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    Wong - Ethnography, Ethnomusicology, and Post-White THeory

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    of 13
    abled in 208 by Roatedge was set New ork N¥ 1000 srr cotledge-ny.com bled in Great Britain by Rouge TT New fester Lane london ECAP EE sroedgecouk Copyright © 2004 by Taylor & rons Books Ie oee isan imprint he Taylor & Francs Coup. Feat med Sones mere on ac-e pape. ‘hs reserved, Na pat ofthis bok maybe reprinted or reproduced or utzed in any form Seoptay cecroni, mechanical oF sie mess Tino Freater veid nloding by any ton in any information storage Of erica sate, wihost permis Eon tom pubes wooe76sasat Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data ‘Wong, Deborah Anne, Speak it louder: Asian Americans making music by Deborah Wong pcm. Includes bibliogrphical references and index. ISBN O-415-97039-3 (hb, :O-418.970407 alk. paper) —ISBN 0415-97047 (pbk. lk paper) 1. Asian Americans-Musio~History end ertiism, 2. Musie~Soeiat aspects—United State I. Te. ML3S60.A85 Wo6 2008 "Ta, 8995073—ce22 2nosan4s27 SPEAK it LOUDER Asian Americans Making Music Deborah Wong J Routledge Tyree Croup NEW YORK AND LONDON 13 Ethnography, Ethnomusicology, and Post-White Theory Forin America, cultural radicalism is not so much a question of the controversial content expressed in art forms, as itis a question of what ‘methods of social change are necessary to achieve freedom of expres- sion within a national culture whose aesthetic has been cultivated by a single, dominant, ethnic group. — Harold Cruse (1967: 464) What we need are perspectives that situate an isolated speech or performance by a black public intellectual within a larger context: progressive black figures’ lack of access to mainstream media and ‘political institutions — and, ultimately, the relative inability of these intellectuals to effect potitical change — Michael Hanchard (1996) Cultural Politics and Theory: Locating Public Intellectuals As Philip Brett has pointed out, music has always been political — it is only particular scholarly practices that separate music from culture and politics (Brett 2000: 421). “Cultural” politics are different from politics plain and simple: the politics of culture point to fundamental matters of, values and belief, and — importantly — to issues of control over the expression and formation of culture itself. T hold that some theoretical approaches are far more useful than others if we want to take a serious look at how particular musicians wield cultural politics in mindful and constructive ways. In other words, cultural politics surround, shape, and 299 300 © Speak It Louder: Asian Americans Making Music emerge from musicians’ activities, but that’s not all of it. 'am especially concerned with the intersection of theory andthe plies of ree Bea modernist and poststructuralist theory may help locate cultural politics and cultural critique, but 1 am not convinced that they enable social change or provide tools for social action. Certain constructs have consi tently emphasized the connection between theory and social praxis while others haven't. Accordingly, I consider “high” theory a social construct. 1 don’ argue that all high theory is White and apolitical, but | believe theve is color line in twwentieth-century high theory that istt difficult to iden. ‘fy. Is foundation es in different models of social responsibilty, and eating is elty fr certain msiians as esentily changed how 1 am Indeed, ethnomusicologists still don’t quite know how to position the people whose musical experiences they adres, While we ted neh the overly positivist frame ofthe “informant, the colonial history of the fieldwork paradigm still weighs heavy. Whether we insist there is no th there by recasting these musicians as teachers, colleagues, partners, friends, the nature of the knowledge gained and the manner ofits getting ‘emains largely unaddresed, though more and more ethnomusicologste wrestle with the possibilty of dialectical relationships with their infor. ‘ants (Feld 1990; Rice 1997). Questions of knowledge and knowing loom large, but the micro- (let alone macro-) politics ofthe role of the must cianly expert in an ethnographer’s experience remains uncomforta untheorized. We celebrate our informants’ knowledge, we thank them in ur acknowledgments, we protect their identities wien necessary We pay wn for thei time and efforts, Wiliam Noll speaks dispaagingly of the atu member orm, th eli that authorive understanding CRonly meg fom the ifsime experience of culture member (1997 At its worst, the “culture member formula” is @ search ember formula” isa search for an ulti- imate answer final flork choice in the form of special partners who are above critical consideration, an attempt to find people whose backgrounds ostensibly make them suitable candidates for producing @ magic formula that everyone else can produ ryone else can plug into with Noll efforts totaly level the ld thus allows him to considera wider azzay of informants including ater ethnographer (past and preset a wells performers, In his effort not to valovie certain cultural experts, be invests the ethnographer anew with the interpretive authority fo range feetybetween ores of ctrl knoe and musicians’ knowledge is another question. For many musicians ‘Kaiving” music isnot an end in itself but is rather the lens through cultural politics impacts their livs and worldview. In other words, ? Where this