Seminar on Taiwan Music and Colonial Modernity 

臺灣音樂與殖民現代性

Instructor: Ying-fen Wang

Semester: Spring 2007

Credit: 3

Hours: Friday 09:10-12:10am

[Note: The seminar is jointly participated by Prof. Chien-chang Yang and our part-time faculty Prof. Ya-li Kao. After the fifth week, the instructor fell ill and therefore Prof. Yang took over the course and carried it on until the end of the semester.]

Background: Our institute plans to develop two major research topics: “Music and Modernity” and “Music and Body/Mind Interaction”. This course is offered in relation to the first topic.

Definition: “Taiwan Music” refers to any kinds of music that existed on the island, including aboriginal music, Han Chinese music and operatic genres, western musical genres (including military music, school songs, classical music, popular music, etc.).

Scope: This course takes the music of Taiwan during the Japanese colonial period （1895-1945) as its main focus, due to the fact that music of this period has a long-term effect on the development of musical life in Taiwan after 1934 up to now and that it has left a large amount of historical sources waiting to be explored. Thus it constitutes a rich field for us to observe the relationship between Taiwan music and colonial modernity。

Major issues to be considered in the course: How has colonial modernity affected the development of Taiwan music? What role has music placed in Taiwan in its pursuit of modernity during the Japanese colonial period? When placed in the context of East Asian music, how has Taiwan music interacted with other Japanese colonies when observed from the perspective of colonial modernity? And what is special about Taiwan music when viewed from such perspective?

Course design: This course consists of two parts. The first part covers the background, including Japan’s imagination of the so-called “toyo” or the “Orient” (which was arguably the starting point of what became the colonial modernity of East Asian music). The second part focuses on Taiwan music and colonial modernity; it will use specific issues or genres as case studies to discuss the changes of Han Chinese music and its interaction with western music as well as how aboriginal music had been affected by and responded to the impact of Japanese colonial rule and modern civilization.

Requirements: the course will be conducted mainly through discussion of readings and lectures. Students must finish their readings on time and participate actively in class discussion. Absences with no justifiable reasons will result in the lowering of grade.

Grading:

Attendance            10%

In-class discussion  20%

Assignments            20%

Final paper              50%

Tentative schedule:

Assigned readings:

Agnew, Vanessa. 2005. “The Colonialist Beginnings of Comparative Musicology.” In Germany’s Colonial Past: An Anthology in Memory of Susanne Zantop, ed. by Eric Ames, Marie Klatz, Lora Widenthal, 41-60. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. 

Ames, Eric. 2003.“The Sound of Evolution.” Modernism/modernity 10(2): 297-325.

Atkins, E.Taylor. 1967. Blue Nippon: Authenticating Jazz in Japan. Durham: Duke University Press.

Barlow, Tani E. ed. 1997. Formations of colonial modernity in East Asia. Durham: Duke University Press.

Fumitaka, Yamauchi. 2006. Recording and Silencing Korea: Colonialism, Commercialism and Censorship during the Japanese Occupation Period. Paper presented at the SEM 51^st Annual Conference：Decolonizing Ethnomusicology, 17 November, in Honolulu, U.S.A.

Hosokawa, Shûhei. 1998.The Edisonian Era in Japan: The Early Years (1877-1914). In Studies in Social –Musical Science, ed. by Joachim Braun and Rui Sharrit, 191-203. Ramat-Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press.

---------------------. 1998. “In Search of the Sound of Empire: Tanabe Hisao and the Foundation of Japanese Ethnomusicology.” Japanese Studies 18(1): 5-19.

Jones, Andrew F. 2001. Yellow Music:Media Culture and Colonial Modernity in the Chinese Jazz Age . Durham [N.C.]: Duke University Press.

Robertson, Jennifer. 1998. Takarazuka: Sexual politics and popular culture in modern Japan. Berkely: University of California Press.

Robinson, Michael. 1999. Broadcasting, Cultural Hegemony, and Colonial Modernity in Korea, 1924-1945. In Colonial Modernity in Korea, ed. by Gi-Wok Shin and Michael Robinson, 52-69. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center.

Tanaka,Stephen. 1993. Japan’s Orient:Rendering pasts into history. Berkely: University of California Press.

Wang Ying-fen. 2001. “Rizhi shiqi riben yinyue xuezhe duiyu Taiwan inyue de diaocha yanjiu: yi tianbian shangxiong han heze longchao wei li” (The Investigation of Taiwan Music by Japanese Musicologists during Taiwan’s Japanese colonial period). In Tsao Pen-ye, Qiao Jianzhong, Yuan Jingfang eds. Zhongguo yinyue yanjiu zai xinshiji de dingwei guoji yantaohui lunwenji (xiace) [Proceedings of “The Positioning of Chinese Music Research in the New Century” International Conference], 613-31. Beijing: Renmin Yinyue.

