Lecture by Chuen-Fung Wong, Macalester College

“Singing Muqam in Uyghur Pop: Musical Modernity and the Hidden Transcript of Minority Politics in China”

Abstract: This talk concerns popular music and the unique sense of minority modernity in the Uyghur homeland in northwest China. I explore how popular music has served as an effective repository of indigenous musical traditions and, with its strong attachment to places and the experience of displacement, also made audible some of the most deep-seated dilemmas of minority identities in modern China. The multiplicity of stylistic influences in Uyghur pop, I contend, creates an ambivalent performing space where musicians and audiences alike rehearse an emerging sense of modern minority self. Such ambivalence in musical performance also alludes to what James Scott has called the “public” and “hidden” transcripts of subordinate groups in making sense of a social world where stern control of music making and cultural expression is an everyday reality.

Bio: Chuen-Fung Wong received his Ph.D. from UCLA in 2006. He is currently Assistant Professor of Music at Macalester College, where he teaches world music and ethnomusicology. His research focuses on the music of the Uyghur (Central Asian Turkic Muslims in northwest China) and concerns issues of musical ethnicity and minority nationalism. He is editor and co-author of Listening to Chinese Music (Hong Kong: The Commercial Press, 2009).

Open to the public and free of charge
Parking in Lot 2 — $10 (Hilgard and Westholme)
Information: (310) 825-8381

Named after Nazir Ali Jairazbhoy, the founding chair of the Department of Ethnomusicology and Systematic Musicology, this colloquium series provides an opportunity for students, faculty, and visiting lecturers to share information about their research and discuss other issues important in the field. Please check the department website for details on lecturers.