Free Seminar
Chinese Performance and Inter-Community Relations in a 19th-Century New Zealand Gold-Mining Setting
Professor Henry Johnson
Music, University of Otago
Wednesday 12 May 2021, 3:30pm
Burns 5 Lecture Theatre, Albany Street
The history of Chinese music making in Aotearoa has received little attention in music research. A hegemonic and Eurocentric lens of scholarly convention has for so often foregrounded some creative arts at the expense of obfuscating others, frequently disparaging or exoticising musical practices that fall within unknown epistemologies. Challenging the selective subject matter of music history, this paper uncovers some of the active and diverse contributions that Chinese musical performance has had in the making of New Zealand. Particular attention is given to instances of inter-community relations in a 19th-century gold-mining setting and the dynamics of cultural diversity of the time.
