IASPM Benelux is excited to invite you to our next POP TALK: Book launch of Jazz in Contemporary China: Shifting Sounds, Rising Scenes, in collaboration with the ASCA Transasia cultural studies group:
Adiel Portugali, PhD
Department of East Asian Studies, Tel-Aviv University
Thursday, September 21, 16:30-17:30
Room D306
Bushuis
Kloveniersburgwal 48, Amsterdam
Zoomlink: https://uva-live.zoom.us/j/82617794051
Based on interviews, conversations, and observations drawn from extensive field research, Jazz in Contemporary China: Shifting Sounds, Rising Scenes explores the current developments and conditions of Chinese jazz from the late 1970s to the 2010s. Negotiating socio-political, cultural, and spatial phenomena, it provides unique insights for understanding China’s modern history through its happenings in jazz, unveiling an insider’s look at the musicians and individuals who populate and propel these scenes. This first-hand perspective illuminates how jazz generates and disseminates practices of creativity and individuality in twenty-first-century China.
In this seminar I wish to focus on the closing chapter of my book by discussing three trends that typify jazz activity in China: jazz that follows global music traditions and developments, jazz that incorporates ethnic, folkloristic, regional or political Chinese elements, and jazz that expresses the individual style and identity of those who play and create it. As revealed in the book, the interplay between musicians and audiences that follow the above trends raises multifaceted queries on the authenticity, artistic integrity, political expressions and directions of contemporary Chinese jazz and culture in general. For example, while those who practice universal jazz trends are often tagged as imitators of Western jazz, those who attempt meshing local elements or instruments in their music are often criticized as making overly Chinese and deliberated fusion. In this respect, the third individual trend seems to stay safe; but what is essentially Chinese or authentic in this kind of jazz? By negotiating the above dilemmas, I mean to explicate the complex affiliation of jazz in China and shed light on its current trends and transformations.
Adiel Portugali
is a lecturer at the Department of East Asian Studies in Tel-Aviv University, Israel. His research focuses on cultural and spatial aspects of popular music and jazz in China. Adiel is also a percussionist and former drummer of the punk band Ziknei Tzfat. In 2006-2010, he lived in China and worked there as a percussion player and teacher and cultural attaché. His recent book Jazz in Contemporary China: Shifting Sounds, Rising Scenes was published in Routledge’s series Transnational Studies in Jazz.