| Hua'er music is a traditional folk music in the village of Lianlu, China. As a tribal type of communication, Hua'er music is losing its oral-communicative nature as it is being confronted by contemporary electronic media technology. This study is an ethnographic field study that looks at the effect of modern technology on this folk music tradition. The theoretical work of McLuhan that assumes electronic media will easily adapt to tribal culture is applied and explored. The conclusions suggest that in the context of modernization, the impact of electronic media is complex. Tribal culture in Lianlu is locally detribalized but it is also adaptive to the broader cultural contexts by creating a concept of an external public. |
