A History of Modern and Contemporary Music in China (Second Revised Edition)

Author: Wang Yuhe (Compiler)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-04-01
Features: This book has been used as a teaching material at the Central Conservatory of Music since 1959. In 1964, it was published under the name "Teaching Material of the Central Conservatory of Music" and distributed internally. In 1984, it was officially published by the People's Music Publishing House. It has now been nearly three decades. Over this considerable period, although it has undergone several revisions and reprints, it has become necessary to conduct a comprehensive revision and enrichment due to the deepening research efforts in the field of music history and the new accumulations gained from long-term teaching and research. The revision of this book can be summarized in the following aspects:
1. The discussions on the division of modern Chinese history in recent years by historians have provided many insights.
2. In the past, due to the limitations of my knowledge and other objective reasons, the original book had a somewhat superficial treatment of topics such as "The Introduction of Western Music" and "Music in the Occupied Areas during the 1930s and 1940s." Additionally, the evaluations of some representative musicians were insufficient. This revision has provided necessary and focused supplements in these areas.
3. Some colleagues have pointed out that the evaluation of certain historical phenomena and figures in the original book was too directly linked to politics, making the commentary inevitably one-sided and overly simplistic. In this revision, I have taken these suggestions into account and made corrections wherever possible.
4. The chapter structure and format of the original book have not been significantly altered.
During the revision process of this book, I referred to a large number of new research achievements in the field of Chinese music history over the past decade. It can be said that without the emergence of these new achievements and the overall development and improvement of the discipline, it would have been difficult to complete this comprehensive revision.