Henry Luce Foundation Grant and the Japanese Studies and Ethnomusicology Departments Presents
Annual Focus Fukushima Luce Foundation Lecture: Sounding Against Nuclear Power in post-3.11 Japan
Monday, February 22, 2016
Reem-Kayden Center Laszlo Z. Bito '60 Auditorium
6:15 pm EST/GMT-5
6:15 pm EST/GMT-5
Resonances of Silence and Chindon-ya
Speaker: Marié Abe (Assistant Professor of Music, Boston University)In April 2011—one month after the devastating M9.0 earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent crises at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in northeast Japan—a large antinuclear demonstration took over the streets of Tokyo. 15,000 participants, including concerned mothers, environmentalists, and unemployed youth, were led by the raucous sound of chindon-ya, a Japanese practice of musical advertisement. Dating back to the late 1800s, chindon-ya are musical troupes that publicize business by marching through the streets. Professor Abe will explore how this erstwhile commercial practice became a sonic marker of a mass social movement in spring 2011, paying attention to the affective principles that inform chindon-ya performance by considering their role in the anti-nuclear protests in a time characterized by the precariousness of economic and social life in contemporary Japan. When the public display of merriment was discouraged by the socially mandated silence in the name of national mourning, who were these musicians who chose to sound out festively against the government’s energy policies and its much-criticized reactions to the disasters?
For more information, call 845-758-6822, or e-mail [email protected].
Time: 6:15 pm EST/GMT-5
Location: Reem-Kayden Center Laszlo Z. Bito '60 Auditorium