Professor Frederick LAU, Department of Music, CUHK

Molihua is a Chinese folksong known throughout China and in the world. Why does a humble regional folksong attain such global notoriety?  In this talk, I discuss several important moments of this folksong’s existence.  I describe the different ways that Molihu has been received, recontextualized, resignfied, and capitalized inside and outside China. Its journey took the song from China to England, Japan, Europe, and eventually turned it into the best-known Chinese folksong abroad.  It has also been transformed into a musical and cultural icon for many China musicians and composers at home nowadays.  Using Molihua as a text and case study, I suggest that music and sonic articulation are important tools for understanding the sentiment and the everchanging modes of circulation of Chinese music.  The shifting meaning of Molihua reveals how China has been perceived, performed, and construed by both insiders and outsiders.