Over the course of the past two weeks, it’s felt like the number of things I learn just keeps growing! Whether it’s specific knowledge on ethnicity and alterity, how to synthesize existing scholarship in both English and Mandarin, or simply the time of day that I work best (definitely the morning), I’m excited to implement some of the next information that I’ve come across. 

Throughout the first week, I quickly learned that my research topic was far too broad. I wasn’t quite sure of the best—and most personally interesting!—avenue I could take to explore contemporary minority-ethnicity music in modern China. I was interested in researching Chinese Communist Party (CCP) White Papers on ethnicity, music, copyright, and television; digging through Chinese Central Television (CCTV) to find performances from minority-ethnicity singers; analyzing public response and opinion on public forums that discuss minority-ethnicity musical performances; understanding the changing CCP music education policies; even finding connections with other forms of change-making music across the globe, such as the Moscow Music Peace Festival. As I read existing scholarship on these topics, I also realized that relevant knowledge was an ever-expanding web, and that I consequently knew much less about it than I had initially anticipated! I was glad to learn this so early on, however, and was able to begin to address this challenge over week two with the guidance of Professor Shernuk. 

During the second week, I began to narrow in on my particular research topic. As I dug through CCP White Papers, CCTV shows, ethnic music education policies, global protest music, and general musicology, I found that analyzing Chinese singing competitions (such as 中国好歌曲 - Sing My Song China and 中国好声音 The Voice! China) is an effective and interesting method of researching the role of ethnic music in negotiation, representing, and constructing ethnicity. I chose this topic because 1) singing competitions are a constantly changing and widely enjoyed part of Chinese and global life that reach a spectrum of audiences, 2) singing competitions are broadcast by CCTV, undergoing certain CCP monitoring and approval processes, 3) CCTV channels have, historically, acted as a mouthpiece for the CCP that reaches into private homes, 4) entertainment programs are inherently political and ideological due to their active involvement in producing our representations and understanding of reality, 5) singing competition shows include segments with commentary from judges, voting by audiences, ratings, and more, which provide direct insight on how minority-ethnic music performances are perceived, and also because 6) watching CCTV performances is personally fascinating, especially when it comes to analyzing these performances and the role they play in constructing Chineseness. I spent the remainder of Week 2 continuing my prior research, but I also began to read more about CCTV, watch 中国好歌曲 and 中国好声音 performances, and write sample paragraphs for my paper to ensure that my current research and findings are applicable.

One challenge that I’ve confronted, however, is that finding CCTV footage of these performances can be difficult. Many performances do not exist on YouTube, and the performances that do exist cut off critical performer introductions, judge feedback, or include the context provided by each show for each performer. Videos on Chinese services on Baidu, YouKu, Bilibili, WeChat, 小红书, or Douyin have similar issues. I’ll have to keep looking and I hope to discover a repository or archive for CCTV performances. Additionally, I’ve been working on finding and reading articles in Mandarin, which are both difficult to find and difficult for me to read. However, I believe that reading perspectives from Chinese people is extremely important and I’ve been working with Professor Shernuk on this as well!

During week 3, I’m hoping to find all my primary sources for analysis and finish reading all of the existing scholarship that I’ve compiled. I’m also looking to continue writing my paper — particularly, I aim to get my analysis of the Sing My Song 中国好歌曲 performances by the band Hanggai 杭盖 (which merges Mongolian traditional music and punk-rock band) on paper. Excited to hear about all of your work as well :)