Diasporic Chinese Xianshi Musicians: Impact of Enculturation and Learning on Values relating to Music and Music-Making

Diasporic Chinese Xianshi Musicians:
Impact of Enculturation and Learning on Values relating to Music and
Music-Making
Mok, On Nei Annie
The Hong Kong Institute of Education, China
Citation: Mok, O. N. A. (2010). Diasporic Chinese Xianshi Musicians: Impact of
Enculturation and Learning on Values relating to Music and Music-Making.
International Journal of Education & the Arts, 12(1). Retrieved [date] from
http://www.ijea.org/v12n1/.

Abstract
This qualitative study presents a group of five diasporic Chinese xianshi musicians in Hong Kong as an example, illustrating how they learnt and value their music throughouttheir lives, and examines the possible link between learning-practices and values. It is hoped that the lesson learnt from these xianshi musicians may alert music educators to the possible far-reaching effects of enculturation and learning-practices on forming an individual’s values relating to music and music-making. The data were drawn from
semi-structured in-depth interviews, non-participant observations and a trip to the musicians’ homeland. It revealed that they value music for aesthetic and personal enjoyment, and for the purposes of bonding and identity building, as well as for building an imagined community. It appears that their musical enculturation (from homeland) and informal learning-practices (from both homeland and Hong Kong) may have
IJEA Vol. 12 No. 1 - http://www.ijea.org/v12n1/ 2 contributed to their lifelong devotion to making music and to how they value their music and music-making on both personal and collective levels.
Background
Guiding students to establish a lifelong interest in music and to value music in their lives is undoubtedly one of the goals of music educators around the world. The Music Curriculum Guide of Hong Kong also states that music education helps students “to gain enjoyment and satisfaction through participating in music activities; and pursue a life-long interest in and the valuing of music” (Curriculum Development Council, Education and Manpower Bureau, 2003, p.11). Yet the situation in learning the Arts at school is not at all enjoyable, as revealed in McPherson’s report (2005) on “Factors affecting primary and secondary school children’s motivation to study music and the visual arts” in Hong Kong. This report indicates that “…student enjoyment for Music and the Visual Arts in school decline [sic] (italics added) across the years of schooling” (p. 2). The implication is that school learning in the Arts does not facilitate students’ enjoyment of the subject, let alone establish their lifelong interest in music and their valuing of music. Also, the situation gets progressively worse as they receive more formal education in this area. This finding is neither new nor surprising and it applys not only to the situation in Hong Kong. It is therefore also unsurprising Jorgensen (2008) states that “…one of the most challenging aspects of musical instruction individually and in groups is how to maintain our students’ interest in and devotion to their study of the subject at hand” (p.228). Further research is therefore necessary in order to meet the challenge of enabling students to value music and cultivate a lifelong, sustainable interest in music. When we look around the world, we find that large numbers of indigenous music makers and popular musicians who learn music in other ways have acquired a sustainable interest in the subject (Finnegan, 2007; Green, 2002, 2005; Ng, 2006). It seems that people who do not learn in a formal way may also develop a lifelong interest in and devotion to music and musicmaking. Although much research has been conducted into informal and non-formal learningpractices, the possible effects learning-practices may have on a person’s values appears to have been overlooked in the area of music education. This was the starting point for the investigation described in this paper: to investigate how people’s learning experience may
affect their values concerning music and music-making throughout their lives. In this paper, a group of diasporic Chinese xianshi musicians in Hong Kong is presented as an example, illustrating how they learnt their music, in what ways they value their music throughout their lives, and the possible link between learning-practices and values. The time has come for music educators to consider that we might have overlooked the issue of the Informal Learning: Self-regulated Learning through Listening Four xianshi informants explicitly said that they had to listen to Chaozhou music whenever they had time and opportunity in order to learn and to remember. Yet three of them did not indicate specifically whether they listened to live or recorded music. The other xianshi musician, Fu, said that he listened to live music performed by others: “I listened to the playing of the others. I watched them [play] music and I followed. Then I practiced on my own”. Lu explained the importance of listening in his learning of Chaozhou music, which involved attentive and intensive listening: Whenever you learn music, whether vocal or otherwise, you have to listen to it for a long time. Whether you’re listening to your own or to another’s music, you can still absorb the music and you will not forget it. By listening to the music frequently, oh, listen to it once, twice, you will memorize it, and you will recognize the piece of music as you listen to it. People can recognize what the song is as they listen to it… (Lu). Chen stated clearly that he listened a lot to recorded music, although the data did not indicate whether this listening habit started from his early life in Chaozhou or in Hong Kong. Now he listens to recordings of music all the time, even when he is working in his own printing company while the machines are running. He also mentioned that he recorded his own playing
