
Echoes of History
Naxi Music in Modern China
Rees(Author)
Oxford University Press Inc
Published on 3. June 2011
Book
Paperback/Softback
293 pages
978-0-19-512950-2 (ISBN)
Description
Based on fieldwork and documentary research in China, this study is a chronicle of the musical history of Lijiang County in China's southern Yunnan Province. It focuses on Dongjing music, repertoire borrowed from China's Han ethnic majority by the indigenous Naxi inhabitants of Lijiang County. Used in Confucian worship as well as in secular entertainment, Dongjing music played a key role the Naxi minority's assimilation of Han culture over the last 200 years. Prized for its complexity and elegance, which set it apart from "rough" or "simpler" indigenous Naxi music, Dongjing played an important role in defining social relationships, since proficiency in the music and membership in the Dongjing associations signified high social status and cultural refinement. In addition, there is a strong political component in its examination of the role of indigenous music in the relation of a socialist state to its ethnic minorities.
Reviews / Votes
Full of intriguing details, with a wonderful accompanying CD illustrating Dongjing music in different contexts as well as a variety of other musics ... This is a rich meaty, absorbing and thought-provoking book, which will undoubtedly stimulate lively debates among the ethnomusicological community at all levels. British Journal of Ethnomusicology This book usefully includes a well-documented CD of her field recordings ... and her account is framed firmly within current ethno-musicological discourses ... Ethnographies of Chinese music are still relatively rare, and fine-grained ones such as Echoes of History are rarer still. Keith Howard, Times Literary SupplementMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
line ill., num. halftones
numerous halftones; line illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
484 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-512950-2 (9780195129502)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
04/2010
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€29.99
Available for download
Person
Helen Rees is Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Since 1989 she has carried out research on the traditional and tourist-oriented musics of the Naxi ethnis minority and Han ethnic majority of Yunnan Province, southwest China. She is also co-editor of Understanding Charles Seeger, Pioneer in American Musicology (1999).
Content
1: Ethnic Minorities and the Chinese State
2: The Naxi of Lijiang County
3: The Music World of Republican Lijiang
4: Dongjing Music and Local Interaction in Repubican Lijiang
5: The Wider World Comes to Lijiang: the Musical Impact
6: Have Music, Will Travel: The Dongjing Music Revival
7: Representations and Ethnicity
Conclusion
Appendix A: Dongjing Scriptures of Lijiang County
Appendix B: Temple Interiors for Dongjing Ceremonies in Dayan Town
Appendix C: Chinese Texts
Appendix D: Glossary of Chinese Characters
2: The Naxi of Lijiang County
3: The Music World of Republican Lijiang
4: Dongjing Music and Local Interaction in Repubican Lijiang
5: The Wider World Comes to Lijiang: the Musical Impact
6: Have Music, Will Travel: The Dongjing Music Revival
7: Representations and Ethnicity
Conclusion
Appendix A: Dongjing Scriptures of Lijiang County
Appendix B: Temple Interiors for Dongjing Ceremonies in Dayan Town
Appendix C: Chinese Texts
Appendix D: Glossary of Chinese Characters