Where East Meets West: An Exhibition of Mid-20th Century Cantonese Musical Instruments in Vancouver

Where East meets West

Indonesian gamelan, African mbira… Cantonese music – what do these all have in common? — Find out at Where East Meets West: An Exhibition of Mid-20th Century Cantonese Musical Instruments in Vancouver. The exhibition showcases a collection of Chinese musical instruments from the Chinese Cultural Centre and the UBC Asian Library’s Henry Lok-Tin Lee Collections, used in Vancouver’s Chinatown during the 1950s and 60s.

It is a somewhat unknown fact that Cantonese music is a relatively new phenomenon, derived from regional styles approximately a century and a half ago. Cantonese people are known for their receptiveness and adaptability to new ideas, evident in their use of hybrid instruments, such as modified guitars and banjos, castanet-like percussions, and in fact, xylophones tuned according to Cantonese musical modes, which are all featured as part of the exhibit. — Imagine these cultural influences and interactions, carried along by early Chinese migrants in search of the “Gold Mountain,” slowly unfolding in Vancouver’s Chinatown under the backdrop of post-war prosperities, where the East meets with the West in novel yet subtle ways…

XylophoneCo-organizers: 
Asian Library, University of British Columbia
Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Vancouver
B.C. Chinese Music Association

Date: November 15 – December 16, 2012

Place: Chinese Cultural Centre Museum (555 Columbia Street, Vancouver)

Time: Tuesday – Sunday, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. (closed on Mondays and holidays)

Admission: $3/adult, $2/senior or student, free for CCC members and children under six (Tuesdays by donation)

Opening Reception and Live Performance (B.C. Chinese Music Association)
Saturday, November 17, 2:00 p.m.

Musical Demonstration (B.C. Chinese Music Association) &
Interactive Workshop: Intra-lingual: A Tale of Cantonese Music
(Presenter: Alan Lau, Exhibition Curator)
Saturday, December 1, 2:00 p.m.

For exhibition poster, visit here.

For news about this exhibition in Chinese, please visit:
Ming Pao | Sing Tao Daily | World Journal

Post Comment

a place of mind, The University of British Columbia

Emergency Procedures | Accessibility | Contact UBC  | © Copyright The University of British Columbia