Lyrics of Learning: Chinese Hip-Hop as Informal Education Through Reality Pedagogy and Ratchetdemic

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Abstract

This paper explores how Chinese hip-hop functions as an informal educational tool through the frameworks of reality pedagogy and ratchetdemic (Emdin, 2016, 2021). Focusing on two rap songs, Hometown by Xia Zhiyu and Factory by Zhang Fangzhao, it analyzes how youth navigate identity, marginalization, and emotional survival through lyrical storytelling. These texts serve as cultural mirrors, reflecting student-authored knowledge often absent from formal schooling. Using qualitative content analysis, this study highlights how hip-hop cultivates critical thinking and socio-emotional learning in marginalized contexts. Extending hip-hop education theory beyond its Western origins, the paper affirms that young people across global contexts use music to process lived experience and claim pedagogical space.

Author

• Renda Sun, Teachers College, Columbia University