The sent-down youth movement (1968-1978), an initiative that grew out of the Cultural Revolution in China, mandated that youth from urban centers be reeducated in rural regions in an effort to realize Mao’s idealized vision of a communist society. This thesis investigates how traumatic memory of the Cultural Revolution and the sent-down youth movement is processed through individual narratives from the diasporic “Cultural Revolution generation.” It does so largely in the context of fieldwork-based analysis and interpretation of multiple performances of a particular large-scale work, Ask the Sky and the Earth: An Oratorio Cantata for the Sent-Down Youth, a work which shapes zhiqing (sent-down youth) memories and discourse at both individual and collective levels. My theoretical framework primarily draws from Su Zheng’s analysis of diaspora and Paul Connerton’s work with traumatic memory. Through this examination of zhiqing traumatic memory, I assert that the history and narrative of forced displacement which defines zhiqing identity amplifies the impact of its commemoration in diasporic communities. The performance of this cantata forces members of the “Cultural Revolution generation” to confront narratives outside of their own and to reinterpret their past, revealing a multiplicity of experiences and interpretations that individuals produce, experiences which do not fit neatly into either the national Chinese or resistant diasporic narratives of the movement. Through such investigation, this work contributes in a significant way not only to the ethnomusicological study of Chinese music, but more broadly to the theorization of traumatic cultural memory in contemporary Chinese diasporic culture. / A Thesis submitted to the College of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Music. / Spring Semester 2019. / April 17, 2019. / Includes bibliographical references. / Michael B. Bakan, Professor Directing Thesis; Margaret Jackson, Committee Member; Frank Gunderson, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_709843 |
| Contributors | Tyrrell, Mayna (author), Bakan, Michael B. (Professor Directing Thesis), Jackson, Margaret R. (Committee Member), Gunderson, Frank D. (Committee Member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Music (degree granting college) |
| Publisher | Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text, master thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (146 pages), computer, application/pdf |
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