 Asian- American Music within a Social and Historical Context  Chinese Americans  In the 1990 census, there were 1.6 million Chinese Americans, making them the largest Asian-American group in the United States, with 40 percent living in California. China’s population is approximately 93 percent “Han” Chinese. The 7 percent non-Han ethnic minority consists of more than seventy million people further subdivided into fifty-six ethnic minorities distinguished by history, language, religion, and culture.  The Chinese language consists of more than a dozen major spoken dialects, although all writing is done using the same characters that have been in use for more than three thousand years. Most prewar Chinese immigrants to the United State spoke the various dialects of Cantonese. Now, many Chinese immigrants speak “Mandarin” since it was established as the official spoken language by the Chinese Communist in 1955.

 The immensity of China’s geographical size, population size, and ethnic and cultural diversity is a complex subject even for scholars who have made it their life’s study, and therefore it is inaccurate and inappropriate to make broad generalizations. However, a few comments can be made regarding structural characteristics.

 In- Depth Focus The Chinese Lion Dance  Every language and dialect group of “Overseas Chinese” in the United States has musical, dance, instrumental, and singing groups, mostly of amateur status, who practice and perform for their own community.  One of the Chinese musical traditions that is popular with members of both groups is the Lion Dance. Generally connected with the martial arts, Lion Dancing is also the most accessible performance to observers from outside the Chinese community. The performance has a small but loud percussion ensemble that consists of a large drum ( Da Ku), a bronze gong ( Da Lo), and a pair of cymbals ( Nan Po). Seen by both the Cantonese and National dialect speaking Chinese as a good luck ritual that brings prosperity and drives away evil influences, Lion dancing is normally performed at special events.

 + Structural Characteristics of Traditional Chinese Music:  Melody, Rhythm, and Harmony:  Melody: Melodic contour, especially vocal melodies, is closely correlated to Chinese language.  Rhythmic organization can be free, additive, or divisive/metrical depending on the style.  Traditional melodies draw on the primary Chinese pentatonic scale; the most common of which arranged in an ascending order are equivalent in terms of relative pitch to C-D-F-G-A.  Instrumentation, Texture, and Form:  Instrumentation: The most important chordophone instruments include two categories of zithers: The Zheng and the Qin.  The Zheng: a small, high-pitched zither with movable bridge.  The Qin: a zither with seven strings that is used to perform sophisticated, introspective music.

 Another important chordophone is the pipa  The pipa: a pear-shaped lute with four strings that are plucked.  Idiophone and membranophone percussion instruments were also very important, and include bells, gongs, cymbals, clappers, and wooden-framed barred drums. One of the most interesting and oldest of the reed instruments is the Sheng, which is the type of mouth organ usually with seventeen pipes played by blowing through a mouthpiece at the side.  Texture: Texture can be monophonic, homophonic, heterophonic, or polyphonic and formal structures can be simple patterns of folk music to highly complex structures in opera

 Influence Of Confucian Philosophy On Chinese Music  For thousands of years, the most profound influence on Classical music in Chinese culture has been Confucian philosophy. The Confucian concept proposes that music and rituals must be played, sung, and performed in exactly the correct manner and with the proper attitude, or there will be serious consequences.  Certain sounds, ritual movements, and numbers have symbolic importance. For example, the five-note pentatonic scale was associated with the five basic elements of earth, metal, wood, fire, and water as well as other significant organizations of five, for example, colors (red, blue, yellow, white, and black) and directions (center, north, east, south, and west). The misapplication or neglect of this symbolism was believed to have negative results. This matter was considered of such great importance that the emperor himself was responsible for performing many yearly rituals, accompanied with the correct music, to ensure the welfare of the nation. Company Logo

 PEKING/BEIJING OPERA.  The most well-known style of Chinese Opera is Peking opera. Peking opera developed in the late eighteenth century when various acting companies came to Peking to celebrate the eighteenth birthday of the emperor. The performances were successful that soon became dominant.  Following are some characteristics of Peking Opera:  Peking opera was provided as entertainment to the rich, and audiences were not expected to keep quiet but rather to socialize and converse during the performance.  The opera consists of dialogue sections interspersed with singing and instrumental sections.  It contains a variety of action, including stylized battle scenes typically featuring extraordinary acrobatic skills, as well as dance, comical slapstick, dramatic acting, and virtuosic singing.

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 Lion Dance   Peking Opera  Logo