____. 2004. “Zhanshi Taiwan hanren yinyue de jinzhi han ‘fuhuo’: Cong 1943 nian ‘taiwan minzu yinyue diaocha tuan’ de jianwen wei taolun jichu” [The Prohibition and ‘Revival’ of Han Chinese Music in Wartime Taiwan: Based on the Observations Made by ‘Taiwan Folk Music Survey Team’, 1943]. Taida wenshizhe xuebao (Humanitas Taiwanica) 61:1-24.

____. 2005. “Zhiminhua yu quanqiuhua: Cong rizhi shiqi yinyue xuezhe de diaocha jilu kan Taiwan yuanzhumin yinyu de bianqian jiqi chengyin” [Colonization and Globalization: Musical Change among Taiwan Aborigines and Its Causes Based on the Observations Made by Musicologists during Taiwan Japanese Colonial Period]. Min-su ch’ü-yi (Journal of Chinese Theatre, Ritual and Folklore) 148:43-102.

____. 2006. Tingjian Taiwan: Shilun gulun meiya changpian zai Taiwan yinyueshi shang de yiyi[Listening to Taiwan: Towards the Meaning of Columbia Records in the History of Taiwan Music]. Paper presented at the International seminar on Japan Columbia’s Overseas Recordings [1928-1945], 19 February, Osaka, Japan.

Taiwan sheng huangxi wenhua xiehui. 2000. Tingdao Taiwan lishi de shengyin: 1940-1945 taiwan xiqu changpian yuanyin chongxian [Listening to the Sound of Taiwan History: Re-presenting the Original Sound of Records of Taiwan Operatic Music 1900-1945]. Taipei: Guoli Chuantong Yishu Zhongxin Choubeichu (The Planning Office of the National Center for Traditional Arts).

Taiwan wudao yanjiu xuehui. 2006. Papers presented at “Wuzai taiyang q ixia: Riben zhimin shiqi dui yatai diqu wudao fazhan de yingxiang” [Dancing under the Rising Sun: The Influence of Japanese Colonial Period on the Development of Dance in Asia-Pacific Region]. 2006 Annual Conference of Taiwan Society for Dance Research and International Conference, 9-10 December,Taipei, Taiwan.

Ho Yi-lin. 2000. “Rizhi shiqi Taiwan guangbuo shiye fazhan zhi guocheng” [The Development of Taiwan’s Broadcasting Industry during the Japanese Colonial Period]. In Huigu laotaiwan, zhanwang xinguxiang: Taiwan shehui wenhua xueshu bianqian yantaohui lunwenji [Reviewing the Old Taiwan, Anticipating A New Homeland: Proceedings of Conference on the Social, Cultural, and Academic Change in Taiwan], 219-32. Taipei: Department of History, National Taiwan Normal University.

Lu Shao-li. 2002. “Rizhi shiqi guangbo gongye ji shouyinji shichang de xingcheng (1928-1945)” [The Forming of the Broadcasting Industry and the Radio Market in Taiwan’s Japanese Colonial Period]. Guoli zhengchi daxue lishi xuebao (Journal of the History Departmeng of the National Cheng-chi University) 19:297-333.

Shen Tung. 2005. “Shibian zhong de yinyue jiaoyu yu yinyuejia—you Beijing Li Baochen dao Guangdong Huang Youdi” [Music Education and Musicians in Social Chang: From Li Baochen in Beijing to Huang Youdi in Guangdong]. In Chen Pingyuan and Wang Der-wei eds. Beijing: Dushi xiangxiang yu wenhua jiyi [Beijing: Urban Imagination and Cultural Memory], 135-56. Beijing: Beijing University Press.

(Other readings in  Chinese abbreviated)

Supplementary readings:

Jones, Andrew. 2001. Yellow Music. Durham (NC): Duke University Press.

Lu Shao-li。1998。Shuiluo xiangqi: Rizhi shiqi Taiwan shehui de shenghuo zuoxi [The Sounding of the Shuiluo: The Daily Life Schedule of Taiwan Society during the Japanese Colonial Period]. Taipei: Yuanliu。

Iwano Hiroichi。1999。 『王道楽土ソ交響楽 : 満洲-知ヘホゥペ音楽史』。東京：音樂之友社。

Inoue, Miyako. 2003.“The Listening Subject of Japanese Modernity and His Auditory Double: Citing, Sighting, and Siting the Modern Japanese Woman.” Cultural Anthropology, 18(2): 156-93.

Weidman, Amanda. 2003.“ Gender and Politics of Voice: Colonial Modernity and Classical Music in South India.” Cultural Anthropology, 18(2): 194-232.