Moonwalking in Beijing: Michael Jackson, piliwu, and the origins of Chinese hip-hop

During the latter half of the 1980s, a popular dance craze known as “piliwu” swept urban communities across China. A Chinese translation of the U.S. media term “breakdancing,” piliwu incorporated what were then two new styles of U.S. urban popular dance—New York-based b-boying/b-girling or breaking (characterized by inversions and dance battles) and California-based popping and locking (characterized by the robot and the moonwalk). Appearing in parks, on nightclub stages, and in popular films, piliwu was China’s first localized movement of hip-hop culture, preceding the introduction of rap music by more than a decade. Like other aspects of popular culture in 1980s China, piliwu reflected new circuits of intercultural exchange between China and the United States during the first decade of China's Reform Era. In particular, it demonstrated the impact of U.S. popular music, embodied by stars such as Michael Jackson, and the mediating role that Hong Kong played in introducing these new cultural forms to the lives of Chinese youth. This article follows the career of Tao Jin, China’s first hip-hop dance star, and analyzes piliwu dance choreography recorded in Tao’s debut film, the 1988 Chinese dance film Rock Youth. Reading this film alongside media reports and testimonials from members of China’s piliwu generation, the article reconstructs the history of the piliwu movement. It argues for the central influence of U.S. pop culture icon Michael Jackson, the growth of China’s underground commercial dance “zouxue” (“moonlighting”) economy, and the agency of dancers’ bodies in transnational movements of media culture.