As each course has its own unique narrative, which meshes with the ongoing personal and professional narratives of its students and teacher, let me fist say a few things about this class. It was the sixth time I taught it, which, to any prospective participant, is basically the “popular culture” class. I have reinvented its subtitles and syllabi numerous times. The first year I taught it, I used Sarah Thornton’s The Subcultures Readers as the required text and the class didn’t have any “inter-Asia” component. Soon after this torturing experience, I realized I needed to make this class a playground for me to figure out what I was really doing with my life. Then it was “inter-Asia” all the way.

With the emerging material (published research) on inter-Asia popular culture, and with my own involvement in it, this class easily became my thing. Yet I was often confused about how to bridge my own affinity with “inter-Asia” and my students’ distance from “inter-Asia.” Added to this predicament was that I started to teach this class in English two years ago. The university throws in a bonus for anyone who wishes to teach in English. But there needs to be a reason to draw in the students. Despite the push for English learning in many societies where English is not the official language, passive resistance still works quite well. After some trial-and-error, I got to know what I didn’t want—I didn’t want my class to become a weekly English speaking contest (where few dominate) or a weekly reiteration of the assigned readings (where students “hide” behind somebody else’s ideas and words). One solution seemed to be to have the students do “their own thing” in the “Asian English” they invent.

Entered Spring 2010. The first thing I did was to get rid of “student reports on assigned readings”—which I suspect is a common mode of teaching and learning in Taiwan. I still assigned weekly readings to cover themes and issues in Inter-Asia popular culture, but I shifted the responsibility of picking out readings to my students. So, for instance, in Week 9, my agenda was to introduce the Inter-Asia Pop Music network to them. I assigned the introduction article from IACS 10.4—a three pager that no students could refuse—plus any two articles of their pick from the same special issue. Upon request, my students emailed me their reading choices a week in advance.

So, how did we carry on a conversation in class when people were reading different things? Let me just add that of the three hours that we met each week, only half of the class time was reserved for readings related discussion. The other half was used for “rolling presentations,” which consisted of five assignments over the course of the semester that have no necessary relationship with the readings. Specifically, I asked my students to (1) give a biography of themselves as a popular culture participant, (2) review one anthology in the area of popular culture in Asia, (3) develop a popular culture studies topic, (4) to figure out the “method” of an inter-Asia researcher, and (5) to “become” inter-Asian in their own topic.

Perhaps because everything was a little loose—such as the feeling that no reading was treated as canonical, or that the students were there to share their personal and academic engagement—this looseness encouraged mutual teaching. During the first half of the class, I asked each student to name a keyword or key phrase that would synthesize their reading experience. After I put their keywords on the white board, they realized they had some explaining to do since no one did exactly the same readings. At the end of the semester, several students told me that the “keyword” exercise helped them organize their ideas and encouraged peer teaching in their own words. One student asked me how I came up with the idea. To be honest, I was just trying to get out of the teacherly questioning that has become expected by everyone in class whether or not it is uttered, “So, what do you think (of the reading)?”

In this class I was constantly surprised by “unexpected sharing.” I mean, I would reveal thoughts and experiences that were not in my notes. Strictly limited edition! Actually, going into the classroom, my notes usually contained just five or six points or questions typed on one sheet of paper in very a large font for easy glancing in class. The rest is blank space for notetaking and on-the-spot responses. Compare this one-pager with my script-like lecture notes when I first started teaching. I have come a long way and I’m not feeling too bad about it. This class made me feel teaching is sharing meaningful hours and growing compassionate with certain individuals in real time.

I have been trying to figure out what it is that allows people to trust each other and share information and ideas. Sharing should not be taken for granted. That very first assignment—to give a presentation on oneself as a popular culture participant—might have been significant. My original intent was to use the assignment to break ice. After all, to speak in one’s non-native language in front of an audience can still be intimidating. And I wanted to hear something from the heart than from the academic jargon clouds. My students talked about the music, sports, books, images, video, film, fashion, and brands that mattered to them. They recounted the circumstances of various cultural encounters, which inevitably revealed bits and pieces of their personal history. They consume popular culture voraciously and ordinarily, but they do more than consuming. One student is a guitar player in an indie band. Another student is involved in running an art and performance space and magazine. One girl dresses consciously to negotiate gender and generational tension. Another girl always seems to be involved in some miraculous moments in baseball games and concerts aided by fan activities. Pretty soon, like facebook and through facebook, the students were busy making their own connections. And I was busy taking notes and looking up bands, musicians, movies, and books they mentioned in class.

