C-Pop Music: A Look at the History of Chinese Pop

C-pop, or Chinese popular music, is music made by artists in the Greater China region, comprising mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. There are three main subgenres of C-pop: Cantopop, Mandopop, and Hokkien pop. Different Chinese language dialects anchor each sound: Cantopop features music sung in Cantonese; Mandopop, sung in Mandarin; and Hokkien pop, sung in Taiwanese Hokkien.

There is a wide and loosely affiliated variety of music styles within those subgenres, including Chinese pop music, Chinese rock, and Chinese hip-hop, among other genres.

C-pop has a long and complex history that dates back to the early twentieth century. Here is a brief overview of its history and evolution:

• Origins: C-pop began in the city of Shanghai during the early 1920s. Western music companies like Pathé Records set up shop there and recorded Chinese traditional and classical music and the first pop recordings. These songs, called shidaiqu (“music of the time”), blended Chinese folk music and Western jazz with lyrics sung in Mandarin. Composer Li Jinhui created shidaiqu and the first C-pop music hit with his 1928 song, “The Drizzler.”
• Shidaiqu debuts: Mandopop, in the form of shidaiqu, was the most popular form of C-pop throughout Greater China in the 1930s and ‘40s. Shanghai remained the center of the C-pop music industry, though some acts began recording opera and classic records in Taiwan during this time. But the Second Sino-Japanese War and the rise of the Chinese Communist Party in 1949 sent shockwaves through the Chinese entertainment industry. When the Communists began censuring pop music in 1950, the music business fled Shanghai for British-ruled Hong Kong.
• Evolution in the ‘60s: C-pop underwent huge changes during the 1960s. Western-style pop and rock replaced shidaiqu as the dominant influence on C-pop. During this period, Taiwan became a major hub for Mandopop; after emerging from rule by Japan in 1949, the government required that Mandarin replace Japanese as the primary language, including Taiwanese pop song lyrics. Mandopop from Taiwan and Cantopop from Hong Kong became the two most prominent subgenres on Chinese radio stations.
• C-pop stars emerge in the ‘80s: Modern C-pop stars emerged in the 1980s and 1990s. Cantopop produced many of the biggest singers of the period, including Leslie Cheung, Anita Mui, and the “Four Heavenly Kings”: actors/singers Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau, Aaron Kwok, and Leon Lai. Teresa Teng was Mandopop and Hokkien pop’s biggest name during this period, though artists from Southeast Asian countries, like Lena Lim from Singapore and Lee Yee from Malaysia, also became Mandopop superstars.
• Decline and return to prominence: Cantopop declined in popularity during the early 2000s but rebounded in the late 2010s with boy groups like Mirror. Many of these groups were contestants on televised singing competitions and survival shows. Hokkien pop also declined, though it’s enjoying a comeback through singers like Jeanne Hsieh.
• Modern C-pop stars: Singers like actor/rapper Jay Chou, Jolin Tsai, and Eason Chan represent the modern C-pop superstars, singing a mix of Cantopop, Mandopop, and Taiwanese pop for broad audience appeal. Mandopop remains the most popular subgenre, thanks to C-pop groups like TFBOYS and Nine Percent, who model their look and sound on Japanese pop (J-pop) girl groups like AKB48 and South Korean pop (K-pop) groups like Blackpink and BTS.

Several characteristics define the look and sound of C-pop, including:

1. 1. Lyrics: Wholesome love ballads form the backbone of C-pop. Emotional declarations of undying love are commonplace; many are original compositions, but there are an equal number of pop cover songs from Japan, South Korea, and Western countries. Modern pop song lyrics use conversational Chinese, though a few retain the formal language of Cantonese opera, which informed early C-pop.
2. 2. Instruments: The earliest form of C-pop, shidaiqu—a fusion of Chinese traditional music and American jazz—incorporated instruments from both cultures: pianos, brass, and strings accompanied the lute-like pipa and the two-stringed erhu on many shidaiqu recordings. Though Cantopop and Mandopop use Western rock and pop instruments like guitars and keyboards, many C-pop artists continue to mix instruments from both cultures, most notably in a popular music style from the 2000s called Zhongguo feng or Chinese wind music.
3. 3. Production and promotion: When it comes to production, C-pop goes big. The sweeping orchestration, booming bass lines, and soaring choruses that are commonplace to Western pop are also staples of the genre. Music videos also hew toward grandness: Former Nine Percent singer Cai Xukun, also known as XUN, featured street racing, luxury boats, and epic-sized dance numbers in the video for his 2019 single “Young.”

Here is a breakdown of a few notable C-pop acts:

1. 1. Jay Chou: Actor, rapper, director, and singer Jay Chou has sold more than 30 million records worldwide, earning him the title “King of Mandopop.” His unique singing style—an under-enunciated drawl—and penchant for merging Eastern and Western influences and modern and ancient subjects in his recordings has made him a magnet for critical scrutiny and fan devotion.
2. 2. Mayday: The indie Taiwanese rock band Mayday parlayed their love of the Beatles and other rock groups into a popular and successful career that’s lasted for more than two decades. The quartet—former students at a Taiwanese university—began playing Western-style garage rock with Mandarin and Taiwanese Hokkien lyrics in the late 1990s. They’ve adopted a pop-rock sound for more recent recordings, including 2016’s History of Tomorrow.
3. 3. WayV: Boy band WayV began as a sub-unit of the K-pop group NCT (Neo Culture Technology), which has satellite groups in different countries worldwide. After boosting their numbers from four singers to seven, they established themselves as a new group, WayV, in 2018. Their debut EP, The Vision, reached No. 10 on the Billboard World Digital Songs chart; their first album, 2020’s Awaken The World, rose to No. 9 on the US World Albums chart in 2020.
4. 4. G.E.M.: A singing competition champion from an early age, G.E.M.—the stage name of Hong Kong singer Gloria Tang Sze-wing—parlayed her vocal talents into a successful C-pop career. Her music career began with three albums in her native Hong Kong, but a second-place win on the singing competition program Singer (formerly called I Am a Singer) in 2018 helped her gain widespread exposure in Greater China. Her Mandopop debut, Heartbeat, generated a slew of Top 10 singles on Chinese charts.

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