This thesis examines the function of music within different theories of nationalism and the appropriation of folk music within the genre of min’ge. Min’ge, a term in Chinese which directly translates to “folk songs”, has generally been defined as oral musical traditions. However, due to the increased politicization of popular music since the 1930s, the nature folk music has fundamentally changed, reflecting its new significance within Chinese nationalism. Through the years, min’ge has become more useful to promoting the goals of the state than representing the musical traditions of the many different ethnic groups in China. This transformation has established min’ge as an important extension of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) cultural policy, and the manipulation of folk music has asserted the CCP’s cultural hegemony. Ultimately, this cultural hegemony has important implications on Han-minority relations and highlights certain dynamics within Chinese nationalism. Despite its limited and distorted representation of minorities, however, the popularization of min’ge has also inspired minority musicians to reclaim their identities through music. Therefore, this paper explores both the cooptation and contestation of state-promoted identities through the medium of popular folk music.

While China possesses one of the world's richest musical heritages, it remained unaffected by Western music until early in this century. Subsequently, there was a movement of nationalism in music approximately three decades after the introduction of Western music. This movement, aimed at utilizing Western compositional techniques to create musical works that still would be uniquely Chinese, continues even today. Huang's piano concerto was written in 1982, just a few years after the Cultural Revolution. At the time, most Chinese composers were "handicapped" by their lack of knowledge of Western contemporary music and by their limited study of both Western and Chinese traditional forms. Huang Anlun, a composer-in-residence at the Central Opera House in Beijing, traveled to North America to study at the University of Toronto and Yale University. Subsequently his music is widely performed and well received around the world. After presenting background information on Western music in China and an introduction to basic Chinese music theory, this study has analyzed Huang's piano concerto, with a particular focus on identifying, comparing, and analyzing elements of Western and Chinese music. After a survey of the formal structure of the concerto, this study has discussed Chinese modality and Western harmony--the two most important factors in the conception of Huang's concerto. A comparative study between Chinese folk songs and the thematic materials in Huang's concerto is followed by a discussion on "imitations" of Chinese instruments. The study has also examined Western compositional techniques incorporated into this concerto, such as thematic transformation, contrapuntal writing, cyclic procedure, as well as atonal and serial techniques. Through a detailed analysis, this study attempts to demonstrate how Huang has blended Western and Chinese musical syntaxes to create an artistic work that is also uniquely Chinese.

The Chinese pipa has long served as a symbol of traditional Chinese culture throughout its nearly two-thousand-year history. In Chinese literary, performing, and visual arts, the pipa is almost always associated with women, even though historically, both men and women played the instrument. Since the 1990s, however, the number of female pipa players has increased sharply, to the point of dominating the field in number. Despite the feminine associations and current-day dominance of women as pipa performers, women's names rarely appear in academic works focused on the pipa arts. Women, moreover, hold an othered status within the discipline. This dissertation argues that the gendered associations of the pipa have reinforced a power structure that privileges men and excludes women from participation in the professional community by devaluing women's musicality and entertainmentizing their creative contributions. This study examines historical materials to uncover connections between the pipa and women in historical contexts. It focuses particularly on the often-overlooked context of Chinese courtesan culture as well as the role that courtesan culture played in the instrument's gendering. Furthermore, through field research, I analyze the artistic and life journeys of three generations of 20th and early 21st-centuries female pipa musicians. My personal perspective as a pipa musician and ethnomusicologist provides a first-hand account of how female pipa players interpret and construe gender identities and performances through music making.

