Performing “Chineseness” on the Western Concert Stage: The Case of Lang Lang

Abstract

Over the past 4 decades, Asian American performers of Western classical mu sic have become a major force in the music industry. Among their ranks are A-list soloists, such as Sarah Chang and Yo-Yo Ma, members of world-renowned chamber groups, such as the siblings that make up the Ying Quartet, and concert masters of such major ensembles as the Chicago Symphony and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Arts administrators and admissions officers of music schools noticed the enormous influx of Asian Americans into classical music by the 1970s. Soon after, journalists began to write about it. In a 1980 York Times article entitled Oriental Musicians Come of Age, Leslie Rubinstein noted that 40 percent of the total enrollment (and two-thirds of the pianists) at Juilliard's precollege division was of Asian descent (Rubinstein 1980). Eight years later, John Rockwell wrote a fascinating article in which he argued that the influx of classical musicians of Asian descent was changing what he called the New York sound. He asserts, It might be argued that there hasn't been such a rewarding cultural synthesis in the classical performing arts as that currently taking place between Asian students and York teachers and overall urban spirit since the blend of Russian pas sion and Jewish soul that characterized many of the great instrumentalists of earlier in the century (Rockwell 1988). Despite Asian Americans' visibility in Western classical music, scholars of Asian American culture have until very recently ignored this phenomenon. There have been a few conference presentations on this topic by such scholars as Maiko Kawabata (2004), Roe-Min Kok (2006), and Mari Yoshihara (2006) over the past 5 years, but substantial publications have only arrived in the past year (Yang 2007; Yoshihara 2007). With this article, I aim to add to this growing literature by examining one Chinese American performer, Lang Lang, and his performances of Chineseness. At 26, Lang Lang is one of the most sought-after pianists of our time. Born in Shenyang in northern China, Lang began studying piano when he was three and entered the Central Conservatory in Beijing when he was nine. After win ning the Tchaikovsky Young Musicians Competition in 1995, he enrolled at the