and listened back to it, which helped him to improve his performance ability. Although Lu and Chen listened to recorded music a great deal, they pointed out that it is dependent on the availability of resources since in Chaozhou, musicians may not have the opportunity to own many recordings. This was the case for Fu, who only started listening to recordings when he came to Hong Kong. He never had a chance to listen to recordings when he was in Chaozhou, possibly because recorded music was not widely available at that time. Nevertheless, in that period Chaozhou did have numerous xianshi ensembles playing live in music clubs every night. Listening to others play might have been enough for him. Furthermore, when he was practicing with other people every day, he was already engaging in intensive listening. With regard to two of the other xianshi musicians, Zhou and Yang, although they did not talk specifically about learning through intensive listening, one may assume that they also listened purposively by observing live performances given by older musicians in order to get to know the pieces and their techniques of playing the instruments, as this is the way they generally learn. Yang explained that in the past he watched how the
older masters played and then he learnt from each of them. This is obviously a kind of intensive listening with lots of observation in addition. IJEA Vol. 12 No. 1 - http://www.ijea.org/v12n1/ 12 Informal Learning: Self-learning by Trial and Error Four of the xianshi informants said that they had learnt their instrument(s) by watching the older masters play when they were young. After watching, they would imitate and join in playing with the group. Chen said that he was mainly self-taught and that he had followed the example of others in learning to play xianshi music. He had also taught himself to play a new
instrument: I mostly [learnt to play the instruments] by a process of self-learning. For
instance, when I was learning the xiao 蕭 (Chinese bamboo flute), I bought a
xiao, a book [on learning how to play the xiao], and some other books from
different publishers. I read them at night and followed [the instructions on] how to
play. I followed [the instructions] and played without taking any lessons because I
didn’t have time. I followed them on my own because I was interested in it
(Chen).
Yang explained that it was important to “keep on trying” and to exchange one’s learning
experiences with others at night. Fu stated that he did not follow any mentor when learning to
play his pipa but that he was entirely self-taught. He would listen to and watch how others
played, then he would follow their example and practice on his own. Whilst Yang stressed the
importance of trial and error in learning how to play xianshi music in his own way, Zhou
simply said that you just need to be interested in music, follow other people’s example and
play, in order to learn. There is no need to pay any tuition fee!
Formal Learning: School Music Classes
Lu was the only xianshi musician who mentioned that he had received music lessons at
primary school. However, he did not give a very clear account of his school music learning
experience. He just said that during music lessons the teacher did not teach them Chaozhou
music. Instead his teacher taught songs in putonghua (Mandarin Chinese, the official language
of the People’s Republic of China). He therefore did not have the opportunity to learn
Chaozhou music at school but learnt it after school. The other four xianshi musicians did not
even have music lessons.
What They Value
As mentioned above, the term “values” is employed here according to its general and common
usage in everyday life. By using the idea of grounded theory, four categories relating to values
were found to emerge from the data: for aesthetic and personal enjoyment; for bonding; for
identity building; and for building an imagined community. These data are presented and
discussed in relation to the relevant literature in the following paragraphs.
Mok: Diasporic Chinese Xianshi Musicians 13
For Aesthetic and Personal Enjoyment
Pitts (2005) found that in most parts of the world, “those engaging with music in their
everyday lives did so predominantly for the sheer pleasure of musical participation, and the
closeness this brought with the repertoire and with others who shared their enthusiasm” (p.
119). This sheer pleasure in simply making the music was shared by the informants in the
present study. The theme, “I’m interested in music”, was expressed repeatedly by the xianshi
informants, who were found to regard music and music-making as forms of aesthetic and
personal enjoyment.
All five informants expressed their enthusiasm for making music. Fu expressed that he was
very interested to play his yangqin 揚琴 (a Chinese hammered dulcimer):
I was interested [to play]. Sometimes…when I returned from work, I was tired.
