Photo by Bob Williams

 

BIOGRAPHY:

Lei X. Ouyang, she/her, (Ph.D. and M.A. in Ethnomusicology, University of Pittsburgh; B.A. in East Asian Studies, Macalester College) is Associate Professor of Music at Swarthmore College. Her scholarly interests are in music, culture, and performance in East Asia (primarily China, Japan, and Taiwan) and Asian America. Her research examines issues of music and memory, identity, politics, race and ethnicity, and social justice. Research projects include music and memory in the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Race and Performance in Asian American musical theatre, and social justice and taiko drumming in the American Midwest. Lei previously taught at Skidmore College (2006-2017) as Associate Professor of Music, at Macalester College (2004-2006) as a Consortium for Faculty Diversity Postdoctoral Fellow, and at National Taiwan University's Graduate Institute of Musicology (Spring 2021) as a Visiting Associate Professor. You can find her CV and published work at academia.edu.

RESEARCH AND TEACHING INTERESTS:

Chinese Cultural Revolution, Taiko drumming, music and intersections with topics including memory, politics, race, ethnicity, social identities, and social justice.

COURSES:

Music & Dance Cultures of the World

Music and Culture in East Asia

Music, Race, and Class

Music & Chairman Mao: Music & Politics in Communist China

Music & the Battle between Good & Evil

Ethnomusicology (Seminar)

Chinese Cultural Revolution Culture

Taiko & Asian American Experiences

 

ENSEMBLE:

Chinese Music Ensemble

 

PUBLICATIONS

 

MONOGRAPH

 

2022. Music as Mao’s Weapon: Remembering the Cultural Revolution, University of Illinois Press.

 

 

PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLES

 

2024. "'Systems are Changeable'" Reading Moments through Movements." Ethnomusicology 68(2): 325-347.

 

2024. "MuDaiko: Taiko Drumming between East and West." MUSICultures 51: pages tbd.

 

2018. “Teaching Mao through Music: Pedagogy and Practice in the Liberal Arts Classroom.” Journal of Music History Pedagogy 8(2): 30-61.

 

2018. “‘Itsy Bitsy Screw Cap’: Children’s Songs from the Chinese Cultural Revolution.” Journal of Music & Politics 12(1).

 

2009. “Performing Race and Place in Asian America.” Asian Music 40(1): 4-30.

 

2007. “Flowers on the Battlefield are More Fragrant.” Asian Music 38(1): 88-121.

 

2005. “Music, Memory, and Nostalgia: Collective Memories of Cultural Revolution Songs in Contemporary China.” The China Review 5(2): 151-175.

 

TEXTBOOK CHAPTERS

 

2021. “Music of China and Taiwan” in Excursions in World Music, Eighth Edition, Edited by Timothy Rommen, 94-129. New York, NY: Routledge.

 

2021. “Music and Memory” in Critical Themes in World Music: A Reader for Excursions in World Music, Eighth Edition, edited by Timothy Rommen, 85-92. New York, NY: Routledge.

 

SOLICITED REVIEWS

 

2024. Review of Un/Daunted: Into the Open by Raging Asian Womxn Taiko Drummers [film]. Ethnomusicology 68(1): 170-172.

 

2018. Review of Chinatown Opera Theater in North America by Nancy Yunhwa Rao. MUSICultures 45(1-2): 274-276. [solicited]

 

2012. Review of Angry Drummers, A Taiko Group from Osaka, Japan [DVD], directed by Yoshitaka Terada. Ethnomusicology 56(3): 569-571. [solicited]

 

2009. Review of Lives in Chinese Music, edited by Helen Rees. The World of Music 52(1): 174- 176. [solicited]

 

AWARDS

Music & Social Justice Paper Prize, Crossroads Project [SEM] (2023)

Deborah Wong Research & Publication Award, Society for Ethnomusicology (2018)

President’s Award, Skidmore College (2015)

 

GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS

Andrew W. Mellon Periclean Faculty Leadership Fellow (2021-2022)

Arthur Vining Davis Civic Engagement Fellow (2012-2014)

Association for Asian Studies China and Inner Asia Council Small Grant (2010-2011)

Andrew Mellon Pre-Doctoral Fellowship (2002-2004)

Dissertation Research Fellowship, Asian Cultural Council (2002)

Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship [Japanese] (2000)

Research Grant, Japan American Society of Pittsburgh (2000)

Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship [Chinese] (1999-2000)

 

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM)

2018-2020     Second Vice-President

2016-2017     2017 SEM Program Committee Chair

2013-2014     Council Secretary (& Council Nominating Committee Chair)

2012-2014     Council Member

 

Association for Chinese Music Research (ACMR)

2012-2015     President

2007-2010     Publications Editor

2005-2010     Member-at-large & Newsletter Editor

 

Society for Asian Music

2011-2016     Editorial Advisory Board (East Asia)

 

Crossroads Project on Diversity, Difference, and Under-representation (SEM Standing Committee)

2008-2010     Co-Chair

 

Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the Society for Ethnomusicology (MACSEM)

2019               Local Arrangements Committee Chair, Annual Meeting

1999-2001     Secretary

 

EDUCATION:

 

Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 2004 (Dissertation: 'New Songs of the Battlefield': Songs and Memories of the Chinese Cultural Revolution)

 

 

M.A. in Ethnomusicology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 2001 (Thesis: A Musical Metaphor for Nation Building: The Folk Song "Esashi Oiwake" in Early Twentieth Century Japan)

 

 

Advanced Certificate in Asian Studies, Language concentration: Chinese, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 2001

 

 

B.A. in East Asian Studies, Language concentration: Japanese, Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota, 1997 (Thesis: Popular Music of Taiwan and Japan)

 

RECENT PROJECTS AND EVENTS:

 

Book Launch and Discussion: Abe, Ayyagari, Hopkins, Ouyang & Wong

 

Presser Foundation: Advancement of Music Committee

 

UC Davis Valente Lecture

 

Swarthmore College Lang Center Engaged Humanities Studio Fellow

 

Asian Arts Initative: Radio AAI

 

Li Delun in Philadelphia: Ethnography, Archives, and Music Across the Pacific