Diasporic Chinese Xianshi Musicians:
Impact of Enculturation and Learning on Values relating to Music and Music-Making
Mok, On Nei Annie
The Hong Kong Institute of Education, China
Citation: Mok, O. N. A. (2010). Diasporic Chinese Xianshi musicians: Impact of
enculturation and learning on values relating to music and music-making.
International Journal of Education & the Arts, 12(1). Retrieved [date] from
http://www.ijea.org/v12n1/.
Abstract
This qualitative study presents a group of five diasporic Chinese xianshi musicians in
Hong Kong as an example, illustrating how they learnt and value their music throughout
their lives, and examines the possible link between learning-practices and values. It is
hoped that the lesson learnt from these xianshi musicians may alert music educators to
the possible far-reaching effects of enculturation and learning-practices on forming an
individual's values relating to music and music-making. The data were drawn from
semi-structured in-depth interviews, non-participant observations and a trip to the
musicians' homeland. It revealed that they value music for aesthetic and personal
enjoyment, and for the purposes of bonding and identity building, as well as for building
an imagined community. It appears that their musical enculturation (from homeland)
and informal learning-practices (from both homeland and Hong Kong) may have contributed
to their lifelong devotion to making music and to how they value their music
and music-making on both personal and collective levels.
Visual Abstract
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