Deborah Wong, “Ethnomusicology and Difference” Ethnomusicology 50, no. 2 (Spring/ Summer 2006)
I was reading this article at Price Center (food place), UCSD with a small fries at the table. I have not thought about ethnomusicology seriously, and in front of me is a reading for “intro to ethno” next week.
My first, and arguably the only one ethno course I’ve ever taken is “intro to world musics,” by Professor Lawrence Witzleben at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The innocuous course materials and fun classroom atmosphere belie, as Wong researches and reveals by interviews, the bitter politics of the rise of ethnomusicology in the music departments since the 1990s in the USA. Although I don’t know about how the field rose in Hong Kong, I feel the urge to share Deborah Wong’s words (2006).
The “culture wars” are fought as much between people as between ideas, with the latter being much more interesting, of course. Wong’s belief, which took some time to gain wide acceptance in the music academia, is that liberal humanism and “cultural relativism in its most simplistic form” fails to address the “political economies of uneven access to resources and the intervention of education (and performance) into those economies” (p. 263).
“Music is universal” is the cliché par excellence. People of difference classes, races, and statuses have access to different socio-cultural environments, make different musics, and most probably listen and interpret music differently. The CEOs of XYZ companies may enjoy classical music at the most expensive seat at a concert hall, while a fastfood shop employer may rarely listen to that music even on radio. They may also understand the same musical notes differently. Assuming a universal meaning in music is a dated thought at best, and probing different meanings in various contexts are more meaningful (I feel) and be possibly relevant to social concerns. (Examples include taiko in Asian American identity, McDull music in Hong Kong identity, music for airport, etc.)
UC Berkeley has made cultural critique part of the undergrad curriculum in 1991, with at least one course offered by the music department. The course aims to, through studying American culture (selecting at least three from African Am, indigenous people, Asian Am, Chicano/ Latin Am, European Am), “provide students with the intellectual tools to understand better their own identity and the cultural identity of others in their own terms” (quoted from UCB curriculum by Wong, p. 262). The Chinese University of Hong Kong manages a similar effort by the “final year project,” conducted by the college the students belong to.
I found, most importantly, in Wong’s article the reason for me to pursue my PhD. When I was considering my future, I wanted to teach more than anything (research)… I said, “I want to teach the kids the right thing, the things they need to know.” But what are they? It depends on the context. Wong quotes a revealing point by Henry Giroux, a cultural critic: the “most important task” of the university should be its role in “creating a public sphere of citizens who are able to exercise power over their own lives and especially over the conditions of knowledge acquisition” (p. 275). This is it. On one hand it’s music, where Wong mentions that “is part of a public sphere that can be redefined at any moment.” On the other hand, it’s life, from music to the larger culture, how people have interrogated their identities, survived, implicitly or explicitly, consciously or unconsciously, through cultural means. I was totally moved, like an idiot, sitting at Price Center, UCSD.
For sure, this vision is not only shared among ethnomusicologists, but many musicologists and other scholars as well. I deem it important to teach popular music in universities, since pop is the genre that most people hear, and there we see immense social meanings and potentials for change. It also answered some of my other personal problems. 1. I wouldn’t mind teaching at institutions in Hong Kong other than Chinese U, since I can approach the younger generation of society leaders at any university. 2. I am reluctant to stay in the States for a long time, because I (frankly) don’t have a sense of belonging to this land, and I long to contribute to Hong Kong, much more than to the States. (I know, the States gave me education… but I paid my bills and taxes, too!) At other points of Wong’s article, she mentioned the unfair funding condition of ethno departments, and the large western music history and theory portion in music education, which is indeed quite unjustified if we do not see western music as “more important” than other musics. For me, this essay is the one that most directly speaks to my heart so far in my life. I do hope, with my profession, I can make this world a better one.
