Abstract

By examining the development of Western classical music in modern Shanghai, this paper argues that a shared era of musical modernity was created amid segregation within the colonial municipal government, with the interactions and exchanges between diasporic European musicians and Chinese performers. Rather than following the traditional narrative in treating Western music as a simple instrument of colonial power, this paper examines the Shanghai Municipal Orchestra within the racially divided municipal structure of the International Settlement, where orchestral performance functioned as a symbol of colonial authority but at the same time was constantly redefined by the active participation of native Chinese musician intellectuals and urban residents. The study, through analyzing the careers of Mario Paci and Arrigo Foa, will show how diasporic European musicians were able to recalibrate inherited European traditions under war, exile, and political upheaval. At the same time, Chinese performers transformed Western repertoire, using it as a means for social mobility and recognising their own modern cultural identity. Ultimately, through a historical analysis grounded in class and postcolonialism, this paper demonstrates that the encounters, where local intervention and crisis occurred, allowed the reorientation of musical authority in the city of Shanghai.

Keywords: Western classical music, Colonial modernity, Cultural exchange, Diasporic musicians

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