{"id":5833,"date":"2021-10-25T22:51:22","date_gmt":"2021-10-26T03:51:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=5833"},"modified":"2021-11-04T09:37:09","modified_gmt":"2021-11-04T14:37:09","slug":"a-little-more-fascination-talk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2021\/10\/25\/a-little-more-fascination-talk\/","title":{"rendered":"A Little More “Fascination” Talk…"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was quite \u201csuccessful\u201d in finding sources for this blog post, and please take the air quotes with a lot more weight than a grain of salt. Let\u2019s just say I wasn\u2019t super thrilled with the plethora of findings I had in searching this topic. This post “piggybacks” off of my last post talking about fascination. Let the conversation continue!<\/span><\/p>\n

It should be no surprise that Asian Americans have constantly dealt with harsh racism throughout American history. Although, the proof of this racism can be found in the musical scene of the first few decades of the 20th century in particular. From derogatory slang to severe stereotypes, this music is not lacking in either. The interesting content I found can seamlessly tie to Eric Lott’s thoughts, despite his focus on specifically blackface minstrelsy, points to the dichotomy regarding \u201clove and theft\u201d and \u201cenvy as well as repulsion\u201d (page 8) in regards to how white people have gone about these traditions.<\/span><\/p>\n

I found numerous pieces of sheet music alluding to this dichotomy of this expropriation yet strange eroticization towards Asian people. For example, in <\/span>From Here to Shanghai<\/span><\/i>, a song written in 1917 by Irving Berlin, it explicitly brings up various aspects that Americans tended to deeply stereotype the Chinese. It references sitting in \u201cbamboo chairs\u201d, \u201csipping Oolong tea\u201d, pairs of \u201cwooden sticks\u201d, \u201cChinaman that speaks away up high\u201d, and the list goes on. This song alludes to a sense of fantasization of the Chinese- \u201cI\u2019ll soon be there\u201d- referring to almost an urge to want to see this culture that differs from America.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

From Here to Shanghai (1917) – Irving Berlin<\/p><\/div>\n

Another source I found points to the side of the dichotomy revealing themes of \u201cenvy\u201d and eroticism. <\/span>Where the Yang-Tze Ki-Ang Flows <\/span><\/i>talks about the narrator wanting to find a \u201csweet little China pearl\u201d with \u201cdreamy almond eyes.\u201d It goes on in this \u201csearch for love\u201d: \u201cI\u2019ll fix my lips for some Chinese kisses\u201d and \u201cI\u2019m going to find what Chinese bliss is.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Where the Yang-Tze (1917)- pg. 4<\/p><\/div>\n

This overtly reminds me of the quote in Lott\u2019s book: <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c…because they were so attracted to the culture they plundered\u201d (page 8).<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Where the Yang-Tze Ki-Ang Flows (1917) – Cover Page<\/p><\/div>\n

It is painfully clear that there was an immense, oddly obvious attraction to the Chinese. This seems contradictory to other lines in the song that again refers to stereotypes and terrible generalizations. I couldn\u2019t help but make the ties between this type of music with the practice of blackface minstrelsy. These songs written about the Chinese people can define the whiteness and white perspective of most likely a large chunk of the American society, especially considering the political climate emerging from the Chinese Exclusion Act published in 1882.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The underlying themes that we\u2019ve talked about in class have been perspective-altering, to say the least. The fact of how much they tie together astounds me, as well. It will be hard to look at any music from now on in a non-critical manner, which I think only benefits us as musicians in the long run.<\/span><\/p>\n

References:<\/p>\n

From Here to Shanghai<\/em>:<\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu\/collection\/077\/080<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Where the Yang-Tse Ki-Ang Flows<\/em>:<\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/digitalcollections-baylor.quartexcollections.com\/Documents\/Detail\/where-the-yang-tze-ki-ang-flows-way-out-in-china\/15790?item=15794<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was quite \u201csuccessful\u201d in finding sources for this blog post, and please take the air quotes with a lot more weight than a grain of salt. Let\u2019s just say I wasn\u2019t super thrilled with the plethora of findings I … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jEhR-1w5","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5833"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6003,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5833\/revisions\/6003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}