The Emergence of Chinese Popular Music in Vietnamese Lyrics (nhc Hoa li Vit), 1979-1995

This paper studies the cultural phenomenon of nhc Hoa li Vit, a (sub)genre of nhc Vng 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 nhc Hoa li Vit in translations and adaptations of Chinese popular music, outlining three major historical periods. The first period spanning from 1979-1986, encompasses the genres 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 genres commercial flourishing due to the i mi 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, nhc Hoa li Vit shed the final vestiges of the melancholic and sentimental style it inherited from wartime nhc Vng and became its own genre. This paper examines the importance of nhc Hoa li Vit 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.