In hindsight, I felt the first assignment was a little cruel. What right does the teacher have to “require” the students to reveal their private passion, cultural investment and personal experiences? But my students had such openness about cultural knowledge and engagement that it easily stripped away my worries about cultural judgment. From my past experience, it didn’t always work that way. People were guarded about how their tastes might be judged.

I am not sure this class can be repeated, and it is because I will not have the same group of students. This was the most diverse class I have had. Students from my M.A program in communication constituted less than half of the class. The others were exchange undergraduate student, nontraditional student between employment and schooling, and students from other universities and other departments.

There may be another reason why this class could not be repeated, and it has something to do with popular music. It just so happened that my students this time were passionate about popular music. Yes, they are well-versed about sports, movies, art, fandom, so on and so forth, but popular music was the strongest link that facilitated the meeting of social, personal, private, visual, historical, practical, and theoretical energies.

So, some of my students were a little disappointed to find out that when it was time to do their second presentation—a review of an English-language anthology about Asian popular culture. They could not locate an edited volume on popular music in Inter-Asia. Of course, there are single-authored books, numerous journal articles, and special issues in this area. In the week that I wanted to suggest collaboration as a possible route to “become Inter-Asian,” I assigned “Translation of ‘America’ During the Early Cold War Period: A Comparative Study on the History of Popular Music in South Korea and Taiwan (Shin and Ho 2009) and “Asianizing K-Pop: Production, Consumption and Identification Patterns Among Thai Youth” (Siriyuvasak and Shin 2007).

Still, IACS 10.4 was critical for me as a teacher and researcher (Sorry to the authors in IACS 11.1 because it was not published yet when I planned my class). I recommended Yiu Fai Chow’s “Me and the Dragon: A Lyrical Engagement with the Politics of Chineseness” to my student with the band. He had been trying to articulate the politics behind his music writing and performance. I recommended Yoshitaka Mori’s “J-Pop: From the Ideology of Creativity to DiY Culture” to the student running the art/performance space. The group she is associated with—Jia Wen Qing, or FLAT (Fake Literary and Artistic Teenagers)—seems to have something in common with the freeters in Japan. Read together in the special issue, Hyunjoon Shin’s “Have You Ever Seen the Rain? And Who Will Stop the Rain? The Globalizing Project of Korean Pop” and Tung-hung Ho’s “Taike Rock and Its Discontent” brought out the problematic of scale when doing comparative cultural industry analyses in the region.

I am grateful that the Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Special Issue on Popular Music was published. I am grateful to the students who took my class this time. Could an anthology be planned to meet the experiences and demands of our students in different places? I don’t know. Ideally, any publishing project should meet the initiators’ and contributors’ desire all the way. Right now, for my selfish purpose, would anybody like to visit my class next year to explain their “method of researching popular music in the Inter-Asia context?” Because that assignment (presentation 4) really confused my students…

p.s. Please write me if you are interested in the syllabus: terebikuni@gmail.com

References

Chow, Yiu Fai. “Me and the Dragon; A Lyrical Engagement with the Politics of Chineseness.” Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 10.4 (2009): 544-564.

Ho, Tung-Hung. “Taike Rock and Its Discontent.” Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 10.4 (2009): 565-584.

Mori, Yoshitaka. “J-Pop: From the Ideology of Creativity to DiY Music Culture” Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 10.4 (2009): 474-488.

Shin, Hyunjoon. “Have You Ever Seen the Rain? And Who’ll Stop the Rain?: The Globalizing Project of Korean Pop (K-Pop). Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 10.4 (2009): 507-523.

Shin, Hyunjoon and Tung-Hung Ho. “Translation of ‘America’ During the Early Cold War Period: A Comparative Study on the History of Popular Music in South Korea and Taiwan.” Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 10.1 (2009): 83-102.