[But if my yangqin ] was placed outside the house, I did not go in to eat, [I] just
played [the yangqin]… (Fu).
During the interview, Fu stated six times that he was very interested in xianshi music. Yang
also explained that because of his interest in music, he was willing to learn from others in
order to improve his techniques:
That’s those elders, we learnt from them, their techniques. If you make an effort
to learn, and receive comments from the older mentors, you get a little from this
one, a little from that one, eventually you can “accumulate” a lot (Yang).
Chen stated that he was so interested in playing xianshi music that he played it day and night,
even when he was at work. Pitts (2005) found that “enjoyment was the critical factor,
sustaining participants in activities which could at times be demanding, expensive and
frustrating, but which always yielded some element of satisfaction and pleasure” (p. 120).
Besides the enjoyment of playing his music, Chen also said that one must be passionate about
xianshi music in order to learn how to play it. Whilst Lu said that he started to have an interest
in xianshi music when he was in primary school, Zhou said that playing xianshi music is his
interest, and that this cannot be forced.
For Bonding
Music can perform a special function at a group level. As Hallam (1998) notes, music can be a
social activity which serves “to provide shared experiences and understandings which assist in
binding together social groups” (p. 159). When musicians play music in a group, besides
sharing a musical experience together, this helps to develop a sense of belonging and bonding
IJEA Vol. 12 No. 1 - http://www.ijea.org/v12n1/ 14
among them. In this study, from the researcher’s observations, this experience of bonding was
found to be the case especially for the xianshi musicians. Playing music together is a method
of bonding, or a way of crystallizing and maintaining the brotherhood for them.
Yang said that the most valuable thing for them as lay workers in their workplace is to help
each other. It is this feeling of brotherhood which has held them together for such a long
period of time. I observed that they ate together every Friday night; they had played music
together for more than twenty years. Also, they cooked for themselves, which is unusual for a
Teochew (Chaozhou man), since it is normally considered to be “women’s work”. However,
they are willing to do it because of the close bond between them. Also, while they were
playing the music, I could see that there was a tacit understanding among them. Although they
sat in a circle while playing, there was no need for them to look at each other (Figure 3). They
seemed to be completely immersed in the music. Yet I could hear that they played together
without any conductor to give them a cue at every music entry point. Even when certain
musical phrases had slowed down or accelerated, everybody had already “internalized” the
musical pulse.
Click to listen to an example of xianshi music.
They could use their bodies to feel the music and they knew the music and each other so well
that it seemed like breathing. Playing music together helps them to maintain their lifelong
friendship.
This brotherhood also developed because of their learning-practices. Chen said that when he
was in Chaozhou, whenever they were playing xianshi music together, the group of “brothers”
would take turns playing different instruments. Sometimes he played the qin while others
played bowed strings, but then in another piece they swapped positions so that he was playing
the strings while they played the qin. Yang confirmed this. He said he never stayed in the
same position for very long. This is possible because they all know how to play different
instruments. By taking turns and changing positions, they increase their interest in playing as
well as foster their cooperative spirit.
The existence of this strong bond among them helps to explain why their xianshi music club
in Hong Kong is flourishing. Even the name of the association – “Hong Kong Chiu Chow
Merchants Mutual Assistance Society Limited” - contains a very important message: mutual
assistance. It may be assumed that when they came to Hong Kong, they would have found it
difficult to adapt to a new environment and a new job, but this spirit of brotherhood has held
them together and enabled them to maintain a lifelong commitment to the group.
Therefore, besides having a love of music which draws them together, playing xianshi music
also contains a deeper message of mutual assistance. Now, as master Yang said, although in
their professions they have changed from being workers to being bosses, they still have a
sense of belonging to the group. In Chinese, we have a proverb: xiangshi yuwei 相識於微
“Knowing each other when we were insignificant”, which implies that people especially
treasure friendships which were established when they were just “small potatoes”, rather than
those they make when they are rich.