eaves musicians Ethnography, Ethnomusicology, and Post-White Theory # 301 the play of power and control not only moves through their daily lives but through their musical activites as well. Whether postmodernist theory disables the possibility of political ‘mobilization has disturbed many writers, including Christopher Norris. A literary critic at the University of Wales, Norris almost certainly wrote Uncritical Theory in a state of high indignation. Composed in response to Baudrillard’s essay on the Gulf War, the book is an impassioned argument against the unmoored realities he sees proposed by postmodernist thought. Norris argues that postmodernist theory is litte more than apo- litical skepticism “pushed to the point where it becomes just a pretext for strategies of moral and political evasion” (Norris 1992: 86). According to Norris, Baucrillard’s essay, published in The Guardian in 1991, focused on the Gulf War as a“mass-media simulation” (ibid. 11), is an extreme exam- ple of a war of words. Norris consistently oversimplifies Baudrillard’s argument into a ridiculous denial of real war and real death in order to ‘make his main point, that postmodernist thought is “the giddy extreme of a fashionable doxa” —“a position that negates the difference between truth and the currency of consensus belief” (ibid., 184). Norris insists that “theory has consequences in the strong sense of the term” (ibid.), that is, real-world consequences handled irresponsibly, as he sees it, by Baudril- lard and other “disciples of French intellectual fashion” (ibid., 11). Norris's polemic isan admittedly extreme stance toward postmodernist theory, but his position that theory has a responsibility toward material politics has points of contact with less dismissive scholars. Some African ‘American intellectuals have also questioned the implications of postmod- ‘ernist theory. Aftican American commentator Adolph Reed has; like Nor- ris, wondered whether the assumption that discourse is all may deflect sustained analysis away from matters of institutional power. Similarly, Lewis Gordon complains that “The collapse of theorizing practice into the- ory as practice has provided some contemporary intellectuals with an imaginary access to political achievement” (James 1997: xv). Considering the cultural and economic politics of the world music industry, Timothy Taylor questions why certain musicians are character~ ized as hybrid postmodern agents whereas western musicians who collab- orate with musics from other parts of the world are simply described as rock musicians. Taylor describes a “voracious aesthetic” that permits authentic borrowings in some directions but not others, He suggests that “postmodernism-as-style” is a problematic political construct that assumes the ability of a professional-managerial class to consume Third ‘World sounds, Taylor is especially critical of the effects of postmodern the- ‘ory on political change, objecting to the postmodern removal of agency from subalterns and the negation of “metanarratives of progressive politi- cal change” (Taylor 1997; 204). Cornel West focuses like Taylor on the postmodern restructuring of the international capitalist order. He suggests that Black intellectuals face the 302 « Speak It Louder: Asian Americans Making Music particular crisis of trying to “keep the notion of being a political intllec- (1992: 689), options narrowed by a global capitalism that crates (and is Inaintained by) an expanding professional managerial strata which includes the academy and thus threatens to engulf Black academic public intellectuals (ibid, 690), West looks at the compromised circumstances that the academy presents to African American intellectuals and questions the politcal conditions of its placement ina postmodern economy Public intellectals”*popular intellectuals? “praxis intellectuals” and sera ple ites are (in some was) all the same peson. ot simply “intellectual,” they ae literally marked categories that se them off om the unmarked eatepory. As uc of al seeked tenes intellectuals” without a qualifying adjective speak from a position of power, privilege, and influence, whereas all thers speak contestatory lan sages. I suggest thatthe presence of adjectival intellectuals tells us some. thing interesting about the politics of knowledge. They point to its racialization and control as well as tothe Whiteness of the high theories that shape nearly everything we aze abe to talk about inthe academy, including music and performance. Certsialy there are intellectuals of color \who write high theory, but [am concerned withthe implications of racial, ied hor fr musica ad ethology. ome toa consideration of intellectuals in an attempt to reframe Light wie aboat he Alen Americ ae mecca fake ane pay ares, How aes thei work (and my interactions with them) is challenging because these musicians are sophisticated self-producers: they are Kenly avate that seltrepresentation is chucl forge kee American, so my attempts to write abou them necessitates a kind of dou, le awarenes, If write about them, | must acknowledge und indeed cpr tii hse el-epresetationy, and this in rm shapes thei in my writing as subjects and informants. Yet a base shift in thinks what wan wit abt By regding thee Aan American musi Beare welcome oon in th conventions of which enty Giroux has written that “While there has been je work published recent about ublintlctny theres beet eye eer ousng on how public inlets themselves engage in