DATA FINDINGS &
DATA ANALYSIS
This research refers to those songs,
repertoires of music appreciation and
introduced musicians bearing cultures
which identify them as
• (a) Western cultures;
• (b) Chinese cultures and
• (c) Other cultures.
Musically,
• this implies that these musical works
or musicians have their musical
characteristics of their own cultures.
• Geographically,
•
this implies they have their own
regional characteristics of cultures.
Table 6 Research Procedures Based on Bereday Modified Model
Collection of Data
Stage 1
Description
Area
Studies
Stage 2
Inte rpretation
1. the gathering of statistical data as well as
information from the selected textbooks
undertaken in each place
Interpretation of Data
2. the background leading to these results the
major features characterize the different result
in respective places
Matching Data and Formulation of Questions
Stage 3
Juxtaposition
Comparative
Studies
3. in what ways and patterns the four textbooks
from the two countries are similar to or differ
from one another, with respect to cultural
contents
Simultaneous Comparison
Stage 4
Comparison
4. compare and contrast with reference to the
cultural contents from each textbook
5. by rotation and fusion to answer the above
question
Adopted from Yu (1996). Bereday Modified Model.
( I ) Stage of Description
Table 35 Frequency & Percentage of Each Musical Area in Different Cultures
within Textbooks
Musical Area
Music
Appreciation
Song
Musician
Names of
Textbooks
A
B
C
D
A
B
C
D
A
B
C
D
Cultures
Western Cultures (%)
90
92
26
39
44
56
38
28
34
21
41
41
(66.18) (58.23) (26.00) (36.44) (51.76) (43.08) (49.35) (59.57) (89.48) (75.00) (54.67) (45.56)
Chinese Cultures (%)
25
44
67
65
37
68
30
16
2
5
29
46
(18.38) (27.85) (67.00) (60.75) (43.53) (52.30) (38.96) (34.04) (5.26) (17.86) (38.67) (51.11)
Other Cultures (%)
Total (%)
21
22
7
3
(15.44) (13.92) (7.00) (2.81)
136
(100)
158
(100)
100
(100)
107
(100)
4
6
9
3
2
2
(4.71) (4.62) (11.69) (6.39) (5.26) (7.14)
5
3
(6.66) (3.33)
85
(100)
75
(100)
130
(100)
77
(100)
47
(100)
38
(100)
28
(100)
90
(100)
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
A
B
C
D
Western Cultures
Chinese Cultures
Frequency of Song in Different Cultures
within Textbooks
Other Cultures
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
A
B
Frequency of Music Appreciation in
Different Cultures within Textbooks
C
D
Western Cultures
Chinese Cultures
Other Cultures
50
40
30
20
10
0
A
B
Frequency of Introduced Musician in
Different Cultures within Textbooks
C
D
Western Cultures
Chinese Cultures
Other Cultures
50
40
30
20
10
0
A
B
C
Frequency of Introduced Musicians
in Different Periods within Textbooks
D
Medieval & Baroque
Classical
Romantic
Contemporary
Table 18 Frequency & Percentage of Melody with Foreign Lyrics
B
A
D
C
T extbooks
SubLyrics
1
2
3
Sub1
2
3
total
No. of Foreign Melody with
Chinese Lyrics (%)
No. of Foreign Melody with
19
21
19
59
Sub1a
1b
No. of English Melody with
3
total
15
29
19
63
Sub1
2
3
total
6
6
5
8
25
total
8
12
10
30
(41.30) (42.86) (46.34) (43.38) (29.41) (50.00) (38.78) (39.87) (27.27) (27.27) (21.74) (24.24) (25.00) (21.05) (31.58) (32.26) (28.97)
20
16
16
52
13
23
15
51
1
1
0
English Lyrics (%)
2
0
(43.48) (32.65) (39.02) (38.24) (25.40) (39.66) (30.61) (32.28) (4.55)
15
10
10
35
11
8
10
29
1
2
1
0
4
2
3
(6.45)
(2.80)
4
10
0
(1.00)
(2.63)
7
4
2
0
Chinese Lyrics (%)
(32.61) (20.41) (24.39) (25.74) (21.57) (13.79) (20.40) (18.35) (4.55) (9.09)
(12.12) (7.00) (10.53) (5.26) (12.90) (9.35)
No. of Foreign Melody with
0
1J
0
0
0
1J, 2G
1G
3
0
1I
0
0
1
0
1F
0
0
46
49
41
136
51
58
49
158
22
22
23
33
100
38
38
31
107
(100)
(100)
(100)
(100)
(100)
(100)
(100)
(100)
(100)
(100)
(100)
(100)
(100)
(100)
(100)
(100)
(100)
Original Lyrics (%)
Total Numbe r of Songs (%)
J: Japanese
G: German
F: French
I: Italian
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
A
B
C
D
No of Foreign Melody with Chinese Lyrics
Frequency of Melody with Foreign Lyrics
No of Foreign Melody with English Lyrics
No of English Melody with Chinese Lyrics
No of Foreign Melody with Original Lyrics
Combinations of Common Songs within Textbooks
Combinations
A-B
C-D
