Legitimising jazz in post-Mao China: cultural globalisation, professionalisation and modernisation

Abstract

This thesis examines the development of jazz in China after the 1980s within the context of cultural globalisation. Although jazz was introduced to China by colonists in the 1920s and peaked in the 1930s and 1940s, it was banned by the government around 1954. Following the open-door policy of 1979, China embraced the market economy, allowing Western cultural products, including jazz, back into society, providing new aesthetic materials for emerging cultural distinctions.

Using Bourdieu’s field theory, this thesis seeks to understand the trajectories of jazz musicians and the development of the jazz field amidst broader social changes since the reintroduction of jazz in the 1980s. By integrating Bourdieu’s theory with the scene perspective and postcolonial critiques, I argue that the development of jazz in China is a process by which privileged groups mobilise this global culture to establish themselves as cultural elites. Drawing on 10 months of fieldwork in Shanghai’s jazz scene and 56 life history interviews with jazz musicians, I trace the trajectories of three generations of musicians, highlighting how varying levels of privilege in their backgrounds facilitated access to jazz and enabled them to adopt a professional ethos.

The thesis also investigates how individuals develop attachments to jazz, cultivate their understanding of the genre within institutional contexts, and strive to become professional cultural elites. Throughout this process, discourses of professionalism and modernisation serve as key resources for legitimising jazz, countering its niche status and limited recognition within Chinese society. By adopting these discourses, jazz musicians position themselves as professional cultural experts in contemporary music, presenting jazz as an advanced form of modern musical knowledge and skill that enhances Chinese popular and contemporary music production. This process of legitimisation has contributed to the survival of jazz in post-Mao China by creating a secure space for a Western art form, fostering a symbiotic relationship with the market and the government. However, it has also led to exclusion within the jazz field, shaped by social class and gender inequalities.