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In China, a nation where the worlds of politics and art are closely linked, Western classical music was considered during the cultural revolution to be an imperialist intrusion, in direct conflict with the native aesthetic. In this revealing chronicle of the relationship between music and politics in twentieth-century China, Richard Kraus examines the evolution of China's ever-changing disposition towards European music and demonstrates the steady westernization of Chinese music. Placing China's cultural conflicts in global perspective, he traces the lives of four Chinese musicians and reflects on how their experiences are indicative of China's place at the furthest edge of an expanding Western international order.
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Pianos and Politics in China
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Pianos and Politics in China Middle-Class Ambitions and the Struggle over Western Music
Richard Curt Kraus
New York Oxford OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1989
Oxford University Press Oxford New York Toronto Delhi Bombay Calcutta Madras Karachi Petal ing Jaya Singapore Hong Kong Tokyo Nairobi Dar es Salaam Cape Town Melbourne Auckland and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan
Copyright © 1989 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc., 200 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kraus, Richard Curl. Pianos and politics in China. Includes index. 1. Music—20th century-—China—Political aspects. 2. Music and state—China. 3. China—Cultural policy. 4. Musicians-—China-—Bibliography. I. Title. ML336.5.K72 1989 780'.951 88-25251 ISBN 0-19-505836-4
987654321 Printed in the United States of America
This song is dedicated to my parents, Joe W. and Betsy C. Kraus
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Preface
During China's Cultural Revolution, the piano was likened to a coffin, in which notes rattled about like the bones of the bourgeoisie. This harsh assessment of an instrument which has been one of the proud carriers of Western musical culture has been attributed to Mao Zedong's widow, Jiang Qing. In fact, Jiang had a soft spot in her heart for pianos, which she helped save from Red Guard destruction, although she felt no affection for the music written for the piano by European composers. The piano became the object of hostile attention because it is the Western musical instrument, only tentatively rooted in a society busily rejecting Western influence. Moreover, the piano makes a poor fit with Chinese culture, even compared to, say, the violin, oil painting, or ball-room dancing. The piano is industrial; it rose to prominence with Europe's bourgeoisie. Possessing a remarkable facility for harmony, and with its tonal intervals permanently fixed to the Western twelve-note chromatic scale, it incorporates a non-Chinese aesthetic. But most important, the piano's social base in China was weak and vulnerable. Those who owned and played the piano were urban, prosperous, intellectual, and removed from China's traditional culture. Two decades later, many of these same factors have turned the piano and other Western musical instruments into emblems of modernization. Western music is flourishing; Beijing has opened China's first modern concert hall, and winners of international music prizes are hailed for contributing to China's international prestige. A 1986 film, The Fascinating Village Band, featured peasants who purchase trumpets and trombones; newly prosperous from Deng Xia