Dr Weida Wang Central Conservatory of Music BA, University of Liverpool MA, University of London PhD

Research Overview

My doctoral thesis focused on the ‘Western Classical Music Industry in Postsocialist China’. With the rise of China’s economy since its government’s economic and political reform in the late 1970s, Western classical music has come to serve as a useful tool for showcasing changes in the imaging of ‘modern’ and ‘contemporary’ China. At the meantime, following the rapid economic—and, by extension, cultural— development in China’s coastal cities, a new Chinese middle class has emerged, and has proved to be a substantial demographic involved in the learning, appreciation, and consumption of Western classical music. In this context, Western classical music has become a de facto Bourdiean signifier of class and taste. Especially in the past twenty years, a new classical music scene has developed quickly and established a fledgling industry in China, one critically enmeshed in both the business and political worlds. Many groundbreaking events in the cultural arena have taken place in the last decade. These have shown themselves to be potent forces driving the development of China’s domestic and fledgling international Western classical music industry. Therefore, through a case study of the Beijing Music Festival, alongside a secondary discussion of the National Centre for the Performing Arts, and of local and international music agencies and music institutions, this research explored the marketisation and industrialisation of Western classical music in China in relation to politics, cultural economy, changing social tastes, and aesthetics.