Wanghua Chu (b. 1941) is an outstanding Chinese composer and pianist, who has written extensively for piano. This dissertation offers a pedagogical analysis of Seven Chinese Folk Songs (1999), one of his most famous and well-regarded piano solo works. The present study has two broad and related aims: to introduce Wanghua Chu's Seven Chinese folk songs to a broader community of pianists outside of China; and to provide a pedagogical analysis so that pianists of a late-intermediate level and higher can learn it effectively and teachers can teach it successfully. Chapter 2 provides an overview of Wanghua Chu's artistic career and major works, as well as the composition background of Seven Chinese Folk Songs. Chapter 3 introduces the seven original Chinese folk songs that are used in this work, both the actual songs and the song types. Chapter 4 provides an analysis of the musical form of each movement of Seven Chinese Folk Songs. Chapter 5 analyzes the technical difficulties of this work and provides specific practice methods to solve them. Seven Chinese Folk Songs exposes the pianist to the diversity and richness of Chinese folk songs and offers them a different kind of learning opportunity in which they not only broaden their horizons through learning Chinese folk songs and ethnic cultures but also improve their piano playing techniques, as well as enhance their musical expression and imagination abilities.

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.