Censored Harmonies

Chinese 'floating' migrants are a marginalized group of rural-to-urban migrants in Chinese cities. Their musical culture - about which little is known so far - reflects the tensions, contradictions, and conflicts inherent in this domestic labor migration. Kai Tang turns her focus to this largely underrepresented and understudied group and offers new perspectives on contemporary Chinese music and the roles of music in migratory processes. Her work contributes to the ethnomusicological study of minorities by revealing socio-political forces, compromises, restrictions, and agencies underlying musical representations of disadvantaged experiences.