TikTok, Hip Hop, and the big shots — humanising great power rivalry
TikTok, Hip Hop, and the big shots — humanising great power rivalry
WRITTEN BY SOLOMON PM
23 May 2024
Much has been made in recent months of the US’ proposed ban on the Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok, sparked by concerns that the app is secretly host to spyware that could feed information back to the Chinese government via its parent company ByteDance. Congressman Hakeem Jeffries described the risk as a “national security threat” by a “hostile foreign adversary”. What US policymakers do not seem to realise, however, is how the throttling of relations between the two superpowers can pose not only a national security threat but a global one, too, with potentially much wider-reaching consequences.
Buried amongst this hysteria is a secondary concern that TikTok has been weaponised against the American public as a whole, referred to by United States Senators Mark Warner and Marco Rubio as the platform’s “enormous power to influence and divide Americans”. Validity of these claims aside, this outright suspicion of Chinese products contains stark parallels with the Chinese Communist Party’s cultural embargos by way of its media mouthpieces, the State Administration of Radio and Television (SART), and the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China (CPCPD). The explicit goal of these bodies is to “vigorously promote Chinese culture” and limit content which can “violate the public order”, with targets ranging from “sissy pants” and ponytails to Hip Hop culture itself.
Contrary to substantive and decades-long literature speculating as to the destabilisation posed by China’s rise, at least in the case of 88rising, this rise has shown signs of being peaceful and mutually beneficial, as well as providing meaning and fulfilment for individuals on both sides of the divide.
It is hard to ignore the rhetorical parallels here, not least when considering that an American ban on TikTok would create a US monopoly over the remaining major social media platforms. In light of this globe-shattering paranoia, it is perhaps a good time to remind both superpowers of the benefits of intercultural communication, using the example of the Asian-American Hip Hop platform 88rising, which has disseminated through the very channels that China and America are attempting to throttle. These benefits are present not just at the international level of perceived power struggles and zero-slash-positive-sum games but, more importantly, at the human level and for the literal billions of individuals that are caught in the crossfire.
A broader view of intercultural dialogue
Contrary to centralised suspicion, a closer look at these maligned cultural objects reveals how online media trends and music genres often flow beneath state borders and with little regard for perceived power relations. India and Pakistan, for example, form one of the most heated geopolitical fault lines on Earth. Yet, even as troops were stationed in contested Kashmir, Bollywood movies aired in Pakistani cinemas. Joined by shared cultural references, similar languages, and movie stars that are household names on both sides of the border, Indians and Pakistanis inhabit a shared space of cultural consumption and meaning-making that exists in stark opposition to their geopolitics.
While states may attempt to influence these cultural exchanges, as was indeed the case with the 2019 ban on Bollywood movies in Pakistani cinemas, the individual desire to participate in meaning-making and sharing prevails. The ban has been widely circumvented through VPNs and illegal imports, such that cultural exchanges today persist largely uninhibited, and the ban continues in name alone. This broader understanding of culture’s place in international relations appears underappreciated in American and Chinese foreign policy rhetoric, which centres exclusively on ‘national interest’ and ‘hostile foreign adversaries’. Most importantly, however, such understanding can provide novel insights into their rivalry.
88rising of China
Perhaps one of the strongest examples of cultural exchange between the US and China is (Pan-) Asian-American Hip Hop collective 88rising. Founded by Sean Miyashiro — born to a Japanese father and Korean mother and raised in the US — the label situates itself within Hip Hop’s emerging Asian talent, both in Asia and on US soil. Producing tracks such as the international hit ‘Midsummer Madness’ that features Chinese and American artists side-by-side and has accrued views in the hundreds of millions, the platform stands as an articulation of East-West cultural encounters and provides meaning and visibility to those who have made these experiences most potently.
