Description
Book SynopsisSoundtracks of Asian America explores how Asian Americans use music to construct narratives of self, race, class, and belonging in national and transnational spaces by considering the experiences of Asians and Asian Americans in Western classical music, U.S. popular music, and Mandopop (Mandarin-language popular music).
Trade Review“
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 *
Table of ContentsIntroduction. Soundtracks of Asian America 1 1. Interlopers in the Realm of High Culture: "Music Moms" and the Performance of Asian Difference 28 2. "This Is No Monkey Show": Racializing Musical Performance 64 3. A Love Song to YouTube: Celebrity and Fandom Online 101 4. Finding Sonic Belonging Abroad: Reimagining Chinese American Subjectivities through Diaspora 143 Epilogue. Enter the "Tiger Mother" 186 Acknowledgments 193 Notes 195 Bibliography 245 Index 257