i ue about their own social formation, pedagogical practices, and self nthe Asan Improv musician’ dialogues about their own activites, Some ofthese conversations have been informa, between them and myslt. Oth ax ave ben ore publi asthe are ately awate ofthe importance of Bup tusion a wel publ performance. Believe tat thei very Shad antpistatedreamme ete, Ethnography, Ethnomusicology and Post-White Theory # 303, exchange which, though contentious, led to other possibilities. As Edward Said has written, not enough attention has been paid to “the image, the signature, the actual intervention and performance” of the intellectual (1954: 13). As an ethnographer, I think it best to focus on particular peo- ple at particular moments, and I therefore consider one event that took place on Sunday afternoon, October 20, 1996 in Oakland, California's Chi- natown, The huge literature on intellectuals emphasizes two issues: the relation- ship of intellectuals to a public, and the relationship between intellectual activity and practice — that is, to social action, Long-standing African ‘American traditions of intellectualism have two consistent characteristics. First, itis generally agreed that cultural work, whether creative, religious, or political, should somehow help the African American community in its long-term project to gain equal access to cultural resources. Second, itis ‘generally recognized that writing is not the only site of intellectual work, ie., praxis (whether music-making, preaching, or community organizing) is inherently intellectual ‘The nature of the public intellectual is worth exploring in some detail. Bdward Said writes, “The central fact for me is, I think, that the intellec- tual is an individual endowed with a faculty for representing, embodying, articulating a message, a view, an attitade, philosophy or opinion to, as well as for, publi” (1994: 11). He asserts that “There is no such thing as a private intellectual, since the moment you set down words and publish them you have entered the public world. Nor is there only a public intllec- tual, someone who exists just asa figurehead or spokesperson or symbol of a cause, movement, or position” (1994: 12). I must take issue with one of Said’s assumptions, as they are fundamentally different from those of ‘many public intellectuals of color. Said believes that the intellectual auto- ‘matically enters the realm of the public at the moment of reception. To Said’s mind, publication = accessing the public, and this movement is, described as unidirectional, i., the intellectual brings his/her "words" to “the public” ‘Traditions of intellectualism with a basis in social responsibility are cul- turally constructed: American public intellectuals have frequently come from ethnic minority groups, notably Jewish Americans and African ‘Americans. During the past decade, African American public intellectuals hhave attracted quite a bit of attention, not least because certain academic superstars like Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Cornel West have helped change the shape of American education. The African American tradition of the public intellectual has a much longer history than many realize, yet it has consistently emphasized agendas for social change through action and responsibility. The fundamental connection between a public intellectual and a community is the nexus that generates thought-as-action, ‘Still, a certain cynicism has greeted the phenomenon of the African “American academic “star” Michael Hanchard suggests that the very ways 304» Speak It Louder: Asian Americans Making Music in which we are able to talk about Black public intellectuals are “impover- ished” (1996b). He notes that White leftist analysis of Black intellectualism thas often treated “racial oppression as mere flotsam on capitalism’ undu lating surface” (ibid.) without recognizing the structural relationship between politcal action, social responsibility, and intellectual thought in Black traditions. Black public intellectuals walk a delicate line between being seen as “atomized ‘sell-outs’” by members of their communities and as “spokespersons for the race” who interpret their communities for White audiences (ibid.)_ If African American intellectuals are held in somewhat clumsy regard by some White liberal intellectuals, their reception in Af can American communities is even more complex. Joy James refers to the ‘precarious rootedness” of African American intellectuals in their com. ‘munities (1997; 191). The entire question of who their “public” is looms large. Aftican American public intellectuals who choose the academy as their environment can face suspicion and skepticism from their own com- ‘munities. Again, Michael Hanchard puts it well (1996a: 101): ({Jntellectuals belonging to marginalized ethnic or racial groups ‘must travel some distance from them to make their concerns “pub- lic? This, in turn, may place them at a distance from the people they claim to represent or atleast identify themselves with, Parallel to questions of audience and reception, the systemic disempow- erment of Blick public intelectual am on going sue Thirty yer ao, in his now-classic The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual, Harold Cruse wrote Petes gr | Harold Cruse wrot Even at this advanced stage in Negro history, the Negro intellectual isa retarded child whose thinking processes are stl geared to pid,

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