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Studies of rock music are frequently dominated by preconceived notions regarding the subversive nature of rock. In areas such as cultural studies these notions are tied in with more general theoretical frameworks which portray youth and/or popular culture as essentially subversive. This situation becomes further complicated with regard to the analysis of Chinese rock music, as it seems to be something of an unwritten law in the Western academic field of Chinese studies that Chinese culture only warrants investigation if it is legitimated by its antiquity or if it challenges the legitimacy of the current regime. An analysis of English-language texts on Chinese rock, both academic and journalistic, reveals the extent to which Western views of Chinese rock music are firmly grounded in Western discourses concerning the resistance value of rock. In this chapter I will discuss some of the reasons why this reproduction of Western rock mythology is so prevalent in discussions of Chinese rock, and suggest the analysis of rock’s role in processes of social distinction as one way of avoiding this reductive tendency to view rock music in terms of its resistance value. This is not an attempt to depoliticise cultural issues, but rather to open up the scope of analysis to a broader understanding of the multifaceted construction of social groups and their cultural affiliations.