Comparing jazz program policies in higher education in China

Abstract

Jazz arrived in mainland China as early as the 1920s. It has since been a popular music genre among the middle and upper classes. Similar to that in the West, jazz education in China has been increasingly formalized, with a growing number of universities and academies offering jazz degree programs or courses. Despite a few studies on jazz and its early education in China, little is known about how formal jazz education is implemented in contemporary Chinese academic settings. In the present study, we examined and contrasted jazz program policies across three higher education institutions in China wherein at each one, a specialized unit for implementing jazz education has been established. The comparison foregrounded commonalities and differences across the three programs. We also discussed how the institutions responded to the local political and economic contexts in developing their jazz programs. We have concluded by deliberating on the future of jazz education in China in relation to public acceptance of jazz and the recent development in school curriculum.