Dubbed in patois: Musical mimicry involving the Chinese in wartime Japanese popular songs

This article examines the politics of cultural differentiation in wartime Japan, especially from the viewpoint of linguistic imperialism and musical mimicry, by researching official documents, newspapers and magazines, as well as investigating popular songs. Various sources from this period demonstrate that Japanese critics, musicians and musicologists were conscious of the cultural difference between Asian regions, even while the government propagated a unified East Asia. Different actors pursued contradictory objectives of cultural assimilation and dissimilation, reflecting tensions and contradictions in both popular attitudes and official policy. On the other hand, the boundary was distorted in musical practices, as seen in the way different languages were selected and used in the lyrics of wartime popular songs. This article analyses two cases as examples of this phenomenon: (1) popular songs sung by Chinese singers, mostly female, in Japanese patois, and (2) songs by Japanese singers in broken and role language. Even during the Second Sino-Japanese War, Chinese and Japanese singers visited each other’s countries on the pretext of ‘goodwill’ to record songs and participate in shows or radio broadcasts for local audiences.