Identity formation through music in diaspora

• This video essay addresses the role of Nhac Vang (Yellow Music) - a form of Vietnamesepopular music - in identity formation among Vietnamese women in diaspora. Several importantstudies have been made of the role of music in Vietnamese immigrants (Cunningham &Nguyen, 1999; Reyes, 1999), but not specifically in Scandinavia. Cunningham & Nguyen(1999), in a study of the role of music and media in the formation of cultural identity amongVietnamese immigrants in Australia note “the felt need to maintain pre-revolutionary Vietnameseheritage and traditions; find a negotiated place within a more mainstreamed culture; or engagein the formation of distinct hybrid identities around the appropriation of dominant Westernpopular cultural forms” (p. 77).Building on interviews with Vietnamese women in diaspora in Scandinavia, the essayconstitutes initial preliminary results of Nguyen’s postdoctoral project. The project seeks adeeper understanding of the role of music in the negotiation of identity among Vietnameseimmigrants. The music in the video essay is composed through remote interaction betweenmembers of The Six Tones and other Vietnamese performers. The making of the music and thevarious constraints that the format of networked performance imposes is also discussed as partof the proposed paper.

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Konst -- Musik (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Arts -- Music (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Post-colonialism

artistic research

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)