Dorga dao (Singing our own songs): How kam village singers negotiate creative and collaborative possibilities in the performance of Kam songs | Catherine Ingram

Summary: Collaborations: creative partnerships in music | Catherine Ingram <strong><em>Dor ga dao</em> (Singing our own songs): How kam village singers negotiate creative and collaborative possibilities in the performance of Kam songs</strong> In contemporary China, creativity and collaboration involving Kam minority villagers, professional musicians (both Kam and non-Kam) and state officials has enabled Kam songs to be performed by Kam singers in increasingly varied staged performance contexts. These performances feature Kam songs derived from or based upon various traditional genres. They include small staged song performances in Kam tourist villages, local performances for visiting reporters and officials, performances in high-profile singing competitions and massed choral performances of 10,000 singers that are broadcast on national television. Such performances confer economic, cultural and symbolic capital upon the Kam villagers who participate, and also have financial and political benefits for the various state actors who are involved. They arise through the negotiation of traditional music, “traditional” and “contemporary” forms of artistic creativity, and a structure of collaboration that is directly framed by the political situation. This paper draws upon some twenty months’ musical ethnographic research in rural Kam areas (during 2004-2008) to examine the kinds of creative and collaborative possibilities accessible to Kam village singers in their staged song performances, and how these are negotiated. It concludes by illustrating how the creativity and collaboration that has become permissible in staged performances is indirectly providing important enrichment of village singing traditions. Catherine Ingram is a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne, in the Department of Ethnomusicology and the Melbourne Asia Institute. Her research concerns the contemporary significance of the unique Kam “big song” genre, and is based upon more than twenty months’ fieldwork in Kam villages in southwestern China. She has been invited to participate in a wide range of Kam song performances, and has also lectured on various aspects of musical ethnographic research, Chinese music, and minority performing arts in China.