For Identity Building
Can “music” and “identity” be related to each other? DeNora (2000) explains that “…the
sense of ‘self’ is locatable in music. Musical materials provide terms and templates for
elaborating self-identity—for identity’s identification” (p.68). Through playing music,
therefore, one can “find” one’s identity in music through the musical materials and
consolidate that identity. Also, Blacking (1974), in explaining the relationship between the
one who creates the music and the one who listens, says, “it [music] is useful and effective
only when it is heard by the prepared and receptive ears of people who have shared, or can
IJEA Vol. 12 No. 1 - http://www.ijea.org/v12n1/ 16
share in some way, the cultural and individual experiences of its creators” (p. 54). It is
therefore unsurprising that music is effective for the xianshi musicians because they have ears
that are receptive to hearing their shared experience as Teochew (Chaozhou people) as
explained below.
In the present study, a strong link was found to exist between xianshi music and the identity of
the musicians. The Chinese people’s strong sense of national identity is derived from more
than six thousand years of history, which includes the upheaval of the “scramble for
concessions” by Western countries and the invasion of the Japanese. This “weeping” history
may have pushed the Chinese closer together and enhanced their sense of national identity.
As mentioned in a previous section, xianshi music is very much a part of the Chaozhou
people’s lives. One can find Chaozhou music clubs in nearly all their communities in different
parts of the world (Dujunco, 1994). Therefore, xianshi musicians learn xianshi music because
it is “their music” (ibid., p. 129). As DeNora (2000) makes clear, music has become a useful
device “for the reflexive process of remembering/constructing who one is… it is a device for
the generation of future identity and action structures, a mediator of future existence”(p. 63).
Furthermore, the music division of the Hong Kong Chiu Chow Merchants Mutual Assistance
Society Ltd. served as an important place for their regular weekly music gathering. From the
1950s up to the present, they have held their weekly rehearsal in this music club on Friday
evenings (except for public holidays) (Ng, 2006, p. 104). In the present study, Lu was eager to
tell the researcher a lot about their Chaozhou tradition, which shows that he is proud of being
a Teochew. Together with a rich heritage of music, Chaozhou also has a special cultural
heritage famous in many parts of the world, such as Chaozhou cuisine, Chaozhou gongfu tea
and Chaozhou embroidery.
However, the story of one of the xianshi informants illustrates the difference between those
who have a strong link to the Chaozhou identity and those who have not. Chen, who has been
a member of the xianshi musical group for as long as the other members, was not born in
Chaozhou but lived in a nearby town in the same province. The villagers from where he lived
also played and listened to Chaozhou xianshi music, and the instruments and music were
exactly the same as those from Chaozhou. However, he is very different from the other four
informants, who were all born in Chaozhou. Chen stated openly that he is a Christian and that
he attends Sunday Service every week at a church in Hong Kong. Although he did not
mention anything about his musical learning in church, he is the only member of the xianshi
group who is interested in playing Western instruments, such as the clarinet and saxophone. In
our conversation and interview, he was the only informant from this group who was able to
speak fluent Cantonese without an accent, showing that he is more open to learning new
things and has been able to immerse himself in the Hong Kong community, rather than
Mok: Diasporic Chinese Xianshi Musicians 17
holding on to his mainland Chinese identity, even though he is the same age as most of the
other informants.
For Building an Imagined Community
In a discussion of how members of a diaspora retain their memories and keep their far-away
homes present in their thoughts, Daynes (2004) notes, “…food and music are the easiest tools
to transport memories, and they also have an immediate and forceful power of evocation” (p.
25). It is clear that both music and food are powerful tools for such people to remember the
familiar places where their roots are but in which they are no longer living. It is therefore
understandable that the xianshi musicians who participated in the present study play xianshi
music, drink gongfu tea and have dinner together before their weekly music session. Daynes
goes on to say that when people move to another place, they “bring music with them, before
anything else” (ibid., p. 25). Music thus becomes an important tool for the transmission of a
collective memory and a way of unifying the diaspora:
Music therefore becomes a medium of transmission, which reveals the truth
concerning history, determines who are the enemies, and creates a continuity
between past and present. And this transmission clearly considers the diaspora to
be unified and, therefore, an expression of this continuity (Daynes, 2004, p. 37).