Siriyuvasak, Ubonrat and Hyunjoon Shin. “Asianizing K-Pop: Production, Consumption and Identification Patterns Among Thai Youth.” Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 8.1 (2007): 109-136.

I thought I would post the translation of the lyrics of the Jay Chou song, “Listen To Your Mother,” which I played during the wrap-up “share-your-music-history” session. The song may sound…Confucianist…to some, since it promotes studying hard, filial piety, and various typical traits associated with certain normative “Asian values.”

But for those of “us” who found both pain and outlet in playing classical piano, Jay Chou’s tender lyrics and achievement are encouraging (success is one in a million but at least he succeeded). The song also tells the common transition from the classical world to pop music/culture. Canto pop singer Jacky Cheung (張學友)’s “Kiss Goodbye” (吻別) and Chow Yun-Fat’s (周潤發) movie God of Gambling (賭神) were referenced. So Jay Chou may be revealing bits of his own personal music/pop culture history as well.

Here are the lyrics and video:

Listen To Your Mom/ Jay Chou

Hey kid you must have lots of questions

Why do I gotta study drawing and talk to the piano when other kids are reading comic books

Why do I gotta sit against the wall and memorize ABCs when other kids are playing

When I got older I began to understand

Why do I run faster and fly higher than others

Everyone is reading the comic books I drew

Everyone is singing the songs I wrote

Mommy won’t show you how hard she works

In her heart lives a warm recipe

Hold her hands when you have a moment

Hold her hands and sleepwalk together
I said I wanted a big airplane, but all I got was an old recorder

Why do I have to listen to Mom

You will understand it when you are older

Listen to your mom, don’t break her heart

Grow up fast so you can protect her

Her beautiful white hair is sprouting in happiness

Her angelic magic is growing tender in warmth

In your future, music is your game

Find your game and then fall in love

Sigh, I don’t want to point you down the wrong path

So please listen to your Mom and fall in love a little later

I know all about your future

But your mom knows better

Like your classmates, you will doodle all over your school bag

But I suggest writing “mom told me to study hard”

How ironic to hear “study hard” from me

I am telling you to study hard because I don’t want to see you defeated

Keep the sweater your mom made you

On Mother’s Day, tell her you’ve kept it all this time

Oh by the way I will see Chou Yun-Fat

So you can boast your dad of the future is the God of Gambling

I cannot find love letters that I wrote from my childhood

Don’t give it away when you are done writing them

Because you will find them on the track and field just after two days

You will start to like pop songs

Because Jackie Chung is getting ready to sing “Kiss Goodbye”

Listen to Your Mom

Don’t break her heart

Grow up fast so you can protect her

Her beautiful white hair is sprouting in happiness

Her angelic magic is growing tender in warmth

We worked on the final program for the IAPMS 2010 conference. Reflecting the registration and balancing the panelists’ numbers and themes, we moved around the panelist so that there are significant changes in the panels. This is as close as what will happen on the conference days. If you have any question about the program or anything else concerning the conference, feel free to email us. We look forward to seeing you all in Hong Kong.

Regards,

Organizing Committee
IAPMS 2010 in Hong Kong

Attachment:
Conference program: program_final
List of panels and presentations: panel_final

Update (may 11, 2010): We updated the final program and panels reflecting recent add/drops. You can find them here the links below:

Attachment:
Conference program: program_final 0511
List of panels and presentations: panel_final 0521

• Cultural nationalism and music;
• Tradition and globalization;
• Networks and structures of patronage;
• Reconfigurations of the social structures of music;
• Media and digital culture;
• Cultural consequences of economic globalisation;
• Issues related to the mobility of people, musics, ideas and sounds;
• Innovative uses of technology and communication;
• New trends in performance practice.

Expressions of Interest
Intended contributors are asked to submit expressions of interest in order to identify the likely scope of material in the issue and to ensure priority consideration in the event of there being more material submitted than can be published. Expressions of interest should not exceed 300 words. Two guest editors have been commissioned to produce the special issues, and any further questions should be directed to them.

