Events

PHILIPPINE STUDY GROUP – Race, Labor, and Movement: Philippine Musical Mobilities from the 1920s to the Present by Ms Anjeline de Dios and Mr Fritz Schenker

Date: 08 May 2013
Time: 10:00 am - 11:30 am
Venue:

Asia Research Institute Seminar Room
Tower Block, Level 10, 469A Bukit Timah Road
National University of Singapore @ BTC

CHAIRPERSON

Dr Julius Bautista, Department of Southeast Asian Studies, National University of Singapore. 

ABSTRACT

Filipino musicians have traveled the globe for over one hundred years, performing popular music in movie theaters, hotel ballrooms, cruise ships, bars, and amusement parks. Their ubiquity is due to their reputation as skilled musicians possessed of a natural musicality, willing to work for competitive wages. This reputation, formed in part through the racial logic of imperialism and institutionalized in contemporary neoliberal labor regimes, leads to an ambiguous emphasis on the “Filipino-ness” of the musician and informs expectations about everything from labor market value to performance quality.

In this joint-presentation, we draw on our respective research to highlight two periods of Philippine musical mobilities in Asia—the colonial era of 1920’s jazz performance and contemporary labor migration—to explore parallel themes of race and labor in musical work. In so doing, we identify some of the ways in which racial ideologies intersect with postcolonial concerns about imitation, mimicry, and agency, and begin to trace how these entrenched intersections have shaped, and continue to shape, the trajectories of working Filipino musicians in Asia.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Anjeline de Dios is a PhD candidate at the Department of Geography, National University of Singapore. Her dissertation concerns the market for migrant Filipino musicians in hotels, theme parks, and cruise ships in Asia, with a special focus on the intersections of creative economy and transnational labor migration.

Fritz Schenker is a PhD candidate in ethnomusicology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His dissertation, “Performing Empire: Colonial Asia’s Jazz Age”, explores the tensions between popular music and empire in 1920s colonial Asia, focusing in part on the role of Filipino musicians in spreading jazz throughout the region. He is presently completing nine months of research in Manila, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

REGISTRATION

Admission is free. We would greatly appreciate if you RSVP Mr Jonathan Lee via email: jonathan.lee@nus.edu.sg