Communications in Humanities Research ISSN: 2753-7072
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Research Article

The Emergence of Chinese Popular Music in Vietnamese Lyrics (nhạc Hoa lời Việt), 1979-1995

Nicholas ChikColumbia University*

* Corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract

This paper studies the cultural phenomenon of nhạc Hoa lời Việt, a (sub)genre of nhạc Vàng music that blends Chinese melodies with Vietnamese lyrics which first gained prominence among the Vietnamese diaspora in the 1980s. The paper traces the historical and cultural origins of nhạc Hoa lời Việt in translations and adaptations of Chinese popular music, outlining three major historical periods. The first period spanning from 1979-1986, encompasses the genre’s emergence in Vietnamese refugee communities following the Sino-Vietnamese War, influenced by the popularity of Cantonese “wuxia” TV dramas. The second period from 1986-1995 marks the genre’s commercial flourishing due to the “Đổi mới” policy. The final period after 1995 marks the fundamental transformation of the genre following the “normalization” of relations between the United States and Vietnam, when, energized by the possibility of returning to Vietnam, nhạc Hoa lời Việt shed the final vestiges of the melancholic and sentimental style it inherited from wartime nhạc Vàng and became its own genre. This paper examines the importance of nhạc Hoa lời Việt in shaping the Vietnamese exiled identity and analyzes how the practice of translation allowed the diasporic community to give expression to its refugee experience. The paper helps uncover a new kind of musical fusion that developed from an exiled culture in a transpacific context.

Keywords: Nhạc Vàng; Nhạc Hoa lời Việt; Diaspora; Vietnamese refugees; Vietnam War
Published: September 20, 2024
DOI: 10.54254/2753-7064/44/20240094
Volume: CHR Vol.44
pp. 164-173
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