This book offers an in-depth exploration of the childhood musical experiences of Vietnamese elders, providing a unique lens on the intersections between identity, culture, and music education. Centering the stories of five Vietnamese Americans and one Vietnamese person who grew up in Vietnam between 1931 and 1975, the author considers the role that each individual’s childhood musical experiences played in their life as they were impacted by war, political movements, and immigrant and refugee experiences. The book adds a new perspective to research on the global music practices of children by exploring music transmission and repertoire in Vietnam in the context of political unrest and colonialism before and during the Vietnam War. It also explores the evolution of the personal meanings and memories of music over a period of drastic change in each individual’s life, as five of six elders transitioned into a life in the United States.
This book provides both an act of cultural and musical preservation, and relevant implications for music education today. Situating the children’s songs and games of Vietnamese culture in their original context, the author invites those in the field of music education to consider how lived experiences and entrenched systems of teaching affect music learning and identity formation. The volume includes a selection of Vietnamese children’s songs, games, chants, and musico-poetic lullabies (ca dao), offering ways to enrich music educators’ world music curricula. Relevant to music education, ethnomusicology, and Asian American studies, this book provides a nuanced account of Vietnamese children’s music making of the past and presents an analysis of childhood musical experiences in a wider cultural, sociopolitical, and historical context.
1. The Vietnamese American Identity
2. Vietnamese Music in World Music Education
3. Connecting Past to Present: Introducing the Elders
4. The Effects of War on Musical Childhoods: The Stories of Hồng and Khoa
5. Formal Music Instruction: The Stories of Yến and Bích
6. Musical Childhoods in the Church: The Stories of Thúy and Hằng
7. Scouts, Ca Dao, and Improvisation: Music Making in Vietnamese
8. Lessons to Carry Forward
Biography
Tina A. Huynh is an assistant professor of music education at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA, USA, where she teaches courses in music, education, and music education, and supervises student teachers. Her research interests center around music in childhood, cultural diversity, culturally responsive teaching, and refugees and music making. Her other written works can be found in a variety of peer-reviewed journals and books. She is the creator of the documentary Songs of Little Saigon (2021), producer of the documentary The Resting Place (2022), and author of The Vietnamese Children’s Songbook (2023).
This book is absolutely a treasure for music education, particularly in contributing to the knowledge of Asian ethnic music in the world music education. The different personal stories are life case studies to reflect how political, socio-economical and cultural contexts may shape the musical life and identity of individuals. This is an impressive text for courses of music education, ethnomusicology, and anthropology.
Professor Bo-Wah LEUNG, President, International Society for Music Education
Tina Huynh is one of the leading authorities today on children’s music of Vietnam and its influence on American music education. In writing this book, she has advanced greatly our understanding of aural and oral methods of song and game transmission in music education. What a wonderfully written and researched resource that enhances world music pedagogy.
Peter Webster, Professor Emeritus, Northwestern University, and Scholar in Residence, University of Southern California, USA
Remembering Musical Childhoods in Vietnam makes a compelling case for lifelong musical engagement through a deep dive into the lived experiences of Vietnamese elderly musicians, a population that has been largely absent from the literature. Master storyteller Tina Huynh shows how one’s musical journey is both a personal and a social construction, and one that is linked to places, spaces, people, policies, and multiple dimensions of time, or “in the moment,” over stretched periods, and the Zeitgeist.
Dr. Beatriz Ilari, Professor of Music Teaching & Learning, University of Southern California, USA
For those who care about children’s expressive culture, identity, and development in music, Tina Huynh’s Remembering Musical Childhoods in Vietnam: 1931-1975 is a deep immersion into the childhoods of six elders of Vietnamese heritage, growing up in Vietnam at a time of political change and the subsequent flows of immigrants and refugees to the U.S. The storying is thoroughly absorbing, and the compelling narratives are grounded in meticulous research and the sort of rigorous analysis that underscores how children’s lived experiences affect the songs they sing while also reflecting the cultural values that surround them.
This book is riveting, and it gets to all of what we consider to be critical to knowing children and nurturing them, and recognizing that their musical selves are important parts of who they are, thus making the point of how we can be of benefit to knowing them through their songs and supporting them through the musical education we can shape to further their understanding of themselves, and of the world that surrounds them.
Patricia Shehan Campbell, Professor Emeritus, University of Washington, USA
