MOORE, Robert L. (Rollins) and IVANOVA, Maranatha (UC Berkeley)
COOL AND UNCOOL WORLDS: SLANG COUNTERWORDS AND YOUTH CULTURES IN THE PRC

What is "cool" has been the pulse of youth culture since the lexeme became a core element of youthspeak in 1950s America. Young Chinese adopted the counterword ku (from English "cool") as Western cultural forms were introduced to the PRC in the 1980s. But the emergence of an underground rock culture created a gap between different the uses of ku and the cultural models with which it was linked in the underground and mainstream youth cultures.

Mainstream youth often use the phrase "ku ge" ("cool dude") as a term of admiration, for be-glittered Hong Kong and Taiwan pop crooners. Among underground rockers raw, in-your-face rockers like Cui Jian and Tang Dynasty embodied the essence of ku because they symbolized the heroic ethos of rock (yingxiongzhuyi), as well as authenticity, autonomy and a lack of pretentiousness that contrasted with the style of the mainstream crooners.

But ku soon came to be used as a term of derision in the underground circle and a device for distancing members of this group from the mainstream. The vulgar slang lexeme niubi linked to a model of tough, independent rebelliousness took the place of ku as a positive counterword in the underground vocabulary. Ironically, ku is now making a comeback as rockers leave the underground behind, and may eventually assume its original position as the primary positive counterword for rockers and mainstream youth alike.