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Lau, Frederick 劉長江

CCS Faculty
Associate Professor, Music
Director, Center for Chinese Studies

Music 218: 956-2177
Department: 956-7756
Fax: 956-9657

Licentiate 1980, Royal Schools of Music (UK)
BA 1981, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Postgraduate Diploma 1982, Guildhall School of Music and Drama (UK)
MM 1984, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
DMA 1991, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Professor Lau is an ethnomusicologist who specializes in Chinese music. A recipient of research grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Scholarly Communication with the PRC, Lau is also an accomplished flutist, conductor, and a performer of the Chinese flute dizi. Professor Lau has published articles on traditional Chinese music and politics, and is the co-editor and contributor of a volume entitled Locating East Asia in Western Art Music (forthcoming, Wesleyan University Press). This volume examines issues related to cross-cultural music synthesis with a focus on the interaction between East Asian music and contemporary Western compositions. He is completing a book-length manuscript on the music and musician of the bamboo flute dizi in the People's Republic of China. Lau is an associate editor of the Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, East Asia volume, China section. His current research deals with Chinese music in the diaspora and notions of Chineseness as expressed in music.

China-Related Courses

  • Mus 107 Music in World Cultures
  • Mus 311D Chinese Ensemble
  • Mus 407 Music Cultures of the World
  • Mus 470 Topics in Ethnomusicology: Music Production in Cross-Cultural Context
  • Mus 478C Music Cultures: China

Publications

  • Music in China: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture. New York: Oxford University Press (2008).
  • Locating East Asia in Western Art Music. Co-edited by Frederick Lau and Yayoi Uno Everett (Emory University)., Middletown: Wesleyan University Press (2004).
  • “Nationalizing Sound on the Verge of Chinese Modernity” in Nation, Modernity, and the Restructuring of the Field of Cultural Production in China: Beyond the May Fourth Paradigm, edited by Wing-kai Chow, Tze-ki Hon, Hong-yuk Ip, Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 209-226. (2008)
  • "Context, Agency, and Chineseness: the Music of Law Wing Fai," Contemporary Music Review 26/5:585-603. (2007)
  • "'Celestial Sounds or ethnic music?': Composition and Chinese music in the global age” Proceedings of Third Asia Pacific Arts Forum: (Un)Masking: The Art of Disguise/Disclosure in Asia-Pacific Cultures. Taipei National University of the Arts, Taiwan. (2006)
  • "Entertaining Chineseness: Chinese singing Clubs in Contemporary Bangkok." Visual Anthropology, 18:1-24. (2005)
  • “Serenading the ancestors: Chinese Qingming Festival in Honolulu.” Yearbook for Traditional Music, vol. 36: 128-143. (2004)
  • “Morphing Chineseness: The Changing Images of Amateur Chinese Music Clubs in Singapore.” in Diasporas and Interculturalism in Asian Performing Arts: Translating Traditions, edited by Hae-kyung Um, London: Routledge, 30-42. (2004)
  • "Forever Red: The Invention of Solo Dizi Music in Post-1949 China." British Journal of Ethnomusicology 5:113-131.
  • "Individuality and Political Discourse in Solo Dizi Compositions." Asian Music 27.1:133-152.
  • "Lost in Time? Sources of 20th Century Dizi Repertory." Pacific Reviw of Ethnomusicology 7:31-56.
  • "Performing Identity: Musical Expression of Thai-Chinese in Contemporary Bangkok." Sojourn 16.1:38-70.
  • "Chinese Music in the Diaspora: The Case of Teochew Music Thailand." Journal of Asian Music Research Institute, 20:109-125.
  • "Little Great Tradition: Thoughts on Recent Developments in Jiangnan Sizhu." ACMR Reports: Journal of the Association for Chinese Music Research 11: 31-61.
  • "Package Identity Through Sound: Tourist Performances in Contemorary China." Journal of Musicological Research 17.1:113-134.