Social and cultural perspectives of bel canto tradition among urban Chinese communities in Peninsular Malaysia

The emergence of bel canto singing among Malaysian Chinese which can be traced back in the 1930s has largely remained an unexplored field in modern cultural and literary study. This thesis represents, among others, the earliest musicological effort to look into the bel canto singing tradition approp...

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Main Author:	Phang, Kong Chien
Format:	Thesis
Language:	English
Published:	2016
Subjects:	Musicology Music - Social aspects
Online Access:	http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/69285/1/FEM%202016%2041%20-%20IR.pdf
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id	my-upm-ir.69285
record_format	uketd_dc
spelling	my-upm-ir.692852019-06-25T07:59:29Z Social and cultural perspectives of bel canto tradition among urban Chinese communities in Peninsular Malaysia 2016-10 Phang, Kong Chien The emergence of bel canto singing among Malaysian Chinese which can be traced back in the 1930s has largely remained an unexplored field in modern cultural and literary study. This thesis represents, among others, the earliest musicological effort to look into the bel canto singing tradition appropriated among Malaysian Chinese, inquiring questions of how canto bel started initially, how it is sustained throughout the decades and in what means it has appeared to represent in the cultural facade within the Malaysian Chinese communities.This thesis begins by outlining a chronological development of bel canto tradition which became apparent in 1930s featuring a group of Wuhan musicians and is followed by findings of recent discoveries of bel canto activities accumulating to new comprehension of bel canto singing tradition in nowadays Malaysian Chinese communities. Positioning myself in a role as a researcher-cum-practitioner, I essentially adopted Hall's reception theory in this study decoding cultural meanings from data encoded by the composers, producers/organizers in respective cultural artifacts, socio-cultural events and behaviors. Specifically, I focus on cultural signifiers of which their representation has been embraced and participated within the bel canto singing tradition.Discussion of representative repertory contributed by selected prominent composers and the analysis of musico-poetic elements projected by their musical works are deemed the main cultural contributors in constructing Malaysian Chinese-ness in an overarching bel canto tradition. This thesis further explores several cultural signifiers in the process of constructing Malaysian-Chinese-ness in bel canto tradition theorizing this phenomenon in various musicological/sociological/cultural discourses using Nederveen Pietersen's three-paradigm cultural theory and Bourdieu's concepts of habitus and fields.The Malaysian Chinese bel canto tradition is indeed a unique post-modern cultural singularity of which Malaysian Chinese communities earnestly sustain and uphold. This sustenance of bel canto habitus in Chinese communities are continually enacted through cultural signifiers of musical artifacts, musical venues and musical events of which traditional ideology of Chinese-ness is largely projected and ethnic "otherness" is basically uninvolved. Albeit non-Chinese elements are incorporated in the enactments of bel canto habitus since 2000s, Chinese communities remain the central cohort in the operation projecting an atomistic social situation that faced by the current post-modern condition in Malaysia, of which cultural events are still very much ethnic and community based. Musicology Music - Social aspects 2016-10 Thesis http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/69285/ http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/69285/1/FEM%202016%2041%20-%20IR.pdf text en public doctoral Universiti Putra Malaysia Musicology Music - Social aspects
institution	Universiti Putra Malaysia
collection	PSAS Institutional Repository
language	English
topic	Musicology Music - Social aspects
spellingShingle	Musicology Music - Social aspects Phang, Kong Chien Social and cultural perspectives of bel canto tradition among urban Chinese communities in Peninsular Malaysia
description	The emergence of bel canto singing among Malaysian Chinese which can be traced back in the 1930s has largely remained an unexplored field in modern cultural and literary study. This thesis represents, among others, the earliest musicological effort to look into the bel canto singing tradition appropriated among Malaysian Chinese, inquiring questions of how canto bel started initially, how it is sustained throughout the decades and in what means it has appeared to represent in the cultural facade within the Malaysian Chinese communities.This thesis begins by outlining a chronological development of bel canto tradition which became apparent in 1930s featuring a group of Wuhan musicians and is followed by findings of recent discoveries of bel canto activities accumulating to new comprehension of bel canto singing tradition in nowadays Malaysian Chinese communities. Positioning myself in a role as a researcher-cum-practitioner, I essentially adopted Hall's reception theory in this study decoding cultural meanings from data encoded by the composers, producers/organizers in respective cultural artifacts, socio-cultural events and behaviors. Specifically, I focus on cultural signifiers of which their representation has been embraced and participated within the bel canto singing tradition.Discussion of representative repertory contributed by selected prominent composers and the analysis of musico-poetic elements projected by their musical works are deemed the main cultural contributors in constructing Malaysian Chinese-ness in an overarching bel canto tradition. This thesis further explores several cultural signifiers in the process of constructing Malaysian-Chinese-ness in bel canto tradition theorizing this phenomenon in various musicological/sociological/cultural discourses using Nederveen Pietersen's three-paradigm cultural theory and Bourdieu's concepts of habitus and fields.The Malaysian Chinese bel canto tradition is indeed a unique post-modern cultural singularity of which Malaysian Chinese communities earnestly sustain and uphold. This sustenance of bel canto habitus in Chinese communities are continually enacted through cultural signifiers of musical artifacts, musical venues and musical events of which traditional ideology of Chinese-ness is largely projected and ethnic "otherness" is basically uninvolved. Albeit non-Chinese elements are incorporated in the enactments of bel canto habitus since 2000s, Chinese communities remain the central cohort in the operation projecting an atomistic social situation that faced by the current post-modern condition in Malaysia, of which cultural events are still very much ethnic and community based.
format	Thesis
qualification_level	Doctorate
author	Phang, Kong Chien
author_facet	Phang, Kong Chien
author_sort	Phang, Kong Chien
title	Social and cultural perspectives of bel canto tradition among urban Chinese communities in Peninsular Malaysia
title_short	Social and cultural perspectives of bel canto tradition among urban Chinese communities in Peninsular Malaysia
title_full	Social and cultural perspectives of bel canto tradition among urban Chinese communities in Peninsular Malaysia
title_fullStr	Social and cultural perspectives of bel canto tradition among urban Chinese communities in Peninsular Malaysia
title_full_unstemmed	Social and cultural perspectives of bel canto tradition among urban Chinese communities in Peninsular Malaysia
title_sort	social and cultural perspectives of bel canto tradition among urban chinese communities in peninsular malaysia
granting_institution	Universiti Putra Malaysia
publishDate	2016
url	http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/69285/1/FEM%202016%2041%20-%20IR.pdf
_version_	1747812679092797440

Social and cultural perspectives of bel canto tradition among urban Chinese communities in Peninsular Malaysia

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