Creativity in Chinese music: How does it exist and confront with the globalization trend?

Globalization in the field of music composition emerged in 19th century when Nationalism in music arose in Europe. As a result, Chinese music has been ‘modernized’ by absorbing Western practice and philosophy in music since 20th century. Chinese ethnic music, by nature, was transmitted with an oral tradition in which learning by imitation and memorization was adopted. This practice enriches the live of music by leaving ample space for the performer to ‘re-compose’ the piece. Creativity of traditional Chinese music, thus, exists when performers have internalized the pieces and make new innovation in their own performances. In such practice the function of notation in Chinese music was limited to retain the specific piece. This presentation argues that creativity of Chinese music may exist when notation does not include details which provide space for performers to imagine, innovate and recreate. It may imply that oral tradition of ethnic music is an effective approach to nurture music creativity. Globalization in music may lead to extinction of ethnic music which is detrimental to the development of music creativity. Every effort should therefore be made to reserve the ethnic music.