Nowadays, due to the image of life style and value system for young people between Taiwan and China are not as aggressive as before, they are tagged with “Little Happiness” and “Lightly Fresh”. Based on Cheer Chen, the representative of “Twee Pop” in music, and the cultural phenomenon of Twee Pop between Taiwan and China, this paper is trying to figure out the relation among the operation of culture industry, the spectacle/performance of audience and structure of contemporary social structure.
In the beginning, this paper decodes the way of how Cheer Chen creates the “Twee Pop” from the view of fans and the modal of culture industry. Above all, besides the unique voice and down-to-earth creation of Chen, the creation of codes relies on the market operation of Magic Stone Music Co. Also, two kinds of style symbols can be categorized from newspaper: one is the symbols of white clothes, jeans and Indie music, which are representative the style of lightly fresh, simple, and personality. The other one is a hipster who focuses on life that composed from the symbols of philosophy, photography and writing.
Second, how the fans create their style through the lifestyle of Cheer Chen? On the external spectacle/performance of audience through the representation of Chen’s personal life and the constructed image of “traveller,” fans recognize these imageries as spectacles and become both viewers and performers. On the internal aspect, through the “truly self,” which composed from narcissism, made by Chen, ans are satisfied in watching Chen’s performance. At the same time, they continuously examine themselves and perform to others. The examining and performing process take a shape of mirroring culture.
Last, fans of the cross-straits are different at the appearance of contemporary social structure and lifestyle. The 90s generation in Taiwan have more courage to think outside the box on their future plan than in China. And still difference from the 80s generation of cross-straits fans at the marriage attitude, China’s fans are almost married but Taiwan’s fans are all singles.
Keywords: Twee Pop, Cheer Chen, cross-straits fans, spectacle/performance paradigm, structure of feeling