Challenging Stereotypes Against Asians in Performances and Films
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is set to host a one-day symposium on October 29, 20XX, focusing on Asian representations in popular and artistic media. The event, organised by the Center for Musical Humanities at The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, aims to explore and challenge stereotypes and orientalist representations.
The symposium will feature a keynote address by Donatella Galella, who will discuss the musical Soft Power and its challenge to orientalist representations. Galella will also address the potential misunderstandings of satire in musical comedy and how proper pedagogy can avoid re-inscribing the things being satirized.
A highlight of the symposium will be a performance by drag performer Lea de la Orienté, who will delve into the satirical treatment of negative Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) stereotypes. De la Orienté's performance will incorporate chinoiserie porcelain imagery, emphasising the importance of Asian American representation.
The symposium will also include sessions looking at specific cultural representations, such as the native songs of the Marshall Islands, which have been preserved and championed by the Marshallese Educational Initiative. The symposium is part of a larger project by the Center for Musical Humanities, and is followed by a reception.
The roundtable discussion will bring together scholars from multiple disciplines, including theater performance, anthropology, American studies, and ethnomusicology. Participants will discuss how they approach the representation and embodiment of AAPI in their classroom, emphasising the importance of teaching and performance in connection with critical scholarship.
This fall, the Center for Musical Humanities has hosted two events focusing on Asian representations and musical production. The Hear + Viet + Film symposium, which took place on October 21 & 22, aimed to understand music and film in Vietnam and the Vietnamese diaspora. For more information about events at UCLA related to Asian studies or media representations, it's best to contact UCLA directly or check their official website for event listings and descriptions.
Attendees of the symposium at UCLA may find it insightful to consider how the exploration of Asian representations in popular and artistic media can extend beyond the context of music, influencing other aspects of society such as lifestyle and education-and-self-development. In particular, the roundtable discussion featuring scholars from various disciplines will underscore the importance of critical reevaluation and self-aware pedagogy when addressing and embodying Asian American representations in their teaching and performance.