The deadline for expressions of interest for the January 2011 issue, edited by Dr Adrian McNeil, has lapsed, but expressions of interest concerning popular music in Asia remains open.

Please email Dr Shelley Brunt (Editor July 2011 issue) shelley.brunt@otago.ac.nz
Deadline for expressions of interest is 31 July 2010

Acceptance of abstracts does not guarantee publication.

——————–
Established in 1992, and published biannually, Perfect Beat is a research journal an international, peer-reviewed
journal published by Equinox Publishing (London). It is dedicated to the study of the music and cultures of indigenous
and Euro/Asian/North American migrant groups in the Pacific since the late 1800s.
For more information about the journal please go to: www.equinoxjournals.com/ojs/index.php

Welcome you again to join our conference. It is time to handle the logistics.

In this email, I want to tell you more about the accommodation arrangement. For those who will go to Crossroads at Lingnan University (at Tuen Mun, the western side of the New Territorities), you can choose to remain in your hotel/hostel that you have already booked. But keep in mind that it takes at least 1 and 1/2 hour to travel to Chinese University (at Shatin, the eastern side of the New Territorities).

For those want to live nearby Chinese University, there are a few choices for you:

1.      Hyatt Regency Shatin Hotel (which is exactly located at the University MTR (subway) station and it is our University’s teaching hotel). This is the closest but expensive (five star). The cheapest price for a night is over HK$1,000 (US$1=HK$7.8). http://hongkong.shatin.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/index.jsp

2.      Royal Park Hotel (which is right on the top of the Shatin MTR station). Only two stations from the University (10 minutes traveling time). The price is around HK$700-800. http://www.royalpark.com.hk/

3.      Regal Riverside Hotel (which is close to the Shatin MTR station, separated by a river). 15 minutes by walking from the Shatin MTR station (just walking across the bridge) (or 10 minutes by bus). The price is around HK$400-600.
http://www.regalhotel.com/Regal-Riverside-Hotel/Main/Hotel-Home/Hotel-Home.aspx

There are only three hotels in the Shatin area. Another option is that you can live in a hotel along the East Rail (Light blue line) and you can travel to the University MTR station within 30 minutes. Along the East Rail, there are two hotels:

1.       Royal Plaza Hotel at Mongkok East MTR station. 5 stops from the University MTR. Price is a little bit more than Royal Park Hotel.
http://www.royalplaza.com.hk/Hotel_info.do

2.      Harbor Plaza Metropolis at Hunghom MTR station. 6 stops from the University. Price is more expensive than Royal Plaza Hotel.
http://www.harbour-plaza.com/en/home.aspx?hotel_id=hpme&section_id=home&subsection_id=overview

You can directly go to the website of these hotels. All of them have their own website for booking. Or you can go to the following discount booking sites:

Hotels.com
http://www.hotels.com/de606379/hotels-hong-kong-hong-kong/

Think2Travel
http://www.think2travel.com/asia/hong_kong/hong_kong/shatin/shatin_hotels.html

Booking.com
http://www.booking.com/city/hk/sha-tin.en.html?aid=306395;label=sha-tin-VqvHEcMQllZqRmZfgO6njwS3825009119;ws=&gclid=CNPe4eDg6aACFQ3EbwodXkgOFw

Please notice that the Lingnan conference is located in the West Rail of the MTR which is quite far away from the East Rail. If possible, do the moving immediately after the Crossroads conference.

Please also keep in mind that when you arrive at the University MTR station, you have to take the school bus to the Humanities Building of the New Asia College of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (the mountain top of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the last stop of the bus) where the conference will be held. The bus runs every 15 minutes and it takes another 15 minutes to get up to the top. In the morning, the waiting time may be longer because there are many people queuing up.

Please also notice that there is NO campus housing and hostel.