In 1930s and 1940s Shanghai, musicians and artists from different cultures and varied backgrounds joined and made the golden age of Shanghai popular song which suggests the beginnings of Chinese popular music in modern times. However, Shanghai popular song has long been neglected in most works about the modern history of Chinese music and remains an unexplored area in Shanghai studies. This study aims to reconstruct a historical view of the Shanghai popular music industry and make a stylistic analysis of its musical products. The research is undertaken at two levels: first, understanding the operating mechanism of the ‘platform’ and second, investigating the components of the ‘products’. By contrasting the hypothetical flowchart of the Shanghai popular music industry, details of the producing, selling and consuming processes are retrieved from various historical sources to reconstruct the industry platform. Through the first level of research, it is found that the rising new media and the flourishing entertainment industry profoundly influenced the development of Shanghai popular song. In addition, social and political changes and changes in business practices and the organisational structure of foreign record companies also contributed to the vast production, popularity and commercial success of Shanghai popular song. From the composition-performance view of song creation, the second level of research reveals that Chinese and Western musical elements both existed in the musical products. The Chinese vocal technique, Western bel canto and instruments from both musical traditions were all found in historical recordings. When ignoring the distinctive nature of pentatonicism but treating Chinese melodies as those on Western scales, Chinese-style tunes could be easily accompanied by chordal harmony. However, the Chinese heterophonic feature was lost in the Western accompaniment texture. Moreover, it is also found that the traditional rules governing the relationship between words and the melody was dismissed in Shanghai popular songwriting. The findings of this study fill in the neglected part in modern history of Chinese music and add to the literature on the under-explored musical area in Shanghai studies. Moreover, this study also demonstrates that against a map illustrating how musical products moved from record companies to consumers along with all other involved participants, the history of popular music can be rediscovered systematically by using songs as evidence, treating media material carefully and tracking down archives and surviving participants.

In the past few decades people’s attitude towards music consumption has tremendously changed in China. With the constantly rising market and huge potential space, it is necessary to study the consumer behavior and explore factors that decide people’s willingness to pay in music consumption. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to investigate: 1) What factors may influence the Chinese consumer behavior on music and its merchandise; 2) What factors may influence the “willingness to pay” of Chinese consumer in music consumption; 3) The similarities and differences between the consumption of music product and musical merchandise in China. The authors select the qualitative method and set up two focus groups, music product group and music merchandise group, in this study. Finally, they found five dimensions (musical preference & identity, culture of music, musical loyalty & satisfaction, Chinese music consumption, willingness to pay) will interaction with each other and influence Chinese consumer behavior on music product and its merchandise.

China's role in Western music is ever-expanding. Echoing the growth of classical music in China is the importance of Chinese musicians in the global music world. However, it is easy to forget that Western classical music is a foreign import to China, one that has been resisted for most of its history. The intent of this study is to evaluate the role of Chinese music in the Western classical world. This includes Western education, Western repertoire, and also a historical exploration into the mutual influence of the two styles. One Chinese composition in particular, Huang An-lun's Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 57, is selected to analyze the Western and Chinese elements present in the work. This analysis will shed light on the relationship of the two styles and how they amalgamate in modern Chinese music. Although Western classical music today has a strong foothold in China, Chinese contributions to piano literature are largely unknown to the West. China possesses one of the richest musical histories in the world, one which until the twentieth century has largely remained unaffected by Western elements. Its musical heritage extends over thousands of years, deeply rooted in tradition and nationalism. Over the last century, Chinese composition began to incorporate Western musical ideas while still holding on to its own heritage and traditions. This synthesis of Western and Chinese musical elements created a new compositional sound founded on Chinese roots. Huang An-lun, one of China's most prominent living composers, embodies this style in his compositions. Chinese composition is no longer something that is exotic or alien to Western music. Instead, it integrates many Western ideas while still being founded in Chinese heritage, creating a new style that has much to offer the Western classical world.

This documents aims at the identification of the sources of influence upon the styles of selected 20th century Chinese composers. Personal influences are reflected as well as those general influences specific to the different stylistic periods discussed. Most important, however, is the description of the methods by which these composers employ contemporary compositional devices to project musical gestures that are uniquely Chinese: elements of culture which are fundamentally programmatic and intimately related to the lives of the Chinese people. The introduction of Western music and musical instruments to China in the early 17th century and cultural exchanges with Japan served to gradually westernize the musical environment and training. The establishment of decidedly Western schools was accomplished at the beginning of this century, with the founding of Peking University and Shanghai National Conservatory. Music theory was taught, as well as history and composition, but with an emphasis on the practices of the 18th and 19th centuries. Compositions from this period reflect Western techniques from these eras, with some use of the pentatonic scale. In the 1930's, nationalism arose, a mirroring of the 19th-century European nationalistic trends. This philosophical conception has remained essentially unchanged to the present, as composers have aimed to utilize Western techniques to create artistic works and compositional styles which are uniquely Chinese. The musical works examined are limited to works for piano solo, as it is believed these are often more immediately revealing of compositional techniques and stylistic idioms.

