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.
like this article as well, add oil and take care.
ReplyDeleteIt is not whether your wish or not to contribute or make the world become better via you music profession, but what predominate are the political climate and social culture. And to a lesser extent, the social status or hierarchy as you have said in which people do have different taste and favorite towards music from very colloquial dialect to classic worldwide.
ReplyDeleteThe overall education in Hong Kong or many Asian countries are usually ended up in some sorts of drilling no matter how the goodwill the education policy is intended. Anyway, those children from the middle class or upper in society can have more freely to have their ‘extra learning’ in music knowledge, but those from the grass-roots are unlikely. Teachers in the ‘lower’ end secondary schools find very disappointed response in their music activities even they do not expect to have satisfactory response as most of their students are actually do not have adequate chance to immerse in music environment in their primary school education, and of course such situation persist in their secondary education. In the other extreme, in the sorts of ‘direct subsidized’ schools, their music activities or competitions often get excellent results even their teachers just put ‘some’ effort as most of their students are already of good music training. There are some immediate cases but limited to some sorts of instruments like wind-instrument rather than piano.
It can tell from the experience from the teachers in some ‘lower’ grade schools that many of their students have to put their learning resource in other areas, say, catching up their standard of English. In fact, many student music learners just regard it as a tool to secure their place in a prestige school. Music is not a major stream of education in Hong Kong but we need it to decorate superior of our ‘all-round’ education system. But it is likely under the ‘not-encouraged’ political policy – colonial ruling before 1997 and ‘fool’ obedience ruling after 1997. You certainly note how ridicules is for those happened on the Chief Executive candidate who can repeated his lies one by one to the public and the last ones he declared recently ‘ the ‘illegally built basement’ was constructed after the issue of occupation permit and his wife was blame for that. But he can still continue his election campaign. This is how the new generation is educated. We have to admit that Hong Kong and main land China probably do have the soil to grow ambitious musicians because of the political climate and social valuing culture.
Hong Kong is the place where you grew up and is your hometown and it is why you have your heart here. But don’t forget the ancestors of the major population in the country where you are now were immigrants from European countries. They came to America to build their future, not just for themselves, but also their descendants. In a lesser extent, there are many Chinese immigrants in American as well. Many of them and their next generations ‘still’ have their heart in China, but they have to keep their ‘body’ in American.
To have a greater success in your profession, don’t miss any chance in countries like America or Britain.