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The voices of the voiceless: the Cantonese opera music community in Guangzhou, China

The voices of the voiceless: the Cantonese opera music community in Guangzhou, China Since Cantonese opera was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009, the Chinese government has carried out different policies to “develop” Cantonese opera in Guangzhou. Through state-initiated reforms, the local performing art was homogenized, institutionalized and nationalized in many ways. In this process, the government authorities took the lead and the Cantonese opera music community was not involved in the decision making of the future of their own tradition. This paper aims to discuss this issue.Design/methodology/approachBased on intensive fieldwork conducted in 2011, the paper examines the meaning of heritage to the local music community, as the art form was recognized by UNESCO in 2009. Apart from studying the policies made by the government, this paper looks into the socio-political impact brought to the Cantonese opera music community from a bottom-up perspective.FindingsCantonese opera performances in Guangzhou as well as performers’ own social life changed drastically in recent years. Musicians faced a dilemma of whether to follow the government’s market-oriented plan or to preserve their traditional lifestyle with their own initiative.Originality/valueThis paper reveals the voices of the “voiceless” music community and investigates the consequences resulted by the heritagization of the art form to the music community. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Asian Education and Development Studies Emerald Publishing

The voices of the voiceless: the Cantonese opera music community in Guangzhou, China

Cheung, Ah Li
Asian Education and Development Studies , Volume 8 (4): 11 – Sep 18, 2019
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Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
© Emerald Publishing Limited
ISSN
2046-3162
DOI
10.1108/aeds-02-2018-0049
Publisher site
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Abstract

Since Cantonese opera was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009, the Chinese government has carried out different policies to “develop” Cantonese opera in Guangzhou. Through state-initiated reforms, the local performing art was homogenized, institutionalized and nationalized in many ways. In this process, the government authorities took the lead and the Cantonese opera music community was not involved in the decision making of the future of their own tradition. This paper aims to discuss this issue.Design/methodology/approachBased on intensive fieldwork conducted in 2011, the paper examines the meaning of heritage to the local music community, as the art form was recognized by UNESCO in 2009. Apart from studying the policies made by the government, this paper looks into the socio-political impact brought to the Cantonese opera music community from a bottom-up perspective.FindingsCantonese opera performances in Guangzhou as well as performers’ own social life changed drastically in recent years. Musicians faced a dilemma of whether to follow the government’s market-oriented plan or to preserve their traditional lifestyle with their own initiative.Originality/valueThis paper reveals the voices of the “voiceless” music community and investigates the consequences resulted by the heritagization of the art form to the music community.

Journal

Asian Education and Development Studies – Emerald Publishing

Published: Sep 18, 2019

Keywords: China; Cantonese opera; Ethnomusicology; Guangzhou; Heritage studies; Intangible cultural heritage

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