This is the case with the members of the xianshi musicians group who migrated to Hong
Kong, bringing their music with them as a means of preserving their collective memories of
their history and culture. Playing their indigenous music, as Daynes notes, can create a bridge
between past and present for the diaspora. This point also resonates with DeNora’s (2000)
opinion that “music is a medium that can be and often is simply paired or associated with
aspects of past experience” (p. 66). The xianshi musicians are living here in Hong Kong as if
they were still in Chaozhou, even though they have been settled in Hong Kong for more than
twenty years. They still speak their dialect among themselves, whereas migrants from other
provinces may have already learnt how to speak Cantonese fluently and to use it naturally in
their daily lives. The way they play their music and their continued use of their own dialect
seem to remind them of their motherland or their identity as Teochew (Chaozhou people). In
Hong Kong, they seem unconsciously to have created an “imagined community” - a miniature
Chaozhou. This is what DeNora (2000) means when she states, “music is part of the material
and aesthetic environment in which it was once playing, in which the past, now an artifact of
memory and its construction, was once a present” (p. 67). In this way, they maintain a strong
sense of identity, which creates a bond among them.
IJEA Vol. 12 No. 1 - http://www.ijea.org/v12n1/ 18
In their practice sessions, the xianshi ensemble played some repertoires repeatedly. They
explained that these standard repertoires had been played for a very long period of time. When
the researcher returned to visit Chaozhou on the mainland, they also played the same pieces.
This means that they play the same sets whether they are in Chaozhou or in Hong Kong, and
that the decades they have spent in Hong Kong have not resulted in any change in their
musical taste. When they are playing the music, it somehow looks to the researcher as though
they are back home in mainland China rather than in Hong Kong. Playing in the group may
give them a sense of brotherhood, of togetherness and a strong sense of nostalgia. Another
point to note is that their Friday dinners before the rehearsals are free of charge, as some
members donate money to be used for this purpose. The significance of a free dinner,
however, extends beyond its value as a meal or its monetary value, and lies in its cementing of
this sense of coherence and brotherhood among the Chaozhou people in this xianshi musical
group.
Furthermore, two informants mentioned that they travelled to the mainland to play xianshi
music every week. It takes around 5 hours by coach after crossing the Hong Kong border to
travel to Chaozhou. Fu explained that the xianshi music in Hong Kong is the same as that
played on the mainland. He speaks Cantonese with a much stronger accent than any of the
other informants, and sometimes one can only guess at what he is saying. This shows that he
has not blended into Hong Kong society. It is reasonable to suppose that he has
communication problems in his daily life.
Nevertheless, no matter how hard they try to maintain their authentic music tradition, the
process of change seems to be inevitable. As Ramnarine (2007) explains, while diaspora has
something to do with “history”, it is also about “newness” (p.2). In recent years, at a number
of large-scale performances, the xianshi group used a cello as well because xianshi ensembles
do not have a lower register instrument. Lu admitted that xianshi music is going through a
process of change. In one of their performances in a community hall that the researcher
observed, they used a cello in the performance of Chaozhou Opera. The use of a lower
register instrument, especially the cello, is also common in other Chinese music ensembles. In
addition to the introduction of a Western instrument, the ensemble also used microphones to
amplify the voices of their Chaozhou operatic singers, something which was unlikely to have
happened in a public performance in rural China in the old days.
Conclusion
Regarding the possible effects of enculturation and learning-practices on their values, it seems
that the xianshi informant’s musical enculturation may have cultivated in them an active
approach towards making music throughout their lives. It appears that the musical
enculturation that took place in the music clubs, and the environment of Chaozhou they
Mok: Diasporic Chinese Xianshi Musicians 19
experienced in their homelands, where they were able to see, hear and participate in making
their vernacular music, may have affected their personal values regarding music and musicmaking.
Generally speaking, the values and meaning they attached to music may be divided
into the categories of personal and collective. At a personal level, they value music for
aesthetic and personal enjoyment. Yet from a collective point of view, music is far more
valuable in their lives than sheer entertainment, and is entrusted with several missions: for
bonding, identity building, and creating an imagined community. It is possible that their “live”
musical enculturation experience is deeply rooted in their hearts, and has had an impact on
how they value music which will last all their lives. One of the reasons why they attached
such explicit and specific values to music was that they had very clear ideas regarding why
they needed music and also concerning the position of music in their lives.
