Music in China: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture by Frederick Lau (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Music in China: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture by Frederick Lau Ying Diao (bio) Music in China: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture. Frederick Lau. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. Global Music Series. xxv + 182 pp., illustrations, glossary, bibliography, index + one CD-ROM. ISBN: 978-0-19530123-6 (Hardcover), $47.95; ISBN: 978-0-19530124-3 (Paperback), $29.95. Companion website: http://www.oup.com/us/companion.websites/9780195301243. Music in China: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture is one of the many case study volumes in the Global Music Series published by Oxford University Press, a series written for use in world music courses. Chinese music is notoriously difficult to describe, partly due to China’s long history developed over five thousand years through which all musical traditions are formed and practiced, partly due to China’s vast territory in which regional variations and genres develop, and partly due to the existence of 55 minority ethnic groups within the country, each one of which has respective traditions of its own. Thus, the author begins with posing these perplexing yet intriguing questions: What is Chinese music? What are the criteria for defining Chinese music? Lau tries to answer these questions by examining various dimensions of Chinese music, especially the close relationship between musical practice and China’s changing social environment. He has explained throughout all the chapters that “Chinese music is context-specific rather than based on essentialized notions of Chinese sound” (141). In keeping with the overall design of the series, rather than surveying as many of the principal musical traditions as possible, Lau chooses to address three themes. These are: the identity of people and music, the modernization of Chinese music at the turn of the twentieth century, and the issue of music [End Page 142] and ideology in ancient and modern China. Using these three themes, the book is divided into six chapters. In chapter 1, “Music of the People,” the author begins with a comparative ethnographic description of two regional genres, Jiangnan teahouse music and Chaozhou xianshi music, bringing about the central concerns that unite the remaining chapters: the distinction between amateur and professional music, as well as the meaning of regional music in relation to understanding Chinese music. Chapter 2, “Constructing National Music,” and chapter 3, “Regional Musics with the National Soundscape,” are the core chapters, following the framework for exploring Chinese music presented in the first chapter. Chapter 2 is devoted to the formation of China’s national music guoyue. It covers the historical development of the modern Chinese orchestra and instrumental solo genres. The respective solo repertory for the most well-known traditional instruments (dizi, erhu, pipa, and guzheng) is discussed in detail. Chapter 3 presents the variety of prominent regional genres and their repertory, instrumentation, and performance practice, from northern Beijing Opera to southern Fujian nanguan music. Lau suggests viewing regional genres and national music as mutually constituted. The chapter includes many photographs and diagrams. The audio examples are particularly helpful for the nonspecialist. Chapter 4, “Musical Interfaces between East and West,” investigates the mutual influences between Chinese music and Western music. On the one hand, it briefly examines how Western composers have incorporated Chinese elements in their music; on the other, it focuses more on the ways in which Chinese musicians have adopted Western music in classical and popular music realms. Lau centers listening activities in this chapter upon identifying those compositional techniques or musical styles involving fusion, which one might find interesting and challenging. Chapter 5 explores the third theme: music and ideology. Lau takes the student through several traditions as a result of long-standing Confucianism or the establishment of the post-1949 communist regime. All the case studies demonstrate how music is used to impress certain values upon listeners in the Chinese cultural context. Lau emphasizes the Confucian view “that considered music as a means of governance and self-cultivation” (118). To this end, he examines in particular the aesthetics and notational system of guqin music, a literati genre closely linked to Confucianism. Revolutionary songs and Dongjing music of the Naxi people are other cases briefly considered. Given the prominent influences of music upon society in China, it would have...