If You Don't Sing... Changing Conceptualizations of Kam Big Song

Leiden University "China Seminar" Lecture Series
 

Kam “big song” is an important genre sung within Kam (in Chinese, Dong 侗) minority communities in southeastern Guizhou, China. For centuries it has been influential regarding many aspects of Kam social structure, and has served as an important medium for transmitting historical, philosophical and ecological knowledge. Although big song was recognised as National Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) in 2006, and was included on UNESCO’s Representative List of the ICH of Humanity in 2009, with major socio-economic changes affecting Kam communities over the last two decades the future of the genre is uncertain. Drawing upon almost twenty-four months of musical ethnographic research in rural Kam regions since 2004, I describe recent changes to the way that big song is conceptualized by Kam villagers—the custodians of the genre—and by other significant figures in contemporary China. I also illustrate some of these changes through playing video examples of recent big song performances. My discussion of the ways that these changing conceptualizations are influencing Kam culture also offers a perspective for analysing and understanding aspects of cultural and ethnic politics in contemporary China.

Speaker's resume:
Since beginning research in Kam (in Chinese, Dong 侗) minority villages in rural southwestern China in 2004, Catherine Ingram has given many performances of Kam song together with Kam singers. Her PhD, completed at the University of Melbourne in 2010, focussed upon the major Kam genre known as “big song,” and her publications on Kam minority music include the relation of this music to discourses concerning gender, the environment, research ethics and Intangible Cultural Heritage. After completing her doctorate she returned to China as an Endeavour Australia Cheung Kong Research Fellow and a visiting scholar at the Research Institute for Ritual Music in China at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. She is now a postdoctoral fellow at the International Institute of Asian Studies, The Netherlands, and also an honorary fellow at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Her research has attracted considerable interest within China, including as the focus of documentaries made by Guizhou Province TV in 2006 and 2011. She has also given guest lectures at various institutes in Australia, China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, and has lectured courses on The Ethnography of Music and The Politics of Gender in East Asia.