Vocaloid in China: Cosmopolitan music, cultural expression, and multilayer identity

Abstract

Addressing the notion of user-centered research, this study examines how Vocaloid, the Japandeveloped voice synthesis software and its personified virtual singer were contextualized in China. It explores how the Chinese Vocaloid character LUO Tianyi, who was initially introduced as a girl from outer space, has been reconstituted into figures that were both locally and nationally converged into Chinese culture. In relation to broader theoretical discourse regarding the cultural impact of globalization on local identity, this study also attempts to unpack the Vocaloid practices in China in terms of cultural expression, cultural interpenetrations, and power negotiation. It tries to grasp prosumers' subjectivity in constructing the image of LUO Tianyi, and to interpret it as a dialectical organism resulting from the ongoing negotiation within their multilayer identity in playing different social roles.

"It Feels Like Being Locked in A Cage": Understanding Blind or Low Vision Streamers' Perceptions of Content Curation Algorithms

“…This raises an interesting question of how to help BLV streamers better manage images without compromising viewers' experiences? A possible solution could be to explore the use of virtual idols on short-video platforms that support live-streaming [9,28,52,77]. A virtual idol is a 2D or 3D animated virtual avatar with the voice of a human, which could be operated by individuals or agencies.…”

Nation-states, transnational corporations and cosmopolitans in the global popular music economy

“…From the perspectives of political theory and institutional politics, musical cosmopolitanism may offer little more than an aesthetic. This might be a local hybrid practice, such as when Japanese vocaloid music is appropriated and incorporated into identities in China (Yin, 2018), or a pop-rock stylistic palate that is given various cosmopolitan inflexions as it is institutionalised into regional, national and local structures of cultural production and struggles for artistic status (Regev, 2013). As an aesthetic practice, cosmopolitanism is often dismissed as naïve or superficial, as an indulgence of the cultural tourist and an orientation that evades inequalities and commercial exploitation.…”

A Human-Computer Duet System for Music Performance

“…Virtual musicians and related performance types have unlocked great potential in social media and interactive multimedia arts. Virtual idols such as Hatsune Miku [1], Luo Tianyi [2], and thousands of on-line VTubers 1 play music either on live streaming platforms or in real-world venues, sometimes even interacting with human musicians [3]. Some of the performance videos have even earn them millions of view counts.…”

“…Some of the performance videos have even earn them millions of view counts. 2 As the venues and audiences of virtual music performance are both scaling up, it is expected that a low-cost, personalized, and automatic system which can animate virtual musicians' performance according to the music content, and enforce the interaction between human musicians and virtual ones will be in urgent need.…”