All Around Asia
Music and Culture Across the Diaspora by Vivian Hoang By definition, I am a second-generation Vietnamese immigrant. Internationally, however, I can’t help but feel disingenuous donning this title, as I grew up estranged from my own culture. Though my parents were traditional in certain ways —”No shoes in the house!” “No dating until marriage!”— they fully subscribed to assimilationist narratives of proximity of whiteness, fostering upward mobility. Thus, it felt it would be best to not pass on Vietnamese cultural knowledge to my brother and I. Because I grew up in a household devoid of culture in the traditional sense, I was always curious about how other people were able to forge connections to their cultures and to what extent. I especially wanted to examine culture through the lens of music as music has played an instrumental role in shaping my identity and growth as a person but less from a cultural standpoint. I wondered: how has music factored into my peers’ cultural journeys? For Andrew Chen ‘24, music plays a surprisingly minimal role in the closeness he feels with Chinese culture. “I don’t listen to Chinese music at all,” Chen said. “I personally just never really liked it that much because it’s so hard to sing it and still have the syllables be really clear.” Instead, Chen’s traditional upbringing in China allows him to carry the culture with him in everyday life without needing external practices — besides celebrating major holidays — to maintain this implicit connection. “I don’t think I do much, and I think one of the reasons I don’t feel the need to do much is because I was from [China],” Chen
said. “So it’s like, I know what my identity is. And I don’t need to almost, like, prove it sometimes, so it’s okay with me to only celebrate the really important days.” However, Chen still acknowledged the formative influence of music on Chinese culture at large, especially during the celebration of Lunar Festival, which Chen fondly named as his favorite aspect of Chinese culture. “I think music is definitely a big part of Chinese history and culture. You know, we have different instruments, and that’s something that not a lot of different Asian countries have. You know, we made the guzheng,” Chen said, referencing an ancient Chinese plucked string instrument. “And on the big festive days, like Lunar Festival, people will play them. There’s this really big show every year that everybody watches when Lunar Festival comes around, and they always have some traditional instrument performances. So music is a really important way for Chinese folks to connect with their culture.”
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