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This research examines songs, music appreciation, and musicians from Western, Chinese, and Other cultures in textbooks, analyzing frequencies and similarities. It explores differences in song selections, regional influences, and language choices between Hong Kong and Taiwan textbooks.
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This research refers to those songs, repertoires of music appreciation and introduced musicians bearing cultures which identify them as • (a) Western cultures; • (b) Chinese cultures and • (c) Other cultures.
Musically, • this implies that these musical works or musicians have their musical characteristics of their own cultures. • Geographically, • this implies they have their own regional characteristics of cultures.
Frequency of Music Appreciation in Different Cultures within Textbooks
Frequency of Introduced Musician in Different Cultures within Textbooks
Frequency of Introduced Musicians in Different Periods within Textbooks
(III) Stage of Juxtaposition IIIA Similarities and Differences in Song in the two places
A higher percentage of Western cultures and Other cultures is found in textbook sets A and B from Hong Kong than sets C and D from Taiwan. Conversely, there is a higher proportion of Chinese cultures in songs. The percentage of songs from Chinese cultures is much higher in sets C and D than in A and B
Songs from both places from Western cultures mainly come from the USA The second and third most chosen countries for Hong Kong textbooks are Britain and Austria Whereas, the second and third most chosen countries from Taiwanese textbooks for songs are Germany and Italy These results prove that both places are influenced by the USA socially, economically and politically after World War II.
Songs from both places in terms of specific region of Chinese cultures mainly originate from Taiwan This can be explained by the influence of Taiwanese popular and folk music on Hong Kong in recent years. On the other hand, due to social and political factors, Taiwan strongly promotes her local culture Therefore, the songs of Chinese cultures from both places are mainly selected form Taiwan.
However, textbooks from Hong Kong also selected many songs from different regions of Chinese cultures, e.g. Hong Kong ,Yunnan and Xinjiang Songs originated from these regional Chinese cultures are seldom selected by the publishers of Taiwanese textbooks. Having said that, one can understand the greater need and opportunities of Hong Kong to understand mainland Chinese cultures sincere Hong Kong is now an integral part of China. Hong Kong has a higher diversity in choosing songs from regional Chinese cultures than Taiwan.
Songs from Hong Kong textbooks under Other cultures mainly from Russia and Japan. This can be explained by the long-standing and close relationship between Russia and China. The influence of Japanese music on Hong Kong people, especially youngsters, cannot be overlooked.
This is why a rather large number of songs form Russia and Japan are included in Hong Kong textbooks. In contrary, due to the concentration on local cultures, few songs from Other cultures are included in Taiwanese textbooks. The highest percentages of common songs amongst the four sets of textbooks are A with B and C with D . It is good to observe that every regional textbook (Hong Kong and Taiwan, in this case) can reflect its regional culture in a certain degree.
All foreign melodies with Chinese lyrics ,foreign melodies with English lyrics and English melodies with Chinese lyrics have higher percentages in Hong Kong textbooks than those from Taiwan. Especially, the biggest difference can be seen in foreign melody with English lyrics.
The reasons are, first, Hong Kong focuses more on Westerncultures and therefore more foreign melodies as well as English melodies are chosen by Hong Kong publishers. Second, Hong Kong pays attention on both the English and the Chinese languages, especially during the transitional period 1997 and therefore, English and Chinese lyrics have equal importance.
Third, Taiwan focuses more on Chinese cultures and therefore, fewer foreign and English melodies are included in Taiwanese textbooks. Fourth, English is not the second language of Taiwanese students and as a result, there is a smaller number of songs with English lyrics found in Taiwanese textbooks.
That is, an extremely low percentage of foreign melody with original lyrics are included in the textbooks. This is due to the fact that Hong Kong and Taiwan are both mainly Chinese societies. Few secondary schools students learn and understand foreign languages (other than English language, in the case of Hong Kong).
This phenomenon can be shown similarly by extremely low percentages of students who sit for foreign languages in public examinations in both Hong Kong and Taiwan. Therefore, original foreign lyrics are not encouraged to be placed in textbooks from both Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Taiwanese publishers like to include many original compositions, songs whose both melodies and lyrics are written by contemporary local Taiwanese composers or lyrics writers in the textbooks. The Taiwanese government also strongly encourages their musicians to introduce their works in the music textbooks. But, by contrast, fewHong Kong local compositions are included in textbooks. Also, Hong Kong has not encouraged its musicians to compose local musical works. It can be seen that there is a great difference between the promotion of local musical compositions between the two places.
IIIB Similarities and Differences in Music Appreciation in the two places The percentages of repertoires of music appreciation in Western cultures ,Chinese cultures and Other cultures are nearly the same in all four sets of textbooks .
The ratio of repertoires from Chinese and Western cultures is about the same; there is no bias on Western or Chinese cultures. Nevertheless, the number of repertoires from Other cultures are comparatively very small .
