Self-Orientalism and Globalization in Chinese Underground Club Music: The Cases of Do Hits and SVBKVLT

In this paper, I will discuss the topics surrounding the emergence of Chinese underground club music since 2010s through a comparative study of two different Chinese electronic music labels: Do Hits and SVBKVLT. Through carefully examining their music catalogues and interviews, I intended to demonstrate how both labels have represented a different representation – self-orientalism and globalization in club music.

Since 2010s, the emergence of Chinese underground club music have since fostered into different directions. Found by Howie Lee, Guzz, Billy Starman and Sulumi in 2010, the Beijing-based records label Do Hits has fostered an aesthetic of experimental sound that brings the Chinese musical elements into the global club landscape. Such appropriation of sound has nonetheless fallen into different descriptions such as Sinogrime and Sinofuturism that imposes self-orientalism with an ethnic undertone. In comparison, the Shanghai-based electronic music label SVBKVLT has a completely different direction. Found by Mancunian Gaz Williams, SVBKVLT begins as a cassette label in 2012 and it has since expanded as one of the most representative label in the global club scene. SVBKVLT has since focused on individual sound of artists, yet they also formulate a unified impression: a globalised, industrial, futuristic, and pan-Asian vision of sound.