The Chinese state-run newspaper Global Times published a feature promoting the career of Ghanaian-born, Chengdu-based rapper Foster Asare-Yeboah on Wednesday, a sign that the Communist Party is returning to its policy of promoting regime-friendly rap music after attempting to ban hip-hop generally for years.
For much of 2015 and 2016, the Chinese Communist Party attempted to flood Chinese youth with government-produced hip-hop anthems about the greatness of communist bureaucracy, featuring samples of dictator Xi Jinping’s speeches and cumbersome titles such as “The Four Comprehensives Rap” and “The Reform Group Is Two Years Old.” The Chinese public largely rejected the regime’s attempts to enter the hip-hop industry, instead gravitating towards a growing scene of underground Chinese rappers inspired by their American counterparts and, as is traditional in the genre, writing songs about wealth and success.
Chinese hip-hop veered perilously close to mainstream culture, in the eyes of the Communist Party, after the debut of the reality program The Rap of China, in 2017. The show, which featured authentic Chinese rappers who had ascended in the scene independent of the government, became a blockbuster hit for the Chinese video platform iQiyi and launched the careers of several big-name Chinese rappers, most prominently the first season’s winners, PG One and Gai.
Shortly after The Rap of China became popular, the Communist Party announced a ban on rap and similar “immoral” music from television airwaves and scrambled to disappear or humiliate its stars. PG One was forced to apologize for being overly influenced by “black music;” Rap of China judge Kris Wu was sentenced to 13 years in prison for alleged rape. Some rappers survived by posting messages supportive of China’s human rights abuses against pro-democracy Hong Kong protesters and placating the regime, but the genre as it existed prior to the success of The Rap of China in the country largely ceased to exist.
Asare-Yeboah, the Ghanaian rapper featured in the Global Times, does not appear to produce explicitly pro-regime music. His message in an interview with the Chinese state propaganda outlet, however, was one favorable to the regime’s messaging that, under a communist interpretation of “Chinese culture” that eschews individualism and highlights “harmony,” even foreigners can succeed in the country. The Global Times emphasized that Asare-Yeboah published bilingual rap songs in Mandarin and English, sported a Sichuan accent, and adopted a Chinese name: Li Kui.
The outlet noted that Asare-Yeboah is also an alum of The Rap of China – its 2019 season, long after the Chinese government had cracked down on organic cultural content that could run afoul of communist orthodoxy on the show. It also highlighted songs celebrating China as superior to the rest of the world, with lyrics such as “I have seen very many cities and landscapes, from New York to Brazil, [but] I only fell in love with Chengdu.”
“Maybe I’m doing music, but I’m not just talking about this industry. I feel like every kind of business outside and in China should work on communication because so many things can be done if they really come together to talk and share ideas, because present-day China is not the China from 30 years ago,” Asare-Yeboah was quoted as saying. He reportedly credited China with teaching him “not to be selfish” and how “to be a man.”
“It’s [Chinese culture] all about family because no matter what anybody does, the first thing they think about is the family. The biggest change in my life after I came to China is that every time when I think about doing something, I don’t just think about myself,” the state newspaper quoted the rapper as saying. “I think about the people around me; my wife, my kid, the people I work with, and the people I’m doing business with, because we move together move as a team.”
The Global Times noted that the rapper also used “typical Chinese features” in his songs and rapping over Chinese-style music, a trend initially promoted by the blacklisted first season of The Rap of China.
Asare-Yeboah first received Chinese state media attention in 2019, the year he appeared on The Rap of China, the subject of a photo essay about his life integrating in Chengdu.
Forster Asare-Yeboah from Ghana got millions of followers after posting videos on social networks of him speaking Sichuan dialect. "I like to make people happy and I never expected I could have so many followers," he said with a laugh. https://t.co/fzjlcYJXmL pic.twitter.com/Ol8Lte5mET
— China Daily (@ChinaDaily) February 9, 2019
He currently promotes himself as “the only black Artist rapping and making music in china [sic throughout]” and heavily publicizes his music through China’s state-controlled social media. The Global Times described him as one of the most popular creators on Douyin, the Chinese version of Tik-tok – a feat impossible to execute without the Communist Party’s approval.
The Global Times choosing to promote a Ghanaian transplant rapper directly contradicts the message of a now-deleted 2018 column in the same newspaper declaring that Chinese hip-hop cannot thrive because China is not racist, like the United States presumably is.
“No one can transplant a cactus to Siberia or move polar bears to the equator,” the column argued. “In this case, the living environment matters. Without a native culture for hip-hop, the cultural form can scarcely blossom in China.”
“Hip-hop was born in the African-American community of the U.S.,” it continued. “Although slavery ended with the nation’s Civil War, people of color there have still struggled with poverty, racism and gang violence for quite some time.”
The promotion of rappers without explicit political messaging – only the soft power of creating the illusion that China is welcoming to Africans following multiple Communist Party racism fiascos – appears to be a shift in strategy from Beijing. Initial attempts to enter the rap world began with animated propaganda videos about mundane Communist Party bureaucracy.
“Streamline the administration and delegate power to lower levels and unleash energy,” a rapper demands in the 2015 regime-produced song “The Reform Group Is Two Years Old,” featuring a sample of a Xi speech.
The failure of these government productions led the regime to find pro-communist rappers producing their own content. One of the most frequently featured groups in state media, CD Rev, published aggressive and vulgar songs against enemies of the state.
“Taiwan ain’t a country, bitch—at most a county … fuck that, the bitch Tsai Ing-wen,” CD Rev rapped about the president of Taiwan in “The Force of Red,” railing against journalist “punk ass white trash fuckers.”
CD Rev also found no mainstream popularity, though the censorship campaign against allegedly “vulgar” rap music did not target them.
In early 2018, the Communist Party declared it would “punish” rappers who “cross the line” outside of communist orthodoxy, banning the genre from television.
“The freedom of music should stand on morality and laws,” a CD Rev member posted online approvingly.
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