A Critique of Coldplay & Rihanna's 'Princess of China'

The music video for Princess of China was published on June 2, 2012. Prior to watching the music video, the music and the lyrics portrayed the song as a typical break-up song with the addition of metaphorical features. The video producers had other ideas; they believed that due to the time signature and the structure of the song, it wouldn’t fit into the format of a regular music video. As a result, the video was given some sort of narrative structure based around the idea of a kung-fu movie. After all, the song is called Princess of China.

The video consisted of scenes with Coldplay’s Chris Martin and Rihanna herself who was portrayed as the ‘princess of china’. It was a series of striking vignettes loosely tied to an assassins-in-love-and-in-peril concept. They mixed together "action and kung fu" traits in a playful manner, the same structure and basis of a Chinese kung-fu movie. The video separates itself from other videos by Rihanna and Coldplay. Everything seemed logical until Chris Martin was involved in a sparring scene wearing a ninja costume a minute into the video. He also holds a Katana; which is a renowned Japanese sword. Referring back to the context of the video and song, the whole set were to consist if Chinese influences. On the other hand, Rihanna was often portrayed in multiple scenes of herself doing the Gold Finger-nail dance that was originated from Thailand throughout the video. This again falsely represents the social group therefore marginalizing it.

The significance of this video in China was also very important. Most were not concerned of the fact that the video portrays the country with heavily stylized Asian stereotypes, some of which aren't even about China but they were mostly concerned about their “princess” and how the western world portrayed their views.

The racial implications put upon Rihanna were surprisingly direct. Comments like

“This Princess of China is a little dark-skinned” –Daniel Lin

and "When I return, will I be so tan that I will be as black as the Princess of China?"-Kensou Lee

Comments like these were just a few from many similar ones.

Despite the Song title, the music video did not have to be based upon the idea of a Chinese movie.

"Once upon a time somebody ran
Somebody ran away saying fast as they can
About to go, I got to go"
The girl 'said' that as she left him or she is leaving him.

"Once upon a time, we fell apart
You're holding in your hands the two halves of my heart"
He talks about how they broke up, and how she broke his heart.

"Once upon a time, we were burning bright"
She talks about how they once loved each other very much and had that 'spark' in their relationship.

"Now we all ever seem to do is fight
On and on, and on and on and on"
And now all they do is fight.

The lyrics provided enough detail to convey greater meaning behind the published music video. If the lyrics were given more significance, the video could’ve been given a better theme and be based on the idea of a break-up with more meaningful collection of scenes rather than using Asian stereotypes to catch attention.

Paper #1 Text #1 (ACTS analysis)

   The text is an autobiography, written with the aim of projecting the character of Mary Seacole in a favourable and positive light in the eyes of the beholder.

“The Wonderful Adventures of Mary Seacole (1857)” was available back in her time as a possible form of entertainment or enlightenment. Those with a fascination of reading firsthand the lifestyles of those immersed in the British culture at its height, particularly that of one of their colonies, could have their interests piqued by such a text; alternatively, it could be of interest to people such as those who have a desire to read about the effects of Yellow Fever on a society from a personal perspective.

   The text describes the thoughts, beliefs, actions, and adventures of Mary Seacole, with the excerpt mainly dealing with her encounter with the Yellow Fever in Jamaica during the year of 1853, and how it affected her personally

   The author’s reflections come in a relaxed, albeit bleak and dreary atmosphere, set by her frequent usage of words related to death and sadness.

   Mary Seacole writes her autobiography in an elegant, well-structured style that lends her the persona of well-cultured, intelligent individual as she reflects on her personal experiences, all of this painting her in a favourable light in the eyes of the beholder.

Context:

Based in 19^th century Jamaica, currently a British colony, during the height of the British Empire.

Language and Technology

   Most people describe texting as a phenomenon that has taken the world by storm. The virus that caused poor spelling, unnecessary abbreviations, non-caps, limited vocabulary and grammatical mistakes performed by the younger age group of today; resulting a negative impact on language itself but from a linguist perspective, what does David Crystal and John Mcwhorter have to say?

   Prior to writing his commentary, David Crystal did his research and collected decent amount of data such as the types of abbreviations that are constructed by people to support his argument. So many abbreviations till the point where it seems over-exaggerated. In his commentary, he referred to the linguistic affects of texting as textspeak. Crystal described textspeak as a new medium for language.

“In textspeak, we are seeing, in a small way, language in evolution.” Crystal’s closing sentence.

   John McWhorter on the other hand looks more into the history of textspeak and its formation. He comes up with different examples of speech and said that the way people talk to each other is called casual speech, 7-10 word packets. McWhorter’s main point was that texting is just writing the way we speak. Technological advancements had led to this point where we can write like we speak because as McWhorter mentioned,

“Once you have things in your pocket that can receive that message, then you have the conditions that allow that we can write like we speak.”

   The impact texting has made on language as a whole isn’t a really significant one according to the two linguists. Both linguists believe that textspeak is a new way of writing that is being developed alongside their true writing skills and that they’re two separate things used at different circumstances. Some might have mistaken the concepts impact on language and social impacts but that’s another topic that is not to be discussed on this one.