Local Organizer

Anthony Fung

Call for Papers for Popular Music Special Issue

Popular Music announces a Call for Papers for a Special Issue on East Asian Popular Music. We are particularly interested in submissions which address the transnational production and circulation of East Asian Popular Music both within and outside the East Asian region as a result of processes of globalisation and digitalisation; the new ways that popular music is being configured in relation to politics, society and technology under the legacy of Anglo-American political and cultural hegemony; the rise and decline of globalism; and (post)colonialism. These themes might include, for example, the impact of Japanese pop culture since the 1990s, the advancement of the Korean Wave (Hanryu) phenomenon in the 2000s, and the rise of pop culture in China. We wish to prioritise research which is exploring the way music is crossing existing borders and blurring previous musical and cultural boundaries.

This issue will be the first special collection concerned with East Asian Popular Music since the Special Issue in 1991 (vol. 10/3) which focused on Japanese popular music. In the first instance, we invite abstracts (max. 150 words) outlining the proposed paper’s content, to reach us by 1 July 2010 (please send to homey81@gmail.com).

All submissions will need to be in English. We will publish a maximum of eight papers and we therefore request that submitted papers are between 5,000 to 8,000 words in length.

An accepted abstract does not guarantee that a paper will definitely be published because all submissions will go through the usual refereeing procedures. We would ask you to please pass this information on to others who might be interested.

Editors: Sarah Hill (for Popular Music editorial board): Hyunjoon Shin (Guest Editor, South Korea): Tunghung Ho (Guest Editor, Taiwan); Yoshitaka Mori (Guest Editor, Japan)

Red Strains: Music and Communism outside the Communist Bloc after 1945

The British Academy, London

Thursday 13 January – Saturday 15 January 2011

Proposals are invited for this conference, to be held at the British Academy in London, in conjunction with the University of Nottingham.

The relationship between state communism and music behind the Iron Curtain has been the subject of much scholarly interest. The importance of communism for musicians outside the communist bloc, by contrast, has received little sustained attention. This conference aims to examine:

-     the nature and extent of individual musicians’ involvement with communist organisations and parties;

-     the appeal and reach of different strands of communist thought (e.g. Trotskyist; Castroist; Maoist);

-     the significance of music for communist parties and groups (e.g. groups’ cultural policies; use of music in rallies and meetings);

-     the consequences of communist involvement for composition and music-making;

-     how this involvement affected musicians’ careers and performance opportunities in different countries.

Further details on conference themes, keynote speakers and format of proposals: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/music/communism

DEADLINE for proposals: Friday 18 June 2010.

Programme announced and registration open: Monday 19 July 2010.

Dr Robert Adlington (Conference Organiser) Department of Music, University of Nottingham Robert.Adlington@nottingham.ac.uk.

Edited by Nedim Hassan and Holly Tessler

A new e-book published by the International Institute for Popular Culture, University of Turku, Finland. Available at http://iipc.utu.fi/overground/ (direct link) or http://iipc.utu.fi/publications.html

Musical and auditory experiences are frequently central to peoples’ socio-cultural practices within contemporary media-saturated societies. This edited collection features chapters from upcoming scholars who are interested in critically examining such experiences. Showcasing fresh perspectives on the study of music and sound, the eight chapters in this volume adopt research approaches from a range of academic fields including: anthropology; history; philosophy; architectural studies; musicology and cultural studies. Starting from the exploration of the specific roles that music can have for individuals, groups and communities, the chapters in Sounds of the Overground proceed to encompass broader discussions regarding music and nostalgia; place; identity and the philosophical implications of new musical and auditory technologies.

This book will be of value for anyone interested in debates concerning the roles of music and culture in everyday life, including students of popular music, musicology, cultural studies, sociology and media studies.

About the International Institute for Popular Culture:
http://iipc.utu.fi/

The International Institute for Popular Culture is a multi-disciplinary research unit, concerned not only with issues in contemporary popular culture but also in its history and transformations. The Institute is committed to pursuing academic excellence in the following areas: popular music, radio, film, and television, new media and information technology, festivals and urban cultures, youth cultures and subcultures, cultural industries, consumption and material culture, sports, stardom and fandom. The Institute is open to methodologies and theoretical insights, but it places special emphasis on the questions of popular culture as heritage and the social role of popular culture.

