The transborder dissemination of nanguan in the Hokkien Quadrangle before and after 1945
Journal
Ethnomusicology Forum
Journal Volume
25
Journal Issue
1
Pages
58-85
Date Issued
2016
Author(s)
Abstract
Nanguan is an ensemble music that has enjoyed high social status and wide popularity in southern Fujian and the Hokkien diaspora. Before 1945, nanguan spread from southern Fujian (particularly Xiamen) outwards through the transborder flow of people, anthologies, records and airwaves. After 1945, due to the communisation of China, corners of the Hokkien Quadrangle comprising Taiwan, the Philippines, Hong Kong and British Malaya replaced southern Fujian as multiple centres from which nanguan was disseminated through these means, with the addition of nanguan films. It is nanguan’s multiple identities—as a sonic icon of the homeland of the Hokkien diaspora, the music of the colonised under Japanese (and KMT) rule, a regional genre of Chinese national music, a wartime propaganda tool and a way for displaced artists to make a living—that enabled it to circulate among the Hokkien diasporic communities despite the politico-economic changes before and after 1945.
SDGs
Type
journal article