Soundtracks of Asian America

Navigating Race through Musical Performance

Grace Wang author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Duke University Press

Published:7th Jan '15

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Soundtracks of Asian America cover

In Soundtracks of Asian America, Grace Wang explores how Asian Americans use music to construct narratives of self, race, class, and belonging in national and transnational spaces. She highlights how they navigate racialization in different genres by considering the experiences of Asians and Asian Americans in Western classical music, U.S. popular music, and Mandopop (Mandarin-language popular music). Her study encompasses the perceptions and motivations of middle-class Chinese and Korean immigrant parents intensely involved in their children's classical music training, and of Asian and Asian American classical musicians whose prominence in their chosen profession is celebrated by some and undermined by others. Wang interviews young Asian American singer-songwriters who use YouTube to contest the limitations of a racialized U.S. media landscape, and she investigates the transnational modes of belonging forged by Asian American pop stars pursuing recording contracts and fame in East Asia. Foregrounding musical spaces where Asian Americans are particularly visible, Wang examines how race matters and operates in the practices and institutions of music making.

“Soundtracks of Asian America is an extremely articulate, insightful investigation of racial imagination as it relates to Asian Americans and Asian diasporas. . . . Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.” -- A. C. Shahriari * Choice *
"[Soundtracks of Asian America] is an engaging and thought-provoking addition to cultural studies that uses music-making as a microcosm to draw out difficult racial themes." -- Felicity Clark * Popular Music *
"In following stereotypes across different social domains, Wang opens up some broader questions about Asian American musical geographies and practices of community formation. Future research on these issues will greatly profit from close readings of Soundtracks of Asian America." -- Timothy Laurie * Journal of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music *
"[Wang] is restrained in her deployment of a reflexive voice, yet her previous experiences as a U.S.-trained violinist who performed a stint with Taiwan’s National Symphony Orchestra (p. 5) clearly give her rich personal insight into the subject at hand. The book will find warm welcome in a range of disciplinary settings, from Asian and Asian American studies to musicology and media studies. Incisively and engagingly written, it will also serve as an invaluable resource for students and scholars seeking insight into topics as diverse as transnational stardom, the cultural politics of online media, music pedagogy, and the anthropology of the conservatory." -- Meredith Schweig * Notes *

ISBN: 9780822357698

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 499g

272 pages