Shaping Asian-Pacific Subjectivity in Cross-Cultural Music Collaboration: An Asian-American Perspective

Abstract

With the advent of globalization, the West began to demonstrate a critical shift in conceptualizing the world's regions. Rather than the enduring traits prescribed in a historical frame, which is predicated on cultural, civilizational, and geographical coherence, the concept of ”Asia” is now considered in a new light that takes account of mobility, travel, exile, and any motion in process. The idea of the Asia-Pacific as a region emerged and has proliferated, finding many applications in an effort to foster supranational integration in various aspects, mostly commerce and, more recently, the arts. The objective of most arts projects is to promote mutual understanding through artistic exchanges in the Asia-Pacific; however, thus far, the resulting arts presentations have barely gone beyond national, ethnic, and artistic boundaries. This article investigates a project that takes up the challenge to cross those boundaries through inter-cultural musical collaboration among artists throughout the region. The author examines the process of nurturing ”an Asian-Pacific subjectivity,” as well as the cultural politics pertaining to racial issues in shaping this subjectivity behind the scenes. Specifically, through the lens of a Burmese musician's life experiences and his participation in this inter-cultural project, the article sheds light on a unique Asian-American perspective that seeks to nurture the concept of Asian-Pacific subjectivity.