EASC Holds Inaugural Teaching East Asian Music in the Elementary Classroom Workshop
The summer of 2003 marked an exciting beginning for the East Asian Studies Center, with the inaugural "Teaching East Asian Music in the Elementary Classroom Workshop" which was held July 28 through 31. After successfully hosting a "Teaching East Asian Literature in the High School" workshop for several years, the Center decided to spread its outreach focus to music teachers.
In all, there were twelve participants from Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and Illinois. Participants included elementary music teachers, and music outreach personnel from the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and other institutions. The Indiana Department of Education Arts Curriculum Coordinator, Sarah Fronczak, and International Education Curriculum Coordinator, Kristin Hoyt-Oukada, also attended the workshop.
The series of lectures covered two and a half days. Dr. Kuo-Huang Han from Northern Illinois University, author of The Lion's Roar, began by introducing Chinese culture and music to the participants. He taught them several percussion pieces which could be adapted to any classroom. Dr. Han also created a Chinese music ensemble, teaching all of the participants how to play traditional Chinese instruments and, in less than 48 hours, preparing them to perform at a concert on the final night of the workshop.
The second lecture session was led by 
Dr. Hilary Finchum-Sung, a recent Indiana University Ethnomusicology Ph.D. graduate. After explaining the history of Korean music, Dr. Finchum-Sung taught participants how to sing and accompany several Korean pieces. Again, the focus of her presentation was on how to incorporate Korean music into the classroom, regardless of the availability of traditional Korean instruments.
Dr. Anne Prescott, Outreach Coordinator for the East Asian Studies Center, Japanese music scholar, and organizer of the workshop led the third lecture session. Her lecture was focused on giving participants a brief but complete view of the history of Japanese music. She ended her session by teaching participants a well-known Japanese dance called bon-odori. The weather was perfect as the participants waved Japanese fans and danced in a circle around the Indiana Memorial Union courtyard.
In all three of these sessions, participants learned how to read the music notation systems in traditional Chinese, Japanese and Korean pieces. They were given hands-on experience with instruments from the three cultures and taught how to sing songs in the languages of those cultures. Most importantly, participants were given ideas on adapting the music of these cultures to the Western classroom, using instruments such as recorders and old snare drums.
The final session of the workshop, led by Dr. Terese Volk of Wayne State University and author of Music Education and Multiculturalism, provided an opportunity for participants to synthesize information and to begin to think in greater detail about how East Asian music could be incorporated into their classrooms. Not only 
were participants able to draw from the knowledge they had received over the previous two days, they were also able to refer to a wide variety of CD's and books that they received.
The workshop culminated in a concert held on the I.U. Bloomington campus and open to the public. The concert featured performances of traditional Chinese music by the workshop participants, led by Dr. Han; a Korean samulnori group with members Rani Park, Jin-Sob Choi, Min-Jung Choi, and Min-Ae Choi; Japanese minyo (folk music) sung by Molly Jeon and a performance on the Japanese koto by Dr. Prescott. Written by Susan Furukawa
Tears of Longing: Nostalgia and the Nation in Japanese Popular Song, Christine R. Yano, Harvard University Press, 2002
No one who has heard Christine Yano speak at a conference or read some of her other writings will be surprised to learn that this book focusing on enka is carefully researched and skillfully written. Yano's interviews with enka singers, composers and fans, along with her extensive scholarly research, serve to create a complete picture of this style of music. "These songs have been infused with the aura of national culture"(p. 148). Yano examines the "invention" of enka, the recording industry, how enka is presented on stage, the role of kata in enka, and how enka embodies the spirit, morals and virtue of all that is Japanese. The narrative of her participation in the activities of one fan club put a human face and heart on the history, statistics, and scholarly analysis of this expression of furusato and Japaneseness. Regardless of the reader's feelings about enka, this book is interesting and reveals much about the Japanese psyche and its musical expression. Review by Anne Prescott
Last updated: 10/10/2003
URL: http://www.indiana.edu/~easc/newsletter/
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