Feature image of From the Red Rap Vaults: “I don’t read magazines, I read Marx”

From the Red Rap Vaults: “I don’t read magazines, I read Marx”

1 min read

1 min read

Feature image of From the Red Rap Vaults: “I don’t read magazines, I read Marx”

This week’s photo theme is Red Raps: stills from recent hip-hop videos with “red” (read: patriotic) themes.

This sleeper hit has made the rounds a few times since dropping last year, but we feel it fits our weekly theme too snugly to avoid mentioning now, even though the title, “Marx is a Post-’90s (馬克思是個九零後)”, is a little awkward in translation.

Post-’90s (90后) refers to people born after 1990, and is a commonly used generational marker in Chinese society, distinguishing the youth of today from those post-’80s and post-’70s dinosaurs. (In fact, things are moving so fast that it’s common now to see the phrase “post-’95” thrown around, really driving home the granularity of China’s youth micro-cultures.) In very loose terms you might also understand the title as something like “Marx is a Millennial.”

Anyway, the “Marx is a Post-’90s” rap was initially posted to an official social media account of the Communist Youth League (where all these songs seem to originate) last March, and written by a young woman named Zhuo Sina, who told the paper Beijing Youth Daily at the time (as translated by Sixth Tone): “If this song could change students’ attitudes toward Marx and prompt greater willingness to learn about Marxism, then I think that’s a good thing.”

The song includes lines like I don’t read magazines, I read Marx and I was born in the 1990s / I am your Bruno Mars / But you are my Venus / My dear Marx, and you can stream it in full here:

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Feature image of From the Red Rap Vaults: “I don’t read magazines, I read Marx”

From the Red Rap Vaults: “I don’t read magazines, I read Marx”

1 min read

This week’s photo theme is Red Raps: stills from recent hip-hop videos with “red” (read: patriotic) themes.

This sleeper hit has made the rounds a few times since dropping last year, but we feel it fits our weekly theme too snugly to avoid mentioning now, even though the title, “Marx is a Post-’90s (馬克思是個九零後)”, is a little awkward in translation.

Post-’90s (90后) refers to people born after 1990, and is a commonly used generational marker in Chinese society, distinguishing the youth of today from those post-’80s and post-’70s dinosaurs. (In fact, things are moving so fast that it’s common now to see the phrase “post-’95” thrown around, really driving home the granularity of China’s youth micro-cultures.) In very loose terms you might also understand the title as something like “Marx is a Millennial.”

Anyway, the “Marx is a Post-’90s” rap was initially posted to an official social media account of the Communist Youth League (where all these songs seem to originate) last March, and written by a young woman named Zhuo Sina, who told the paper Beijing Youth Daily at the time (as translated by Sixth Tone): “If this song could change students’ attitudes toward Marx and prompt greater willingness to learn about Marxism, then I think that’s a good thing.”

The song includes lines like I don’t read magazines, I read Marx and I was born in the 1990s / I am your Bruno Mars / But you are my Venus / My dear Marx, and you can stream it in full here:

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Feature image of From the Red Rap Vaults: “I don’t read magazines, I read Marx”

From the Red Rap Vaults: “I don’t read magazines, I read Marx”

1 min read

1 min read

Feature image of From the Red Rap Vaults: “I don’t read magazines, I read Marx”

This week’s photo theme is Red Raps: stills from recent hip-hop videos with “red” (read: patriotic) themes.

This sleeper hit has made the rounds a few times since dropping last year, but we feel it fits our weekly theme too snugly to avoid mentioning now, even though the title, “Marx is a Post-’90s (馬克思是個九零後)”, is a little awkward in translation.

Post-’90s (90后) refers to people born after 1990, and is a commonly used generational marker in Chinese society, distinguishing the youth of today from those post-’80s and post-’70s dinosaurs. (In fact, things are moving so fast that it’s common now to see the phrase “post-’95” thrown around, really driving home the granularity of China’s youth micro-cultures.) In very loose terms you might also understand the title as something like “Marx is a Millennial.”

Anyway, the “Marx is a Post-’90s” rap was initially posted to an official social media account of the Communist Youth League (where all these songs seem to originate) last March, and written by a young woman named Zhuo Sina, who told the paper Beijing Youth Daily at the time (as translated by Sixth Tone): “If this song could change students’ attitudes toward Marx and prompt greater willingness to learn about Marxism, then I think that’s a good thing.”

The song includes lines like I don’t read magazines, I read Marx and I was born in the 1990s / I am your Bruno Mars / But you are my Venus / My dear Marx, and you can stream it in full here:

NEWSLETTER

Get weekly top picks and exclusive, newsletter only content delivered straight to you inbox.

NEWSLETTER

Get weekly top picks and exclusive, newsletter only content delivered straight to you inbox.

RADII NEWSLETTER

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Feature image of From the Red Rap Vaults: “I don’t read magazines, I read Marx”

From the Red Rap Vaults: “I don’t read magazines, I read Marx”

1 min read

This week’s photo theme is Red Raps: stills from recent hip-hop videos with “red” (read: patriotic) themes.

This sleeper hit has made the rounds a few times since dropping last year, but we feel it fits our weekly theme too snugly to avoid mentioning now, even though the title, “Marx is a Post-’90s (馬克思是個九零後)”, is a little awkward in translation.

Post-’90s (90后) refers to people born after 1990, and is a commonly used generational marker in Chinese society, distinguishing the youth of today from those post-’80s and post-’70s dinosaurs. (In fact, things are moving so fast that it’s common now to see the phrase “post-’95” thrown around, really driving home the granularity of China’s youth micro-cultures.) In very loose terms you might also understand the title as something like “Marx is a Millennial.”

Anyway, the “Marx is a Post-’90s” rap was initially posted to an official social media account of the Communist Youth League (where all these songs seem to originate) last March, and written by a young woman named Zhuo Sina, who told the paper Beijing Youth Daily at the time (as translated by Sixth Tone): “If this song could change students’ attitudes toward Marx and prompt greater willingness to learn about Marxism, then I think that’s a good thing.”

The song includes lines like I don’t read magazines, I read Marx and I was born in the 1990s / I am your Bruno Mars / But you are my Venus / My dear Marx, and you can stream it in full here:

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From the Red Rap Vaults: “I don’t read magazines, I read Marx”

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