“Making foreign things serve China:” Dynamics of Westernisation and Indigenisation in Contemporary Chinese Piano Pedagogy

This thesis sets out to develop a critical discussion of some issues in contemporary Chinese piano pedagogy arising from the Western origins of the piano and its pedagogical tradition, and their reception and adaptation in contemporary China, set against the wider historical background of colonialism and post-colonialism. These discussions of pedagogical issues are built upon the realistic situation of Chinese piano education from the late twentieth century to the present day. My discussion of piano pedagogy is informed primarily by two complementary strands of research: first, analysing the teaching materials that are commonly used in piano lessons, including Western and Chinese examples; and second, interviewing some Chinese piano teachers and observing their piano lessons to understand the real practice of Chinese piano lessons. Two broad themes arise from my findings. First, I observe the cultural dissonances existing in the use of Western teaching materials in Chinese piano lessons, which may cause unexpected and uncomfortable results when used by Chinese learners. I have also found several significant differences in how those teaching materials are used in university piano lessons as opposed to the private piano studios. Second, I critically evaluate the debate over the indigenisation of the piano in China, its self-claimed achievements and principles, and consider how the discourse of indigenisation, and its fruits in terms of new “Chinese” repertoire and learning materials, is understood and used (or not used) by real Chinese piano teachers, both in the private studio and in higher education.