Until recently, most scholarly work on Chinese music in both Chinese and Western languages has focused on genres, musical structure, and general history and concepts, rather than on the musicians themselves. This volume breaks new ground by focusing on individual musicians active in different amateur and professional music scenes in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Chinese communities in Europe. Using biography to deepen understanding of Chinese music, contributors present contextualized portraits of rural folk singers, urban opera singers, literati, and musicians on both geographic and cultural frontiers. Contributors are Nimrod Baranovitch, Rachel Harris, Frank Kouwenhoven, Tong Soon Lee, Peter Micic, Helen Rees, Antoinet Schimmelpenninck, Shao Binsun, Jonathan P. J. Stock, and Bell Yung.| Contents Acknowledgments 1. Intersections 2. Making Space 3. Power, Place, and Prejudice 4. "Listen Not to a Stranger" 5. "To Hold in Check Outside Influences" 6. "The Out-Post of Civilization" 7. "Dead and Dying in the Sagebrush" 8. Transformations Notes Selected Bibliography Index | "Reeve's research into the diaries, memoirs, letters, newspaper accounts, government and court records, oral traditions, and ethnography is truly impressive, as is his handling of a vast but scattered secondary literature that crosses several topical fields . . . and research disciplines. . . . This is an important book that deserves wide readership and discussion, both for the history it uncovers and for the engaging scholarly model it presents."—Ethnohistory
"Well written and impressively researched, Making Space on the Western Frontier is recommended as an excellent study in microcosm of the forces that shaped western history in the post-Civil War era. Historians and students alike will benefit from this excellent monograph.—New Mexico Historical Review
"Reeve has furthered frontier studies by expanding beyond single group history to analyze complex, three-party interactions. The book should provide a compelling model for future research."—Western Historical Quarterly
|W. Paul Reeve is an assistant professor of history at the University of Utah.