Continuing the Fulbright Speakers’ Series: The World Beyond a Book, Fulbright University Vietnam cordially invites you to join the virtual talk with Dr. Alexander M. Cannon on his soon-to-be-published book “Seeding the Tradition: Musical Creativity in Southern Vietnam”.
Creativity or creation (sáng tạo) occupies an increasingly important place in the Vietnamese public sphere. Creativity even appeared as one of the four major themes of the 13th National Party Congress—a move that emerged after several years of intensifying engagement with the power of the concept. Despite its prevalence, however, creativity and sáng tạo have occasionally divergent meanings and usages. Some of these usages are long-standing in Vietnam and reflect certain Daoist aesthetics; others mirror neoliberal understandings of a global creativity. Traditional music practice in Vietnam offers an opportune way to parse and evaluate these divergent meanings and make them more tangible and understandable. In this upcoming talk, Dr. Alexander M. Cannon will draw on material from his monograph “Seeding the Tradition: Musical Creativity in Southern Vietnam” and draw on examples of private and televised performances of đờn ca tài tử, a music for diversion in southern Vietnam, to present this argument.
Join Fulbright in this exciting discussion with Dr. Alexander M. Cannon!
⏰Time: 8:00 – 9:30 PM on Thursday, April 7, 2022 (Vietnam time, GMT +7)
👉 Register at: https://bit.ly/FSSDrAlexanderMCannon
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Fulbright Speakers’ Series is a quest for knowledge and understanding with diverse incisive viewpoints of prominent authors, both in Vietnam and globally, venturing into a myriad of topics ranging from development history and current Vietnam in the context of globalization, to the importance of mental health in being a compassionate community member.
About the speaker:
Dr. Alexander M. Cannon is an ethnomusicologist with research expertise in Vietnamese music and creativity studies. He holds a BA in music and mathematical economics from Pomona College and a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from the University of Michigan. He currently is Associate Professor of Music at the University of Birmingham and serves as Co-Editor of the journal Ethnomusicology Forum. Drawing from research on southern Vietnamese đờn ca tài tử (music for diversion) and studies of the đàn tranh (zither) and đàn sến (lute), he has published on genre, musical creativity, and practices of the Vietnamese diaspora in the Journal of Vietnamese Studies, Ethnomusicology, Ethnomusicology Forum, and Asian Music. He expands this work in a new monograph titled Seeding the Tradition: Musical Creativity in Southern Vietnam (Wesleyan University Press, 2022).
