Seminar Series: Abstract

09:30
April 01 2009
Seminar Room A

Salsa China: The Music of Chinese Immigration to Cuba
Adrian Hearn, Sociology, University of Sydney

The importance of China for Cuba’s past and present economic development is well known, but China’s socio-cultural impact on the island is less well understood. This seminar explores China’s cultural presence in Cuba through ethnographic data, documentary evidence, and rare musical recordings. Music dating from the early 20th century to the present day tells the story of Chinese immigration to Cuba and illuminates local perceptions about the historical development of Havana’s Chinatown. The seminar presents data gathered during three years in Cuba, ten months in China, and visits to the archives of the House of Chinese Arts and Traditions in Havana, and the Díaz-Ayala music collection at Florida International University.

Dr. Adrian H. Hearn is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Sydney, where he is conducting an anthropological study of the political and cultural implications of China’s deepening engagement with Latin America. He is author of Cuba: Religion, Social Capital, and Development (Duke University Press 2008), China and Latin America: The Social Foundations of a Global Alliance (Duke University Press, forthcoming), and editor of Cultura, Tradición, y Comunidad: Perspectivas sobre la Participación y el Desarrollo en Cuba (Imagen Contemporánea and UNESCO 2008).