David Chu, a Western PhD student in musicology, sees Canada at the precipice of a new wave of global influence as it diverges from economic integration with the U.S.
“We’re living in a very Canadian moment these days,” he said.
Key to exerting a redefined role on the world stage, he believes, is integrating more perspectives from Canada’s diverse populations, including the nearly 20 per cent with Asian heritage, into the country’s shared understanding of history and culture.
As a musician raised in mainland China and schooled in musicology at British universities, Chu is taking this approach as he crafts his PhD dissertation at Western. He will bring new insights into the Cold War by linking seemingly insignificant musical occurrences in Asia to Cold War politics, revealing their outsized influence.
“I’m curious to see what the Cold War can still tell us about Asian musicians, whether they’re in Asia or the American continent, and about the understanding of culture and conflicts of ideology,” he said.
Cold War music as cultural diplomacy
Chu and his PhD supervisor, music history professor Emily Abrams Ansari, share a scholarly passion for a prominent figure in Cold War cultural diplomacy, Leonard Bernstein. The iconic American musician and composer popularized classical music through his Young People’s Concerts with the New York Philharmonic and his landmark musical West Side Story.
Composer, conductor and educator Leonard Bernstein played a key role in Cold War cultural diplomacy, particularly after his 1959 concert tour with the New York Philharmonic through Europe and the Soviet Union. (Leonard Bernstein Office/Facebook)
Despite Bernstein’s activism in progressive politics, he wanted audiences to appreciate music from a non-political perspective.
“Bernstein argued that music has only musical meaning and political powers shouldn’t define it for their own ideological gains. But that view in itself is a political stance, so I’m bringing in politics to better understand music,” Chu said.
His research underscores China’s critical role in a “Cold War tripod” that tipped the balance of power by neutralizing Soviet influence, ultimately strengthening the U.S.
China’s influence is understudied, Chu says, despite its effects lingering to this day.
“I don’t think the Cold War ever ended in Asia. The industrialization of Asia in the 20th century has been engulfed by Cold War ideology, leading to China’s current rivalry with its Asian neighbours and the U.S.,” he said.
Using case studies including Bernstein’s attempt to become a cultural power broker in China and the political mutations of a Japanese folk song, Chu is interpreting their significance through the experiences of Asian people.
“I got hooked by this admittedly non-Asian thing with a very Asian perspective. I’m really interested in understanding if art and culture can bridge the gaps in our current turbulent times.”
– David Chu, Western PhD student in musicology
Cold War music crosses borders and ideologies
Chu is intrigued by how music can help shape or even transcend political ideology, a phenomenon he observes in the post-war Japanese folk song Never Again the A-Bomb.
“It’s not composed in the Japanese folk style. It actually has Soviet influences, and when it was written, Japan was just coming out of U.S. occupation. The government did not like social dissent, and yet the song survived.”
The Japanese folk song “Genbaku O Yurusumagi”, known in English as “Never Again the A-bomb”, was created in 1954 with lyrics by (L to R) Ishiji Asada and music by Koji Kinoshita as a poignant reminder of the devastating consequences of nuclear weapons. (Ayumi Shuppan)
Chu is looking at the song’s political mutations as it reached wider audiences who infused it with new meanings. The lyrics evoke the suffering and loss in Japanese cities devastated by atomic bombs. The song spread into Eastern Europe and was later translated to English and adopted by activists in the U.K. as an anthem for nuclear disarmament. The song reappeared in Japan recently with a paradoxical twist, Chu said.
“A Japanese alt-right party used the song to promote the notion that Japan needs to be a military power again,” he said. “The song fundamentally transformed because of the Cold War simmering in the background all along.”
Chu’s research looks at how music can quietly wield power that political entities can’t necessarily control. He’s also looking at the flip side – the limits of music’s power, even for a boundary-breaking musician like Bernstein.
Lessons for Canada’s global moment
During his watershed trip to the Soviet Union in 1959, Bernstein gave a pre-concert speech reflecting on the similarities between the American and Soviet people, much to the dismay of some U.S. officials. Despite his success as a cultural ambassador there and beyond, he never realized his dream of making a similar trip to China before his death in 1990. Chu said Bernstein didn’t recognize that certain aspects of his musical persona would be perceived as subversive in China.
“He underestimated the frictions in a society scarred by the decade-long Cultural Revolution,” Chu said.
“Music has this magical power to breach ideological divides in unexpected ways. But all its magic can fade away without understanding the receiving culture and the political implications of one’s actions, even for a world-class composer and conductor with experience crossing political divides.”
– David Chu, Western PhD student in musicology
Amid Canada’s changing relationship with the U.S. and a push to forge deeper international relationships, Chu said it’s especially important to understand music and its history in relation to North America’s place in an interconnected world. With Asians being the fasting growing population group in Canada from immigration, he says it’s a pivotal time to foster greater belonging.
“It’s more important now than ever before that we bring Asians and other diverse populations into mainstream Canadian culture,” he said.
Chu is hopeful music can be a uniting force, with Asian artists becoming cultural ambassadors, and their perspectives in understanding music a larger part of the conversation.
“The power of music is unique because of its ability to travel and spread culture, ideas and belief systems that break down barriers. I’m a firm believer in the power of music for the good of humanity.”