A-D
A-C
B-D
A-B-C
A-B-D
B-C-D
A-B-C-D
Total
No. of Songs (%)
38 (50%)
21 (27.63%)
3 (3.95%)
2 (2.63%)
3 (3.95%)
2 (2.63%)
2 (2.63%)
1 (1.32%)
4 (5.26%)
76 (100%)
Combinations of Common Music Appreciation
within Textbooks
Combinations
A-B
C-D
A-C
B-C
B-D
A-B-C
A-B-D
B-C-D
A-B-C-D
Total
No. of Repertoires (%)
25 (43.11%)
2 (3.45%)
4 (6.90%)
6 (10.34%)
3 (5.17%)
4 (6.90%)
5 (8.62%)
3 (5.17%)
6 (10.34%)
58 (100%)
(III) Stage of Juxtaposition
• IIIA Similarities and Differences
in Song in the two places
A higher percentage of Western cultures and
Other cultures is found in textbook sets A and
B from Hong Kong than sets C and D from
Taiwan.
• Conversely, there is a higher proportion of
Chinese cultures in songs. The percentage of
songs from Chinese cultures is much higher
in sets C and D than in A and B
Songs from both places from Western cultures
mainly come from the USA
• The second and third most chosen countries for
Hong Kong textbooks are Britain and Austria
Whereas, the second and third most chosen
countries from Taiwanese textbooks for songs are
Germany and Italy
• These results prove that both places are influenced
by the USA socially, economically and politically
after World War II.
Songs from both places in terms of specific
region of Chinese cultures mainly originate
from Taiwan
• This can be explained by the influence of
Taiwanese popular and folk music on Hong
Kong in recent years.
• On the other hand, due to social and
political factors, Taiwan strongly promotes
her local culture
• Therefore, the songs of Chinese cultures
from both places are mainly selected form
Taiwan.
However, textbooks from Hong Kong also selected
many songs from different regions of Chinese
cultures, e.g. Hong Kong ,Yunnan and Xinjiang
•
Songs originated from these regional Chinese
cultures are seldom selected by the publishers of
Taiwanese textbooks.
• Having said that, one can understand the greater need
and opportunities of Hong Kong to understand
mainland Chinese cultures sincere Hong Kong is now
an integral part of China. Hong Kong has a higher
diversity in choosing songs from regional Chinese
cultures than Taiwan.
Songs from Hong Kong textbooks under
Other cultures mainly from Russia and Japan.
• This can be explained by the long-standing
and close relationship between Russia and
China. The influence of Japanese music on
Hong Kong people, especially youngsters,
cannot be overlooked.
This is why a rather large number of songs form
Russia and Japan are included in Hong Kong
textbooks. In contrary, due to the concentration
on local cultures, few songs from Other cultures
are included in Taiwanese textbooks.
• The highest percentages of common songs
amongst the four sets of textbooks are A with B
and C with D . It is good to observe that every
regional textbook (Hong Kong and Taiwan, in this
case) can reflect its regional culture in a certain
degree.
All foreign melodies with Chinese
lyrics ,foreign melodies with English lyrics
and English melodies with Chinese lyrics have
higher percentages in Hong Kong textbooks
than those from Taiwan.
• Especially, the biggest difference can be seen
in foreign melody with English lyrics.
The reasons are,
• first, Hong Kong focuses more on Western
cultures and therefore more foreign
melodies as well as English melodies are
chosen by Hong Kong publishers.
• Second, Hong Kong pays attention on both
the English and the Chinese languages,
especially during the transitional period
1997 and therefore, English and Chinese
lyrics have equal importance.
Third, Taiwan focuses more on Chinese
cultures and therefore, fewer foreign and
English melodies are included in Taiwanese
textbooks.
• Fourth, English is not the second language
of Taiwanese students and as a result, there
is a smaller number of songs with English
lyrics found in Taiwanese textbooks.
That is, an extremely low percentage of
foreign melody with original lyrics are
included in the textbooks.
• This is due to the fact that Hong Kong and
Taiwan are both mainly Chinese societies.
Few secondary schools students learn and
understand foreign languages (other than
English language, in the case of Hong Kong).
