Seeding the Tradition:Musical Creativity in Southern Vietnam

Seeding the Tradition is the first monograph on southern Vietnamese traditional music published outside of Vietnam and a crucial ethnomusicological engagement with the concept of musical creativity. Seeding the Tradition offers an account of how musicians of đờn ca tài tử (music for diversion) practice creativity or sáng tạo in early 21st-century southern Vietnam. These musicians draw from long-standing theories of Daoist creation while adopting strategically from and also reacting to a western neo-liberal model of creativity focused on the individual genius. These musicians play with metaphors of growth, development, and ruin to maintain their tradition and keep it vibrant in the rapidly-shifting context of modern Vietnam. With ethnographic descriptions of zither lessons in Ho Chi Minh City, outdoor music cafes in Cần Thơ, and television programs in Đồng Tháp, Seeding the Tradition evaluates southern Vietnamese sáng tạo and suggests revised approaches to studying creativity in contemporary ethnomusicology