Preamble A newly formed nation faces many challenges, including establishing an economy, educating the people, and creating a national cultural identity. We must not be deterred by such challenge but rise to meet it in the effort of building a prosperous state for our citizens. The records of history have taught us innumerable lessons on …
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Global Coursework
As History Repeats Itself
Another essay I wrote for my global coursework centered on Japanese popular music, I analyze how the repetition of musical history shows that society’s underlying structural frameworks can be more static than they first appear. This class taught me much of what I know about post WWII Japanese musical history and how it is closely …
The Evolving “Japanese Woman”
During my sophomore year I took an interesting class examining Japanese popular music and its evolution since WWII. During the class I analyzed the pervasive concept of the “Japanese Woman” and her portrayal through music, noting how how it has evolved from WWII Gunka (war music) to the popular “boogie-woogie” musical style of the 1950s. …
Enka and the National Imagenings of Japan
When looking at musical studies, I’m particularly interested in a Japanese genre called Enka. Enka was made in the 1970s/80s yet imitates traditionally through the use of traditional instruments and vocal techniques. In reality it’s a mixture of the modern and traditional, but it is consumed as authentic traditionality. In my SP23 class, ‘Pop Music …
Enka, Schlager, and Nationalism
During my FA23 class, ‘Losers of WWII,’ students wrote a research paper comparing Germany and Japan on a topic of their interest. We were instructed to find a way Germany and Japan were different, and then explore possible reasons for this difference. I decided to write about music, and this blog post is a collection …
Chinese Music Ensemble Final Concert FA2023
This semester I decided to take the plunge and do something I’ve been wanting to do since freshman year but was always too nervous for—joining the Chinese music ensemble. A pianist of 6 years, I’ve always loved music. And in particular I was really drawn to one instrument in particular—the Erhu. It’s a 2 stringed …
Miyazaki and Writing the Everyday
The Magic of Miyazaki With the exception of the pseudo-autobiographical film The Wind Rises, Miyazaki’s stories aren’t grounded in reality the same way Ethnography is. Despite this they utilize similar methodologies of depicting a person’s story as proposed by Abu Lughod—writing against culture. Lughod suggests that writing against culture, or writing the everyday, can disturb …
