Music Culture Of Song And Gance Hall In HanKou In The Republic Of China

Taking the song and dance halls in the Republican as the main subject of the study, this paper, from the view of music culture, makes a systematic presentation of the establishment of the dance halls, their operations, managements and specific situations of their music performance in an all-round manner. It also makes a deep analysis of the turning points in special periods, rebuilding their functions and influences in all directions, thus making a macro investigation and presentation of the development of the musical entertainment space and modern music culture in history. In this paper, the author, using a great variety of research methods such as history, philology, sociology and metrology, discourses all-round the music culture of dance halls in Hankou on the basis of documentations and dictating materials checking. Besides, the author offers cases and materials with a sense of modernity, and makes a full presentation of the significance of them in the development of history and culture.With western culture sweeping across the whole central China from the very beginning of the emergence of the Hankou, the western music entertainment also comes into this city. From then on, various musical entertainment venues spring up like mushrooms, among which dance halls become their typical representatives. To apply to the foreigners’ needs and interests in music entertainment, dance halls come through three periods —— building up, semi-independent and complete independent of their main items. Thus, dance halls become the most typical things of the public musical entertainment venues in that period and their operation and management reveal the transition of the sense of western public entertainment in its modern sense.The music performance in Hankou’ song and dance halls are both greatly influenced by eastern and western cultures. The bands, songs and dances with modern awareness in these halls are filled with western culture. Both the music performance distinguished by the gender performance and the multilevel consumer groups represent the communication and conflict between eastern and western cultures, different culture tastes and different identities of people from different social degrees.In the New Life Movement, Hankou puts into practice the art policy of comprehensive ban to the songs performed in dance halls, forming a one-in-four ban system among municipal government, police office, Education Bureau and road transport bureau. The banned songs in fact contain different realizations and political intentions such as “rebuilding the consciousness of country”, “changing the general mood of society”, or “going against the communists”, which not only curb the development of music in Hankou but also reflect the influence of politics on people’ musical life.In recent decades, all the music in Song and Dance Hall shares a common feature of colonial modernization. The developments of these Song and Dance Halls mark the formation of the public domain and these halls, as both music medium and musical entertainment venues, also make a great contribution to the transition of the culture and recreation industry from the space of consumption to the consumption of the space. Besides, with the help of the new sound of the orchestra, the skills of western Jazz and the features of Chinese music, dance halls take actions and make great influence on the urban media culture through recording and copying sounds, thus a promotion to the formation of the modern culture.