Introduction: Music and the Asian Diaspora

Do works of the Asian Diaspora have to be written and performed by artists of Asian descent? Do they have to be about the experiences of people of Asian descent or at least evoke Asian genres, instruments, or philosophies? Do they have to be both? There are many possible answers to these questions, and every one of them is, of course, political.

Those who attended the 2008 Association for Asian American Studies Conference in Chicago received different answers to these questions. During an intriguing panel, Jennifer Ho, an English professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, asked whether Christina Garcia’s Monkey Hunting, a novel about a Chinese indentured servant in Cuba and his descendents, and Chang-rae Lee’s Aloft, a novel centered around an Italian American living in suburban Long Island, should be considered Asian American literature. She concluded that, while she likes these books and would include them in Asian American literature courses, she is not ready to include them in the canon of Asian American novels. At least, “not yet.” Given the continuing lack of understanding of Asian American experiences and the paucity of recognition for Asian American arts in mainstream American society, she argues that this is not the time to expand the definition of Asian American literature. Later, at the Awards Banquet, the association announced that it has awarded the prize for prose to James Janko’s Buffalo Boy and Geronimo, a novel that takes place in Vietnam and has no major Asian American characters.¹

In “Embracing ‘Asian American Music’ as an Heuristic Device” (1999), Joseph Sui Ching Lam challenged us to use the term “Asian American Music” in an inclusive way. He argues that Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Chop Suey” from Flower Drum Song is Asian-American music because it reveals Asian American sentiments, and suggests that Earl Kim’s “non-Asian-sounding” Violin Concerto is also Asian American music because it “not only represents assimilated Asian Americans but also project(s) the power of assimilation on American minorities” (55).

Given the neglect of Asian American artists and the continued proliferation of stereotypes about Asians in North America (read: Kung Fu Panda), I sympathize with Jennifer Ho’s argument and agree that we need to do all we can to promote works by and about Asian Americans. Nevertheless, Lam is surely correct in suggesting that, in order to understand more fully the Asian American experience, scholars need to cast a wide net and examine such works as “Chop Suey” and Earl Kim’s Violin Concerto.

It was with these thoughts in mind that I organized the “Music and the Asian Diaspora” Symposium at Westminster Choir College of Rider University in April 2006. During this three-day event, speakers presented on music by Asian Americans, Chinese music in Southeast Asia, the representation of Asians and Asian Americans in American media, Asian-influenced music by non-Asian composers, the teaching of Asian music in North America, and a host of other topics. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the speakers and especially the members of the program committee—Frank Abrahams, Lei Ouyang Bryant, and Sharon Mirchandani—for making this event so stimulating and thought provoking.

The six articles contained in this issue, one of which is by a scholar who could not attend the Conference because of a scheduling conflict, broadly explore three themes that were repeatedly discussed at Rider. One is the problematic nature of many East-West fusions. Although popular music scholars have explored this topic for several years (Feld 1996; Taylor 1997), those who study Western art music have yet to pay sufficient attention to it. I hope that three of the articles in this issue will spark more scholarship on this important topic. Henry Spiller’s article demonstrates how Lou Harrison “covertly Westernizes” the gamelan elements in his works to make them more palatable to Western audiences. Meanwhile, two articles problematize the ways two Chinese American musicians present Chinese music to Western audiences. Samson Young focuses on Tan Dun’s celebrated multimedia work, The Map (2004), and asks whether the...