Letter to the editor

The Cultural Appropriation of the Kurta

Andrew Kapelle

6 October 2014

Dear Editor,

Although I am not a Pakistani like yourself, relating with your personal account on cultural appropriation was quite easy as it is a very simple concept to fully understand.

To me, Cultural appropriation is the idea of adopting one’s culture without the requirements to do so. It is often regarded as an unacceptable behavior to the legitimate members of the cultural group. Your encounter with cultural appropriation was non-South Asian people wearing the kurta; which from my understanding is a super-comfy man dress that connects South-Asians of all classes. You stated that the act had made you feel uncomfortable and that you would face discrimination if you tried to adopt other’s culture and the feeling of inferiority.

   On the second last paragraph you mentioned “it represents the love for a culture…” I find this interesting due to the fact that throughout the editorial, you were against non-asians wearing the kurta as it lessens the value and overall meaning. What if the meaning they are trying to convey is different to your ideas?

  The real question here is why not think of cultural appropriation toward as an act of respect towards the South-Asian culture? You might argue that I’m only an Indonesian whose culture and traditions is not as widely known when compared to other Asian culture and some might even refer to as Asia’s best kept secret. Nevertheless being more open-minded can only be beneficial for you and your surroundings. 

'Music as a cultural memoir that discusses all cultural realities'

   

Burdened by his father’s success as a renowned Jazz musician, Barry Likumahuwa had big shoes to fill. Jazz music has always been targeted towards older audiences; together with his band called the Barry Likumahuwa Project (BLP), Barry gave jazz music a new breath of hope that led to the downfall of pop and rock music in Indonesia. They altered their master identities from the ‘serious’ jazz musicians to the more loosened up ‘rockstar’ style. Although the intention was to express their ideas of an urban jazz musician, BLP captured younger audiences as well through this identity. The songs they composed were very enjoyable; it gave a fresh perspective of jazz music and influenced a new breed of musicians. His influence on the public turned jazz into the preferred musical taste in Indonesia and jazz musicians are more highly received then ever before. 

  Ever since he was a kid, Barry’s personal interest has been music. His father played the clarinet, saxophone and eventually the trombone for his band but Barry had other plans, he was very interested with the bass due to his curiousity and urge to explore it.  

“Aku pilih bass karena aku tertarik mengeksplornya. Orang kan, tahunya bass cenderung sebagai instrumen belakang, hanya untuk rhtym dan menjaga beat . Padahal, enggak juga. Bass itu bisa dimainkan dengan banyak cara, bisa tiba-tiba di depan, sebagai lead , atau solo juga.”

(I chose the bass because I was very curious to explore it. People know that the bass is mainly used only to keep the rhythm and the beat. No, not necessarily. The bass can be played in many different ways, as the lead or as a standalone)

This can be heard in “Generasi Synergy” where he plays the bass alongside his band as the lead instrument and included a bass solo with slaps complementing the beat of the drums. Although the song was sang with a groovy tone, the use of language implemented in the lyrics was quite patriotic and moving. Note that the term 'Synergy' in this case means Synchronized Energy.
   When asked about Generasi Synergy, Barry stated that the song was written to unite the next generation through collaboration as they express their skills and talents to represent their Indo culture.

Chorus: 
Yakinkan dirimu engkau bisa taklukkan dunia
Bersama kita coba move our feet
Never resist or quit, take some speed
Kolaborasi dan karya synergy hasrat jiwa
We are the change that Indonesia needs
Yes indeed, generasi synergy

*translation. powered by Google translate
Convince yourself you can conquer the world 
Together we can try to move our feet 
Never resist or quit, take some speed 
Collaboration and creation synergy of the soul's desire 
We are the change that Indonesia needs 
Yes indeed, the generation of synergy

   
   Even though his father was already an established musician, Barry’s journey as a musician did not start very well as he found that carrying his father’s name dragged him down. At this point, the atmosphere around the interview grew tense as Barry expresses his true feelings about his father and his early career. 

   

   Barry admitted that he once changed his last name to Likoe but it didn’t last for long. Coincidentally him and his dad were assigned to perform at a musical production but Barry had just found out that his father was performing too on the day of the event. Observing the list of performers, Barry’s father was heavily depressed whilst seeing his son’s name without his real family name. Barry referred to this as a turning point in his music career as it pushed him to become known for his work, not only his name.

“Papa adalah guru musik terbaikku.Tapi, ketika aku memutuskan serius di musik, aku ingin orang mau main denganku karena memang aku bagus. Bukan karena Papa. Capek juga selalu diperkenalkan,‘Ini Barry, anak Benny.’ Bukannya, “Barry, pemain bass.’ Ini sempat jadi momok buatku,”

(My dad is my best teacher but when I decided to take music seriously, I want people to play alongside me because I’m good. Not because of my dad. I’m tired to be introduced as ‘This is Barry son of Benny.’ Whereas, ‘Barry, the bass player.’ This was my suffering.”)

TEDx Talk (annotations available)

Generasi Synergy (starts at 1:30)

BLP jam session