Live up to policies: An Interdisciplinary perspective in the study of Chinese music

The Hong Kong government’s recent education policy concentrates on the cultivation of highly versatile people with a broad knowledge base, and nurturing all-round development through general education and cross-disciplinary studies. In terms of music education, the concern is on contextual understanding in music and development of creativity and imagination. This aim of this paper is to demonstrate how to incorporate cultural context in the study of Chinese music. The study focuses on a number of experimental projects initiated by the author: an interdisciplinary co-curricular school project; the writing of a choral work based on an ancient Chinese narrative poem; a performance in multi-art format emphasizing Chinese historical context; and the publication of a book which covers the understanding of Chinese poetry and its music. These projects highlight an integrated approach in experiencing music through various aspects and perspectives. They serve as examples for possible applications in music education utilizing an interdisciplinary study of music via performance, contextual understanding and creativity. Copyright © 2010 Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne, Australia.