture
Soundings - Print ISSN 1362-6620 - Online ISSN 1741-0797
Volume 2025 Number 90 & 91
From punk rebellion to happy consumerism: Utopia and alternatives in Chinese popular culture
Zixuan Liu pages 225‑237
DOI: 10.3898/SOUN:90-91.14.2025
Abstract
In China’s media-market nexus, alternative impulses are rarely extinguished. Instead they are accelerated, monetised and returned as new pleasures. This essay traces a two-decade arc in mainland Chinese popular music to ask what kinds of ‘utopia’ survive inside today’s entertainment mainstream. It focuses on Beijing teen band The Flowers (1999-2005) - whose fluorescent pop-punk briefly promised a playful mini-utopia of freedom from exams, boredom and conformity - and the subsequent career of their frontman Wowkie Zhang, who embraced what he called ‘Happyism’ (2007-present), a candy-coloured regime of hooks, memes and variety-show absurdism that sells joy as instant relief. The saga is a cautionary tale, but also a hopeful one: it shows that even when one utopia fades, another may unexpectedly emerge from its ashes, in a blaze of punk rock or a burst of confetti, continuing the endless quest for ‘another possible world’.
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To cite this article
Zixuan Liu (2025) From punk rebellion to happy consumerism: Utopia and alternatives in Chinese popular culture, Soundings, 2025(90 & 91 ), 225-237 . https://doi.org/10.3898/SOUN:90-91.14.2025