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is comprised of fifty-six ethnic groups that inherent diverse cultural traditions. The largest of these ethnic groups is the 汉［Han］and the remaining fifty-five ethnic groups are given the name 少数民族, [ethnic minority]. The Communist government describes China as a unified multinational country. On the one hand, Chinese scholars and national policies advocate presentation of cultural diversity in China’s education system; on the other hand, they emphasized that diverse ethnic minorities contribute to a single united Chinese nationality as a whole, which is given the term Chinese nationality--中华民族. The purpose of this study is to examine the K1–9 music textbooks—a series of texts titled simply 音乐 [Music]—designed by the Curricula and Textbooks Designing Centre at the Ministry of Education of the PRC. The study aims to understand how China’s government and scholars frequently represent China’s ethnic musical traditions by these widely used music textbooks in the mainland of the PRC. This central issues are addressed by the research question include: 1. How are ethnic musical traditions introduced to students in the textbooks? 2. How are musical and cultural differences between ethnic minorities and Han-Chinese represented in the textbooks? 3. Whose cultural values and ideologies are signified in the selected ethnic musical materials and subjects of the textbooks? This study applies the methodology of document analysis; research findings are discussed based on relevant theories of liberalism along with authenticity in cultural representation. The study concludes that Communist China is very concerned by ethnic separatism so that Chinese nationality (as a whole) and political unity of the country is enforced in education. The curriculum reflects the core value of socialism and patriotism. The ethnic music materials represented in those nationally used, government-designed textbooks enhance ethnic integration and cultural unity of the Chinese nationality as a whole. As a result, the textbook contents mostly reflect values of moral education emphasized in many national education policies, which address patriotism and national unity rather than authentically present ethnic music and cultures. / 2017-10-02T00:00:00Z

The purpose of this document is to chronicle and describe the historical developments of saxophone performance in mainland China. Arguing against other published research, this document presents proof of the uninterrupted, large-scale use of the saxophone from its first introduction into Shanghai's nineteenth century amateur musical societies, continuously through to present day. In order to better describe the performance scene for saxophonists in China, each chapter presents historical and political context. Also described in this document is the changing importance of the saxophone in China's musical development and musical culture since its introduction in the nineteenth century. The nature of the saxophone as a symbol of modernity, western ideologies, political duality, progress, and freedom and the effects of those realities in the lives of musicians and audiences in China are briefly discussed in each chapter. These topics are included to contribute to a better, more thorough understanding of the performance history of saxophonists, both native and foreign, in China.

In recent years, a large part of the erhu's repertoire has been arranged for performance on the violin and vice versa. Given the difficulties involved in transcribing the music of plucked or woodwind instruments for the violin, the erhu has been the most popular choice for transcribing Chinese music for the violin. However, the erhu and violin are radically dissimilar instruments based on different principles. Pipa music is an essential part of traditional Chinese music from as early as 202 BCE, and the instrument's repertoire represents a large portion of East Asian music aesthetics, and this context should be considered to successfully transcribe pipa music for violin. This dissertation talks briefly about Chinese music history and its categories and also focuses on the history and development of the pipa as well as its repertoire categories to provide context for the following musical examples. I use existing transcription examples from different categories of pipa music as an avenue to discuss how to transcribe pipa music for the violin. Even though the violin has some limitations for use as a plucked instrument, the instrument can still make use of several different kinds of techniques in order to play the music in a way that can represent certain features of the pipa while retaining the violin's characteristics.