Lei Ouyang
Associate Professor
Program Coordinator, Asian American Studies; Asian Studies
Music
Asian American Studies
Asian Studies
Contact
Affiliations: Interdisciplinary Programs, Music, Asian Studies, Asian American Studies
Co-Director, Chinese Music Ensemble
Photo by Bob Williams
BIOGRAPHY:
Lei X. Ouyang, she/her, (Ph.D. and M.A. in Ethnomusicology, University of Pittsburgh; B.A. in East Asian Studies, Macalester College) is Associate Professor of Music at Swarthmore College where she is Program Director for Asian American Studies, Program Director for Asian Studies, and Co-director of the Chinese Music Ensemble. Her scholarly interests are in music, culture, and performance in Asian America and East Asia (primarily China, Japan, and Taiwan). Her research examines issues of music and intersections with memory, social identities, politics, race and ethnicity, and social justice. Research projects include music and memory in the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Race and Performance in Asian American musical theatre, and social justice and taiko drumming in the American Midwest. Her book Music as Mao’s Weapon: Remembering the Cultural Revolution was published by the University of Illinois Press (2022) and she has published in the journals Asian Music, The China Review, Ethnomusicology, Journal of Music History Pedagogy, MUSICultures, Music & Politics, and The World of Music. Lei previously taught at Skidmore College (2006-2017) as Associate Professor of Music, at Macalester College (2004-2006) as a Consortium for Faculty Diversity Postdoctoral Fellow, and at National Taiwan University’s Graduate Institute of Musicology (Spring 2021 and 2024-2025) as a Visiting Associate Professor. She previously served on the Board of Directors for the Society for Ethnomusicology and currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the Philadelphia based Presser Foundation.
RESEARCH AND TEACHING INTERESTS:
Chinese Cultural Revolution, Taiko drumming, music and intersections with topics including memory, politics, race, ethnicity, social identities, and social justice.
COURSES:
Music & Dance Cultures of the World
Music and Culture in East Asia
Music, Race, and Class
Music & Chairman Mao: Music & Politics in Communist China
Music & the Battle between Good & Evil
Ethnomusicology (Seminar)
Chinese Cultural Revolution Culture
Taiko & Asian American Experiences
ENSEMBLE:
Chinese Music Ensemble
PUBLICATIONS
MONOGRAPH
2022. Music as Mao’s Weapon: Remembering the Cultural Revolution, University of Illinois Press.
PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLES
2025 “Teaching & Learning/Dreaming & Determining: Embodying Radical Asian American Studies Pedagogies in the Music Classroom.” American Music 43(3): pages tbd.
2024. "'Systems are Changeable'" Reading Moments through Movements." Ethnomusicology 68(2): 325-347.
2024. "MuDaiko: Taiko Drumming between East and West." MUSICultures 51: 167-192.
2018. “Teaching Mao through Music: Pedagogy and Practice in the Liberal Arts Classroom.” Journal of Music History Pedagogy 8(2): 30-61.
2018. “‘Itsy Bitsy Screw Cap’: Children’s Songs from the Chinese Cultural Revolution.” Journal of Music & Politics 12(1).
2009. “Performing Race and Place in Asian America.” Asian Music 40(1): 4-30.
2007. “Flowers on the Battlefield are More Fragrant.” Asian Music 38(1): 88-121.
2005. “Music, Memory, and Nostalgia: Collective Memories of Cultural Revolution Songs in Contemporary China.” The China Review 5(2): 151-175.
TEXTBOOK CHAPTERS
2021. “Music of China and Taiwan” in Excursions in World Music, Eighth Edition, Edited by Timothy Rommen, 94-129. New York, NY: Routledge.
2021. “Music and Memory” in Critical Themes in World Music: A Reader for Excursions in World Music, Eighth Edition, edited by Timothy Rommen, 85-92. New York, NY: Routledge.
REVIEWS
2024. Review of Un/Daunted: Into the Open by Raging Asian Womxn Taiko Drummers [film]. Ethnomusicology 68(1): 170-172.
2018. Review of Chinatown Opera Theater in North America by Nancy Yunhwa Rao. MUSICultures 45(1-2): 274-276. [solicited]
2012. Review of Angry Drummers, A Taiko Group from Osaka, Japan [DVD], directed by Yoshitaka Terada. Ethnomusicology 56(3): 569-571. [solicited]
2009. Review of Lives in Chinese Music, edited by Helen Rees. The World of Music 52(1): 174- 176. [solicited]
AWARDS
Music & Social Justice Paper Prize, Crossroads Project [SEM] (2023)
Deborah Wong Research & Publication Award, Society for Ethnomusicology (2018)
President’s Award, Skidmore College (2015)
GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS
Andrew W. Mellon Periclean Faculty Leadership Fellow (2021-2022)
Arthur Vining Davis Civic Engagement Fellow (2012-2014)
Association for Asian Studies China and Inner Asia Council Small Grant (2010-2011)
Andrew Mellon Pre-Doctoral Fellowship (2002-2004)
Dissertation Research Fellowship, Asian Cultural Council (2002)
Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship [Japanese] (2000)
Research Grant, Japan American Society of Pittsburgh (2000)
Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship [Chinese] (1999-2000)
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
The Presser Foundation
2023-2026 Trustee
Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM)
2018-2020 Second Vice-President
2016-2017 2017 SEM Program Committee Chair
2013-2014 Council Secretary (& Council Nominating Committee Chair)
2012-2014 Council Member
Association for Chinese Music Research (ACMR)
2012-2015 President
2007-2010 Publications Editor
2005-2010 Member-at-large & Newsletter Editor
Society for Asian Music
2011-2016 Editorial Advisory Board (East Asia)
Crossroads Project on Diversity, Difference, and Under-representation (SEM Standing Committee)
2008-2010 Co-Chair
Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the Society for Ethnomusicology (MACSEM)
2019 Local Arrangements Committee Chair, Annual Meeting
1999-2001 Secretary
EDUCATION:
Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 2004 (Dissertation: 'New Songs of the Battlefield': Songs and Memories of the Chinese Cultural Revolution)
M.A. in Ethnomusicology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 2001 (Thesis: A Musical Metaphor for Nation Building: The Folk Song "Esashi Oiwake" in Early Twentieth Century Japan)
Advanced Certificate in Asian Studies, Language concentration: Chinese, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 2001
B.A. in East Asian Studies, Language concentration: Japanese, Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota, 1997 (Thesis: Popular Music of Taiwan and Japan)
RECENT PROJECTS AND EVENTS:
Williams College Class of 1960 Music Lecture
Book Launch and Discussion: Abe, Ayyagari, Hopkins, Ouyang & Wong
Presser Foundation: Advancement of Music Committee
Swarthmore College Lang Center Engaged Humanities Studio Fellow
Asian Arts Initative: Radio AAI
Li Delun in Philadelphia: Ethnography, Archives, and Music Across the Pacific