In addition to the enculturation process, informal learning-practices may also help to define
the way in which an individual or group of individuals value music and music making. Whilst,
as mentioned above, the xianshi musician informants value music highly on both personal and
collective levels, they learn their music mainly in an informal way through a process of
listening, and by using a trial and error method. As they were self-motivated and their learning
was not driven by others but from their own intentions and at their own pace, this learning
experience may also have helped them to sustain a lifelong interest in making music and to
attach a special meaning to music. By contrast, formal learning seems to have had a minimal
impact on these informants as only Lu had music lessons at school. In summary, it is
reasonable to postulate that the values someone attaches to music may also be influenced by
the learning-practices they have adopted and by their enculturation background.
Implications for Music Education
In light of the above, it is recommended that music educators be aware of the possible effect
that enculturation and informal learning-practices may have on teachers’ and students’ values
concerning music and music-making. Firstly, it should be noted that the xianshi musicians did
not learn their music from formal school music lessons. On the contrary, these layman music
lovers mainly learnt their music through a rich enculturation process and informal learningpractices;
yet they have been shown to value their music and music-making throughout their
lives! It is therefore possible that as educators we may attach too much importance to formal
learning, believing that valuable learning is only possible with a professional and inside an
institution. This may have far-reaching implications as music and music-making may become
an art craft which is too high to be reached by the layman music lover.
Secondly, we may not be aware of the achievements of people who have learnt in other ways,
nor do we value their efforts and the contributions they make to society. In light of this,
educators are advised to become conscious that their students have the ability to learn and
IJEA Vol. 12 No. 1 - http://www.ijea.org/v12n1/ 20
experience music through other learning methods, such as those employed by the xianshi
musicians described in this study. Therefore, a move from an exclusive focus on one type of
learning to making available to members of the public more diverse yet meaningful and
effective ways of learning is needed. In this way, people can be exposed to other forms of
learning that may bring about a positive motivation to learn, and music has a more profound
significance in people’s lives.
Thirdly, it is advised to foster a musically encultured environment in an authentic setting for
music-making so as to kindle a passion for lifelong involvement in music in the everyday
lives of people. As Hesmondhalgh (2002) explains, much of our everyday experience of
music is as “background” music (p.125). This background type of music enculturation,
however, may have become the main musical enculturation experience for Hong Kong people
and for people from developed countries. When we look at the lifelong devotion to musicmaking
of the xianshi musicians, we can see that it is essential to cultivate a more “alive”
musical enculturation environment for members of the public, as well as to acknowledge the
importance of informal learning. In light of the above, although it is good to invite world-class
orchestras and other performing companies to perform in Hong Kong, resources should also
be allocated to promoting indigenous music-making groups. In this way, more diverse and
varied live music performances by different ethnic and even school music groups should be
welcomed.
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About the Author
Mok, On Nei Annie is Senior Teaching Fellow at the Hong Kong Institute of Education. Her
areas of interest include music pedagogy, enculturation and learning-practices, values,
attitudes and beliefs relating to music and music-making. The research projects she engaged
in include: Musical Enculturation, Learning and the Values of Four Hong Kong Socio-musical
Groups, Teaching Cantonese Opera in Schools, Interdisciplinary and Integrative Arts
Research & Pedagogy, and Outcome-based Assessment in Creative Arts & Physical
Education. She received her PhD from the University of London, Institute of Education.
International Journal of Education & the Arts
Editors
Margaret Macintyre Latta
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, U.S.A.
Christine Marmé Thompson
Pennsylvania State University, U.S.A.
Managing Editors
Alex Ruthmann
University of Massachusetts Lowell, U.S.A.
Matthew Thibeault
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, U.S.A.
Associate Editors
Jolyn Blank
University of South Florida, U.S.A.
Chee Hoo Lum
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
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Peter F. Abbs University of Sussex, U.K.
Norman Denzin University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, U.S.A.
Kieran Egan Simon Fraser University, Canada
Elliot Eisner Stanford University, U.S.A.
Magne Espeland Stord/Haugesund University College, Norway
Rita Irwin University of British Columbia, Canada
Gary McPherson University of Melbourne, Australia
Julian Sefton-Green University of South Australia, Australia
Robert E. Stake University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, U.S.A.
Susan Stinson University of North Carolina—Greensboro , U.S.A.
Graeme Sullivan Teachers College, Columbia University, U.S.A.
Elizabeth (Beau) Valence Indiana University, Bloomington, U.S.A.
Peter Webster Northwestern University, U.S.A.