Music as a Herald of the Future in Taiwan

Sigur Center For Asian Studies of the George Washington University presents a talk on music's influence on economic practices and political change.

Music's power to both monitor and propel political change has been noted by philosophers and governmental institutions since ancient times. Guy's work applies a humanistic approach to a subject typically considered to lie within the province of the social sciences. Taking two decades of musical production in Taiwan as her data, she argues that listening to and contextualizing musical trends offers an avenue for grasping the mood of the people—a force that drives both economic practices and political change.

Nancy Guy is an ethnomusicologist and an associate professor of music at the University of California, San Diego. Her research has focused primarily on music and performance in Taiwan. The questions most prominent in her scholarly work involve issues of identity formation, the uses of expressive culture in electoral politics, and the ecocritical study of music. Her book Peking Opera and Politics in Taiwan (University of Illinois Press, 2005) won the ASCAP Béla Bartók Award for Excellence in Ethnomusicology and it was also named a Choice "Outstanding Academic Title." Guy is currently writing a book on the artistry and appeal of legendary American opera singer Beverly Sills (1929-2007).                                                           

RSVP at go.gwu.edu/taiwanmusic.