Pianos and Politics in China: Middle-Class Ambitions and the Struggle over Western Music [Hardcover]

Richard Curt Kraus (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 13, 1989

In China, a nation where the worlds of politics and art are closely linked, Western classical music was considered during the cultural revolution to be an imperialist intrusion, in direct conflict with the native aesthetic. In this revealing chronicle of the relationship between music and politics in twentieth-century China, Richard Kraus examines the evolution of China's ever-changing disposition towards European music and demonstrates the steady westernization of Chinese music. Placing China's cultural conflicts in global perspective, he traces the lives of four Chinese musicians and reflects on how their experiences are indicative of China's place at the furthest edge of an expanding Western international order.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The book is so artfully composed that its many lives provide not only a rare glimpse of the life-styles of China's privileged set but also a relatively full picture of the Chinese politics of music from 1949 to the present."--Journal of Asian Studies

"Deserves to become a classic....Masterful and engrossing."--Musical Times

"This provocative, informative, and well-written book is likely to offend and infuriate a variety of readers, a prospect which, I suspect, would delight the author....The reader is totally engaged, at times nodding appreciatively at a particularly revealing insight, chuckling over a well-turned ironic phrase, or vigorously disagreeing with an example of rhetorical overkill. As one of the very few systematic attempts to examine the politics of culture in China, firmly rooted in Chinese-language sources, this book deserves a wide audience."--Journal of Politics

"Provides rich, and unique, material for historians of China's long revolutionary process as he explores the intricacies of changing Communist party cultural policy and the intricacies of changing Communist party cultural policy and the intimate details of factional infighting as revealed in the world of music....For enhancing our understanding of the patterns of cultural interaction in an increasingly global history, historians can only be grateful to Kraus."--American Historical Review

"A pleasure to read, and both those interested in China and students of the politics of the arts more generally will profit from it."--Contemporary Sociology

About the Author

Richard Curt Kraus is at University of Oregon.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 308 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (July 13, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195058364
• ISBN-13: 978-0195058369
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,645,666 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pianos and Politics, June 16, 2000

By 

J. P. J. Stock (Sheffield, S. Yorks United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pianos and Politics in China: Middle-Class Ambitions and the Struggle over Western Music (Hardcover)

Kraus's book is an excellent introduction to the history of Western music in China. Open to academic readers in the fields of East Asian studies and music, not to mention the intelligent layman, what makes the book particularly effective is its combination of generic, issue-type chapters and specific case studies of individual musicians. Highly recommended!