The West as Surrogate Shangri-LaRock and Roll and Rangzen as Style and Ideology

Abstract

This chapter analyzes the Tibetan refugee dreams of political independence or autonomy for the homeland. It discusses the idealized romance with the West engaged in by young Tibetan refugees facing limited opportunities in their South Asian settlements and suggests that Western rock-and-roll music was a powerful resource for young Tibetan refugees trying to imagine and pursue personal and political rangzen. It argues that participation in an international pop culture was a way for Tibetan refugees to express solidarity with a wider human struggle through sounds that have a historical relationship with social change.