Both places choose the repertoires of music appreciation from Western cultures from Germany and Austria . Music from these two countries is commonly termed Classical music and also it constitutes the most dominant part of music appreciation repertoires in Western cultures. This is one reason why the percentages of these repertoires among Western cultures are high in both Hong Kong and Taiwan.
There is a high diversity of appreciating different regional Chinese music in Hong Kong textbooks rather than only focussing on local Taiwanese regional music in Taiwanese textbooks . This is, again, due to social and political facts that Taiwan would like to promote her own local culture rather than specific regional Chinese cultures.
Only Russian repertoires of music appreciation under Other cultures are included in textbooks from both places, Hong Kong and Taiwan. It can be said that although both places are eager to promote the recognition of different cultures, in fact, other non-Western cultures are seldom mentioned.
The highest combination of common repertoires among the different kinds of combinations of common repertoires is textbook sets A with B . This shows that the publishers of the two Hong Kong textbooks select a large amount of common repertoires.
Also, the high percentage of common repertoires among the two Hong Kong textbooks reflects that they are influenced by the same cultural background. Textbooks from both places like to include instrumental listening repertoires instead of vocal listening repertoires in music appreciation. The genres of works are varied from solo and small ensemble to large choral and symphonic works. The listening repertoires in all four sets of textbooks from Western cultures are normally selected from the most famous classical musicians, for example, Bach, Beethoven and Mozart.
However, all of four sets of textbook have seldom mentioned contemporary Western musicians.
On the other hand, besides, the listening repertoires characteristics traditional Chinese cultures are mentioned by textbooks from both places, textbooks from Taiwan also introduce listening repertoires characteristics of the local culture, for example, little opera (歌仔戲), little mixed opera (雜唸仔調)and Taiwanese local folk songs sung in Minnenor Hakka local dialects.
By contrast, textbooks from Hong Kong rarely introduce Hong Kong local cultures in listening repertoires. Also, textbooks from both places little mention the instrumental works from contemporary local musicians. Huang Zi (黃自) is the only Chinese composer whose works are highly regarded by all four sets of textbooks.
Higher percentages of musicians from Western cultures is introduced by Hong Kong textbooks. Conversely, higher percentages of musicians from Chinese cultures are introduced by Taiwanese textbooks. Moreover, Taiwanese textbooks introduced more of their local musicians than Hong Kong ones .Both Hong Kong and Taiwanese textbooks little mentioned about musicians from Other cultures .
Musicians who are introduced by all four sets of textbooks are commonly from the Romantic period or the Contemporary period . Specifically, a higher percentage of contemporary musicians are introduced by Taiwanese textbooks .
Hong Kong focuses on Western music so that a lot of composers of Western music are introduced. Conversely, Taiwan focuses on her local music and therefore a lot of Chinese (Taiwanese) composers, especially those in the contemporary period, are introduced by Taiwanese textbooks
The previous sections mentioned critically what extent and nature of different cultures affect the music textbooks from Hong Kong and Taiwanese secondary schools through examining the songs, repertoires of music appreciation and introduced musicians.
Textbooks from Hong Kong seems to introduce and are influenced much by Western cultures. On the other hand, those from Taiwan strongly emphasize her local culture and also on Chinese cultures as a whole. In addition, textbooks from both places are not keen on introducing Other cultures.
Why does this phenomenon show in music curricula and is reflected in those textbooks?
( IV ) Stage of Comparison the cultural content from each textbook set is compared and contrasted. Attempt to answer the question raised in the previous section by rotation and fusion.
A Comparison of Cultural Contents from Music Textbooks in Hong Kong and Taiwan
In a comparison with Taiwan, the cultural content of Hong Kong textbooks mainly comes from the Western world. The nature and extent of cultural content can be seen to reflect the culture of present society. The Western cultural content in textbooks seems to give an image that Hong Kong is more ‘international’. But this is vague and wrong!
The Western cultural content mainly comes from several Western countries, for example, the USA and Britain This condition is similar to a local scholar who cited this decision as a British conspiracy imposing an outdated British model of education on the future of Hong Kong SAR for the purpose of extending British influence until 2047 (Leung 1996: 269).
In addition, since Hong Kong only pays attention to a few Western countries, how can it be said that Hong Kong is a truly cosmopolitan city (fusion of cultures) and is a place to promote international understanding and respectfulness of different cultures ?
The low tendencies for the Hong Kong publishers to introduce Chinese cultures and even more so, the extremely low tendencies to introduce local Hong Kong cultures may make one to believe that Hong Kong people are not proud of their Chinese cultural heritage and their cultural identity is ambiguous. This is in opposition to what the Hong Kong Government wishes to promote. The Governmenttries to revise the content of the curricula in order to encourage pupils to understand and appreciate their Chinese cultural heritage, as well as the working of the political and economic system in the PRC Now, insufficient emphasis is put on developing the pupil’s identification with and pride in Chinese cultures.
