7 February
15:15–15:45 Min-Erh Wang: “Music as propaganda: The reception of Pablo Casals in Japan and the Sinophone World during the Cold War”
Pablo Casals (1876–1973) is generally understood as one of the most influential musicians and a musical humanitarian of the twentieth century. However, this understanding ignores that the Cold War ideologies, such as humanitarianism, communism, and anti-communism, have played a very crucial role in the construction of Casals’ reputation in the English language literature as well as the reception of this musical figure in Japan and the Sinophone world.
Stemming from the image constructed in the English literature, Japanese critics attempted to articulate their own way of appreciating Casals’ legacies by evaluating his cello performance and re-interpreting his presence in Japan to confirm his image as a humanitarian. The ideology of humanitarianism was also imported into Taiwan. Yet, within the context of a series of diplomatic failures in the 1970s, Casals’ humanitarian efforts were interpreted as an anti-communist to comply with the protocol of the nationalist government. In contrast with his reception in Japan and Taiwan, the image of Casals’ humanitarianism was adapted to a leftist musician in communist China. Political labels, such as ‘people’s artist’, and ‘people’s character of art’ were used to introduce Casals to a Chinese readership. The reception of Casals in Hong Kong offers another point of reference to reveal how the introduction of Casals was politicized in Japan, Taiwan, and China. Compared with those three countries, the perception of Casals was quite superficial since the Hong Kong government avoided promoting a certain ideology through music. The case of Hong Kong, therefore, is counterevidence that the introduction of Casals in these places was not only a musical but also a political event. By scrutinising the reception of Casals in Japan, Taiwan, China, and Hong Kong, this paper demonstrates that how Western art music was used for political propaganda during the Cold War.
Min-Erh Wang holds a DPhil in Music from the University of Oxford, where his research focused on East Asia’s responses to Western art music in the 20th century. His doctoral project examined the reception of Western music in Japan, Taiwan, China, and Hong Kong, exploring themes of colonialism, Cold War ideologies, and capitalism, with a case study on Spanish cellist Pablo Casals. Min-Erh co-founded the ‘Colonial Ports and Global History’ research network and organised conferences on colonial ports and global history. His work received funding from the China Centre, Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies, and St Catherine’s College, Oxford.