Rhapsody in Red: How Classical Music Became Chinese

Rating:
Summary: best story this year
Review: "How Western classical music became Chinese" doesn't capture the real subject of this book: this is probably one of the five best books in print on Chinese history and cultural interchange. Using "classical music diplomacy" as a uniting thread, these authors tell the story of China's encounter with Western Europe and North America from the mission of Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci in the early 17th century through the "model operas" of the Cultural Revolution, one of which was performed for Nixon and Kissinger, to the break-through popular composers of contemporary China. They use fascinatingly detailed personal stories to illustrate these convergence points. Musicologists will love it, but it is no more about music than Nixon's diplomacy was about ping-pong. This book cannot be missed by anyone who loves a good story.

Rating:
Summary: Bravo!
Review: Ignore the drab cover, Rhapsody in Red is as dramatic, moving and packed with unexpected twists as China's own turbulent history. Although the theme is Western, classical music the book is really about the people who fought over its evolution in China. From missionaries and mandarins to maestros and Mrs. Mao, the lives described are full of bravery, treachery and above all passion for music and their country.

The style is refreshingly direct and although the research is extraordinarily thorough it never reads like a dry, academic history book. There are many wonderful anecdotes drawn from face to face interviews and the descriptive passages are beautifully written.

From imperial times right through to modern China the writers not only provide an incredible wealth of detailed information, but they also manage to capture the atmosphere of the times. Whether it be in the imperial court in the Forbidden city, or in Shanghai during the swinging thirties, or behind the scenes in China's first conservatories of music, or in the caves of Yanan where many of the theories about the role of culture in Communist China were first set out, the combination of the occasional poiniant descriptive passage, biographic details of individuals and thorough historical research really bring these places to life for the reader.

Western classical music also proves to be a fascinating vantage point from which to analyse and develop a deeper understanding of the many debates that raged about the role of culture in Chinese society as a whole, as well as how The Middle Kingdom should respond to foreign powers.

For musicians and musicologists, sinologists, historians and anyone interested in the cultural interaction between East and West, this is one of the very best books on the subject out there today.