This phenomenon can be shown similarly by
extremely low percentages of students who sit
for foreign languages in public examinations
in both Hong Kong and Taiwan.
• Therefore, original foreign lyrics are not
encouraged to be placed in textbooks from
both Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Taiwanese publishers like to include many original
compositions, songs whose both melodies and lyrics are
written by contemporary local Taiwanese composers or lyrics
writers in the textbooks.
• The Taiwanese government also strongly encourages their
musicians to introduce their works in the music textbooks.
• But, by contrast, few Hong Kong local compositions are
included in textbooks.
• Also, Hong Kong has not encouraged its musicians to
compose local musical works.
•
It can be seen that there is a great difference between the
promotion of local musical compositions between the two
places.
IIIB Similarities and
Differences in
Music Appreciation
in the two places
• The percentages of repertoires of music
appreciation in Western cultures ,Chinese
cultures and Other cultures are nearly the
same in all four sets of textbooks .
The ratio of repertoires from Chinese and
Western cultures is about the same; there is no
bias on Western or Chinese cultures.
• Nevertheless, the number of repertoires
from Other cultures are comparatively very
small .
Both places choose the repertoires of music
appreciation from Western cultures from
Germany and Austria .
• Music from these two countries is commonly
termed Classical music and also it constitutes
the most dominant part of music appreciation
repertoires in Western cultures.
• This is one reason why the percentages of
these repertoires among Western cultures are
high in both Hong Kong and Taiwan.
There is a high diversity of appreciating
different regional Chinese music in Hong
Kong textbooks rather than only focussing on
local Taiwanese regional music in Taiwanese
textbooks .
• This is, again, due to social and political
facts that Taiwan would like to promote her
own local culture rather than specific
regional Chinese cultures.
Only Russian repertoires of music
appreciation under Other cultures are included
in textbooks from both places, Hong Kong and
Taiwan.
• It can be said that although both places are
eager to promote the recognition of different
cultures, in fact, other non-Western cultures
are seldom mentioned.
The highest combination of common
repertoires among the different kinds of
combinations of common repertoires is
textbook sets A with B .
• This shows that the publishers of the two
Hong Kong textbooks select a large amount
of common repertoires.
Also, the high percentage of common repertoires among
the two Hong Kong textbooks reflects that they are
influenced by the same cultural background.
• Textbooks from both places like to include instrumental
listening repertoires instead of vocal listening
repertoires in music appreciation.
• The genres of works are varied from solo and small
ensemble to large choral and symphonic works.
• The listening repertoires in all four sets of textbooks
from Western cultures are normally selected from the
most famous classical musicians, for example, Bach,
Beethoven and Mozart.
However, all of four sets of textbook have
seldom mentioned contemporary Western
musicians.
On the other hand, besides, the listening
repertoires characteristics traditional
Chinese cultures are mentioned by
textbooks from both places, textbooks from
Taiwan also introduce listening repertoires
characteristics of the local culture,
• for example, little opera (歌仔戲), little
mixed opera (雜唸仔調) and Taiwanese
local folk songs sung in Minnen or Hakka
local dialects.
By contrast, textbooks from Hong Kong
rarely introduce Hong Kong local cultures in
listening repertoires.
• Also, textbooks from both places little
mention the instrumental works from
contemporary local musicians.
Huang Zi (黃自) is the only Chinese
composer whose works are highly regarded
by all four sets of textbooks.
IIIB Similarities and
Differences in Introduced
Musician
Higher percentages of musicians from
Western cultures is introduced by Hong
Kong textbooks.
• Conversely, higher percentages of
musicians from Chinese cultures are
introduced by Taiwanese textbooks.
• Moreover, Taiwanese textbooks introduced
more of their local musicians than Hong
Kong ones .Both Hong Kong and
Taiwanese textbooks little mentioned about
musicians from Other cultures .
Musicians who are introduced by all four sets
of textbooks are commonly from the Romantic
period or the Contemporary period .
• Specifically, a higher percentage of
contemporary musicians are introduced by
Taiwanese textbooks .
Hong Kong focuses on Western music so that
a lot of composers of Western music are
introduced.
• Conversely, Taiwan focuses on her local music
and therefore a lot of Chinese (Taiwanese)
composers, especially those in the
contemporary period, are introduced by
Taiwanese textbooks
.
General Question Raised after
Juxtaposition
The previous sections mentioned critically
what extent and nature of different
cultures affect the music textbooks from
Hong Kong and Taiwanese secondary
schools through examining the songs,
repertoires of music appreciation and
introduced musicians.
Textbooks from Hong Kong seems to
introduce and are influenced much by Western
cultures.
