Soundtracks of Asian America: Navigating Race through Musical Performance

273 Pages·2014·1.037 MB·English

by  Grace Wang

Soundtracks of Asian America

Soundtracks of Asian America
navigating race through musical per for mance
Grace Wang
duke university press Durham & London 2015
© 2015 Duke University Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of
America on acid- free paper ∞
Typeset in Chaparral Pro by
Westchester Publishing Services
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Wang, Grace
Soundtracks of Asian America :
navigating race through
musical per for mance / Grace Wang.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978- 0- 8223- 5769- 8 (cloth : alk. paper)
isbn 978- 0- 8223- 5784- 1 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Asian Americans— Music—Social aspects.
2. Asian American musicians. 3. Ste reot ypes
(Social psychology)— United States. I. Title.
ml3560.a85w36 2 014
781.89'95073—dc23
2014020687
ISBN 978-0-8223-7608-8 (e-book)
Cover art: Leehom Wang performing in Langfang,
Hebei Province, China, 2012. Photo courtesy of
Hongsheng Artist Management.
For my family

contents
introduction | Soundtracks of Asian America 1
one | Interlopers in the Realm of High Culture: 28
“Music Moms” and the Per for mance of Asian Diff erence
two | “Th is Is No Monkey Show”: 64
Racializing Musical Per for mance
three | A Love Song to YouTube: 101
Celebrity and Fandom Online
four | Finding Sonic Belonging Abroad: 143
Reimagining Chinese American Subjectivities through Diaspora
epilogue | Enter the “Tiger Mother” 186
ac know ledg ments 193
notes 195
bibliography 245
index 257

introduction
Soundtracks of Asian America
[Music] both articulates and off ers the immediate experience of
collective identity. Music regularly soundtracks our search for our-
selves and for spaces in which we can feel at home.
—Simon Frith, Performing Rites
In Lan Samantha Chang’s novella Hunger (1998), Tian Sung,
a Chinese violinist, fl ees China for the United States to pur-
sue his musical dreams. Leaving behind home and family, he
escapes in the dark of night by swimming out to sea— violin
held precariously above water— until a cargo ship takes him
aboard en route to Taiwan. From there, Tian earns a visa spon-
sorship to continue his music training in New York City. He
practices diligently, pinning all his hopes on securing a full- time
position at a prestigious music conservatory. Still, despite his
musical talent and prodigious work ethic, he fails to gain a teach-
ing position. Disillusioned and unwilling to compromise by
working at a “lesser” institution, Tian gives up playing the
violin. Resigning himself to the unskilled labor of bussing
dishes and chopping vegetables at a local Chinatown restau-
rant, he transfers all of his dreams and ambitions onto his
young est daughter, Ruth. Tian’s daughter takes to the violin
quickly and shines as a young prodigy. But as a teenager, over-
whelmed by her father’s relentless pushing and expectations,
Ruth rebels and runs away from home. By the end of Hunger, Tian
is crushed—s hattered by the weight of carryi ng dreams of
“such fl agrant and extravagant design.”1