Earticle

Chaoxianzu, members of the Korean ethnic minority in China, predominantly reside in the Yanbian Korean Minority Nationality Autonomous Prefecture. In the prefectural capital of Yanji, many Chaoxianzu households watch national and transnational TV stations by means of satellite TV systems. They also enjoy a variety of popular music, of Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Western origins, available through commercial recordings, the Internet, and the broadcast media. Despite Chaoxianzu’s growing access to and interest in national and transnational popular cultures, the major Chaoxianzu broadcast media and record labels continue to promote only certain types of popular music that conform to the government-sanctioned image of the Korean ethnic minority in China. In this essay, I examine Chaoxianzu popular songs that have been produced and published by the government-sponsored broadcasting and recording companies based in Yanji—the Jilin National Audio-Visual Publishing Company and the Yanbian Television Broadcasting Company. Based on ethnographic data collected from Yanji, I explore the significance of Chaoxianzu popular music and its stylistic creations. In doing so, I show how Chaoxianzu popular music provides a space for Korean minority musicians to construct and affirm their ethnic cultural identity in the face of an influx of global popular cultures.

Since the declaration of “A New Japan-Republic of Korea Partnership towards the 21st Century” in 1998 by the two heads of State, there have been increasing efforts to strengthen the relationship between Japan and South Korea politically and socially. Music education is a part of such efforts that Japan has focused on to enhance mutual understanding between the two countries. Korean music has had a presence in Japanese culture in the past two decades. In terms of music education, the systematic teaching and learning of Korean music was formalized at the National Curriculum Standards reforms in Japan in 1989 and 1998, when the study of Asian music in general, and Korean music in particular, was emphasized as a primary approach towards cross-cultural understanding. Korean music and children’s songs were included into new teaching materials. Individually, Japanese music teachers have also undertaken studies in Korean music to develop their own curriculum. This essay examines the processes of teaching and learning Korean music in Japan in the last 20 years from the late 1980s to the present. I would like to show that the reformed curriculum parallels scholarly Japanese research in Korean music during the same period in terms of concepts and methods, and suggest that the effectiveness of promoting socio-political partnership through music education lies in the integration of teaching curriculum and public education.

Huaguxi is a form of regional Chinese theatre in Hunan province, south-central China. Based on fieldwork conducted in 2008, this essay examines the issue of “yinxi” (dirty theatre) in huaguxi history and two types of performing groups of huaguxi after 1949: the state-sponsored troupe and the private troupe. I posit that the reason behind the label “dirty theatre” is the conflict between its performance style and content and the aesthetics and ideologies promoted by the ruling class. In addition, the social context and itinerant nature of huaguxi were connected with the vagabond culture that was considered a threat to the regime’s stability. I also put forward that the conceptions of the state-sponsored professional troupe and the private amateur troupe in huaguxi were formed through political intervention after 1949, and their performance styles were imbued with meanings and vaules that impact social behavior.

Little research has been done on the history and styles of Carnatic music pedagogy and its impact on the performance practices of this tradition. Traditionally, the method of gurukulam was the dominant form of music education. In this form of musical pedagogy, the student lives with the teacher in order to gain optimum exposure to the music by constantly listening and being surrounded by the art, and observing the teacher’s teaching and performance activities in the context of the everyday. In contemporary India, the concept of gurukulam has been modified into formal instruction. In this method, students do not live with or directly observe the teacher’s everyday activities. Rather, they sit in time-allotted classes to learn to perform specific pieces, thereby giving them less exposure to the processes and contexts of music-making. The progression from gurukulam to modern-day teaching methods raises different opinions and controversies as to the “correct” way of teaching Carnatic vocal music. In this essay, I show that these views are peculiar to individuals based on their own learning experience. More broadly, it is not the type of teaching method that distinguishes a performer from a non-performer, but the ideology that the artist has fostered, either the aesthetic assets to gain audience approval and recognition in the industry, or a sound base of knowledge and grammar as an academic and scholarly approach to Carnatic music.