• On the other hand, those from Taiwan
strongly emphasize her local culture and
also on Chinese cultures as a whole.
• In addition, textbooks from both places are
not keen on introducing Other cultures.
Why does this phenomenon show
in music curricula and is reflected
in those textbooks?
( IV ) Stage of Comparison
• the cultural content from each textbook set
is compared and contrasted.
• Attempt to answer the question raised in
the previous section by rotation and fusion.
A Comparison of Cultural
Contents from Music
Textbooks in Hong Kong and
Taiwan
In a comparison with Taiwan, the cultural
content of Hong Kong textbooks mainly
comes from the Western world.
• The nature and extent of cultural content
can be seen to reflect the culture of present
society.
• The Western cultural content in textbooks
seems to give an image that Hong Kong is
more ‘international’.
• But this is vague and wrong!
The Western cultural content mainly comes
from several Western countries, for example,
the USA and Britain
• This condition is similar to a local scholar
who cited this decision as a British
conspiracy imposing an outdated British
model of education on the future of Hong
Kong SAR for the purpose of extending
British influence until 2047 (Leung 1996:
269).
In addition, since Hong Kong only pays
attention to a few Western countries, how can
it be said that Hong Kong is a truly
cosmopolitan city (fusion of cultures) and is a
place to promote international understanding
and respectfulness of different cultures ?
The low tendencies for the Hong Kong publishers to
introduce Chinese cultures and even more so, the
extremely low tendencies to introduce local Hong Kong
cultures
• may make one to believe that Hong Kong people are
not proud of their Chinese cultural heritage and their
cultural identity is ambiguous.
•
This is in opposition to what the Hong Kong
Government wishes to promote.
• The Government tries to revise the content of the
curricula in order to encourage pupils to understand
and appreciate their Chinese cultural heritage, as well
as the working of the political and economic system in
the PRC Now, insufficient emphasis is put on
developing the pupil’s identification with and pride in
Chinese cultures.
Moreover, extremely few local musical
products, for example, Canto-pops,
contemporary musical compositions by local
musicians or local musicians are introduced in
textbooks.
• Therefore, this creates an ambiguous
cultural identity.
• As a result, the cultural identity of Hong
Kong students may be neither Chinese nor
Western (White 1997: ix).
It is clear that the cultural content reflected in
textbooks fits the general pattern concluded by
Leung, who summarized the literature on the
discussion of the nature and impact of colonial
education.
Leung said that among the stereotyped
accusations of colonial legacies are the creation of:
• (a) a privileged, Westernized elite divorced
from the aspiration of the indigenous majority,
especially the rural masses;
• (b) citizens unsure of their real identity or
caught between two cultures;
• (c) a belief system hostile to the indigenous
culture, such as a Eurocentric and
• (d) a ‘culture of silence’ with low political
aspirations.
The above phenomenon is reflected by the nature and
extent of cultural content in the Hong Kong textbooks
examined.
• First, Western cultures dominates the content; extremely rare
mention is made to local Hong Kong/Chinese music,
especially the rural music by Punti, Hakka and Tenka
villagers.
• Second, the relatively few mention of Chinese cultures may
result in ‘bu Zhong bu Xi’ (neither Chinese nor Western).
• Third, the extent of Western-European cultures included in
textbooks much exceeds that of the Chinese ones.
•
Fourth, the large extent of recognition of various countries
may be a way to reduce bias to a small number of countries,
e.g. China and Britain, but it is also a cause of low political
aspirations in pupils.
On the other hand, Taiwan seems to encourage
and promote her local culture.
• There are a lot of songs composed by
contemporary Taiwanese musicians and also
many contemporary Taiwan musicians are
introduced in the Taiwanese music textbooks.
• Taiwan highly promotes the recognition of
her local culture.
• As a result, Taiwanese people seem to have a
clearer cultural identity.
But, this promotion may be accounted as the
effect of expulsion from the United Nations in
1971 and breaking of friendships with most
countries in the world.
• Therefore, there is a promotion, of the idea
of Taiwan as homeland of, for and by
Taiwan’s people as said by Law (Law
1997:54).
But actually these contemporary musicians
learned their musical knowledge from the
Western world and also they used the Western
musical techniques to compose the songs in
music textbooks.
• Therefore, it cannot be said that these
musical works are not purely represented
the local culture, instead of, these are
integrated cultures between East and West.
• That is a mixture of Chinese ideology with
Western techniques.
But, in comparison, Local folk music is
introduced more in Taiwan music textbooks
than does in Hong Kong.
• In Taiwan, textbook publishers do not only
introduce local folk music in music textbooks,
but also encourage the students sung in
Taiwan local dialects, Minnen or Hakka
languages.