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Summary:

"A product of twenty-five years of archival and primary research, Sounding Our Way Home: Japanese American Musicking and the Politics of Identity narrates the efforts of three generations of Japanese Americans to reach "home" through musicking. Using ethnomusicology as a lens, Susan Miyo Asai examines the musical choices of a population that, historically, is considered outside the racial and ethnic boundaries of American citizenship. Emphasizing the notion of national identity and belonging, the volume provokes a discussion about the challenges of nation-building in a democratic society. Asai addresses the politics of music, interrogating the ways musicking functions as a performance of social, cultural, and political identification for Japanese Americans in the United States. Musicking is an inherently political act at the intersection of music, identity, and politics, particularly if it involves expressing one's ethnicity and/or race. Asai further investigates how Japanese American ethnic identification and cultural practices relate to national belonging. Musicking cultivates a narrative of a shared history and aesthetic between performers and listeners. The discourse situates not only Japanese Americans, but all Asians into the black/white binary of race relations in the United States. Sounding Our Way Home contributes to the ongoing struggle for acceptance and equal representation for people of color in the US. A history of Japanese American musicking across three generations, the book unveils the social and political discrimination that nonwhite immigrants and their offspring continue to face when it comes to finding acceptance in US society and culture"-- [Book cover]

Table of Contents:

• Preface
• The nexus of music, identity, and politics
• Dual identities : Japanese immigrant community, identity, and music
• Caught on the cultural cusp : Nisei politics of identity and music
• "Buddhahead blues" : Musical communities in the US concentration camps of World War II
• Sansei : The political advocacy of music and turn toward the East
• Epilogue : The promise of interracial music coalitions.

Author/Creator:

Asai, Susan Miyo, 1952- , author

Languages:

English

Language Notes:

Item content: English

Main Work:

Sounding our way home: Japanese American musicking and the politics of identity [by Asai, S.M.]

Subjects:

Japanese Americans — Music — History and criticism

Music — Political aspects — United States

Music and identity politics — United States

Music — Social aspects — United States

Japanese Americans — Social conditions

Japanese Americans — Ethnic identity

Acculturation — United States

United States — Ethnic relations

United States — Race relations

General Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 303-314) and index.

Physical Description:

xvi, 328 pages : black and white illustrations ; 24 cm

Call Numbers:

ML3917.U6 A73 2024

ISBNs:

9781496847645 (paperback)
1496847644 (paperback)
9781496847638 (hardback) [Invalid]

OCLC Numbers:

1378358117