Asian-American podcast The Bicultural Identity proclaimed that 88rising “really brings a sense of community to second-gen Asians living in a Western society”. More widely, this distinct Asian-American identity, emerging as the offspring of post-World War Asian immigrants to the US and Canada reaches adulthood and begins exploring their cultural milieu, has seen increased visibility in recent years. Hit 2023 Netflix series ‘Beef’ centres on this distinct experience, sporting a predominately Asian-American cast and the tagline “proof that Western therapy doesn’t work on Eastern minds”. Within this wider movement, 88rising plays a crucial role, contextualising the Asian-American experience within Eastern culture as well as the (African-) American genre of Hip Hop and using this as a vehicle to elevate artists who are redefining what it means to be Asian and Asian-American. Meanwhile, Chinese rap group Higher Brothers espouse the benefits of 88rising’s ability to foster intercultural relations from the Eastern perspective, with member Melo commenting “I think it’s a good thing for China and America”, fellow member Melo elaborates, “you can learn our culture and we can learn yours”.
Critically, 88rising also made use of two mediums that have been treated with particular suspicion by both China and the US: Hip Hop and social media. Two of the label’s biggest draws — Joji and Rich Brian — made their names in viral social media videos before embarking on music careers, frequenting online spaces where cultural exchanges were at their most intense. “Eating American food, watching American shows, I was living in America in Indonesia,” reminisces Rich Brian of his first encounters with American culture online. Brian has since become one of Hip Hop’s first true Asian superstars, accruing streams in the billions, producing music for Marvel’s Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and headlining festivals in both the US and Asia.
The stories of 88rising artists highlight the significance of cultural exchange for real humans. From providing a relatable platform for Chinese pride to articulating the complexities of the Asian-American experience to bringing innovation back into the African-American cultural medium of Hip Hop, 88rising performs an international role that cannot purely be reduced to state interest.
Humanising great power rivalry
To return to the initial issue of the US’ attempted ban on TikTok, even under a traditional, state-based view of foreign policy, such an in-depth cultural analysis of 88rising begins to bear fruit. Subscribers to a power-focused approach to international relations might view China’s rise as inherently conflictual but cannot deny the mutual financial benefits that 88rising’s international tours bring in. Meanwhile, others might see the label as fulfilling the central argument of Neoliberal proponent Joseph Nye’s 2023 book ‘The Rise of China’s Soft Power’, namely that the US and China “must work together to overcome more global issues” and that “the objective of Great Power competition is not total victory over an existential threat, but rather managed strategic competition”. Under Nye’s framework, expanded relations between the two countries enable a build-up of trust that can gradually ease ‘Thucydides Trap’ anxieties that are typically associated with the rise of great powers on the international stage. To respond to Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, it is the attempted throttling of these relations that could also constitute a national security threat, removing one of the most potent ways in which the US and China can cooperate peacefully and inadvertently realise the great power conflict that they, ostensibly, are seeking to avoid.
Going deeper, this expanded view of culture in international relations also contains profound implications for how we construct and conceptualise geopolitics itself. Contrary to substantive and decades-long literature speculating as to the destabilisation posed by China’s rise, at least in the case of 88rising, this rise has shown signs of being peaceful and mutually beneficial, as well as providing meaning and fulfilment for individuals on both sides of the divide. It is in foreign policy’s insistence on exclusively viewing the geopolitical landscape through the narrow lenses of ‘national interest’ and ‘hostile foreign adversaries’ that we neglect the more peaceful aspects of this world. To phrase it differently, the ways in which we think about the international have profound implications for the form that it takes.
This, then, begs the question: what should foreign policy be concerned with — the abstract world of relative powers and positive-vs-zero-sum games imagined behind closed doors in state boardrooms, or the lived reality shared and enjoyed by millions around the world? Subscribing to the former and focussing on international power politics may lead one to support the US’ proposed ban on TikTok in the name of national security, whilst following the latter’s emphasis on lived reality might encourage one to be more cautious of attempts to throttle intercultural communication between the two superpowers, and more appreciative of its potential for peaceful relations. One’s answer to this question determines the tools at their disposal to address the great power rivalry between the US and China and has eventual implications for the course that international relations might take. Therefore, think carefully, reader, our thoughts have power here.
DISCLAIMER: All views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent that of the 9DASHLINE.com platform.
Author biography
Solomon PM graduated with a Masters in International Relations from the University of Sussex in 2021 and has since worked as a music journalist, bridging culture and international relations to highlight the importance of bottom-up voices. He currently resides in London and holds a full-time position at Dazed Media. Image credit: Flickr/The Come Up Show.