–
Kimi Kärki
Phil. Lic., Coordinator
European Heritage, Digital Media and the Information Society,
a European Master’s Programme
http://www.europeanheritage.utu.fi/

Part of EuroMACHS network
http://www.euromachs.net/

School of History, Cultural Research and Art Studies
FIN-20014 University of Turku
FINLAND

Tel: +358-(0)2-333 5890
Fax: +358-(0)2-333 6200

International Institute for Popular Culture:
http://iipc.utu.fi/

Homepage:
http://users.utu.fi/kierka/

24-26 November 2010
Monash Conference Centre
Level 7, 30 Collins Street, Melbourne
School of English, Communications and Performance Studies / School of Music
Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

Conference Theme

Popular music is a dynamic cultural force. The acts of listening, playing, dancing, composing and recording are undertaken in a constant state of flux, further complicated by flows of space and time. This conference invites papers that consider popular music as a powerful social agent. This may include analysis of current or past uses of music instruments as the sound-producing objects of change, or particular uses of technologies and human voices of change. The conference also welcomes investigations of the institutions and discourses within which the sound, the event and the experience are created, and their relationships to social change.

Proposals are invited across (but not necessarily exclusive to) the following areas:

• Popular music and political action
• Popular music and education
• Popular music within the Asia-Pacific
• Popular music and cultural governance
• Heritage and history
• Organology
• Popular music technologies
• Popular music scenes and communities

Abstract Submission

Abstracts (no more than 250 words) should be emailed to Dr Shane Homan (Shane.Homan@arts.monash.edu.au) as a Word document by 3 May 2010. Please use your surname as the title of your Word document. The abstract must include:

• Name of presenter(s)
• Title of paper
• Institution
• Contact phone numbers and email address
• Abstract (250 words or less)
• Consideration for 2010 IASPM ANZ postgraduate prize (Yes/No)

NOTE: all conference delegates must be current financial members of IASPM.

IASPM-ANZ Postgraduate Prize

Each year, IASPM-ANZ awards one postgraduate presenter with the IASPM-ANZ Postgraduate Prize for the best paper. An independent panel of established members determines the AUD$100 prize. To be considered for this prize, you must be currently enrolled as a postgraduate student. Please indicate your interest in being considered for this prize when submitting your abstract.

Conference Grants for Postgraduates

A grant of AUD$100 to assist with conference travel and related expenses is available to:
1. Postgraduate students
2. Indigenous performers assisting with the presentation of a paper

Eligibility

• The conference committee must have accepted the presenter’s paper
• Students and indigenous performers who live in the city where the conference is being held are ineligible
• All postgraduate students must be IASPM-ANZ members, or willing to join, to be eligible for the travel grant
• Applicants are ineligible for this subsidy if they have already secured, or intend to secure, funding of more than $500 for conference travel from an alternative source (e.g. institutional support)

Applicants for the Postgraduate Student Travel Grant OR Indigenous Assistant Travel Grant should provide:

• A short letter of application, including their name, address and paper title
• A copy of all paid travel documents (e.g. airline tickets)
• For postgraduate students, proof of current student status (e.g. a copy/scan of ID or letter from supervisor)

Successful applicants will be reimbursed upon receipt of these documents. Please contact IASPM-ANZ Treasurer Jennifer Cattermole to discuss your eligibility or to ask for further information: jennifer.cattermole@gmail.com.

Conference Registration

Full program (Early Bird Rate*)
• Waged members: $AUD160.00
• Unwaged/students: $AUD120.00

*Early Bird Rate ends 4 October 2010.

Full program (Normal Rate*)
• Waged members: $AUD200.00
• Unwaged/students: $AUD160.00

*Normal Rate is charged from 4 October 2010.

Single Day
Waged members: $AUD70.00
Unwaged/students: $AUD40.00

Registration forms and payment will be organised through the Monash website shortly.

For further information or queries, please contact the conference organisers:

Dr Graeme Smith
Graeme.Smith@arts.monash.edu.au
Phone: 61-3-99053233

Dr Shane Homan
Shane.Homan@arts.monash.edu.au
Phone: 61-3-99032309

Dr Jen Cattermole
jennifer.cattermole@gmail.com
Phone: 61-3-99032326