Anne Ozorio wrote:

>This comes right back again to the theory about music in
>schools.  The average middle class child in Japan, China and Korea is
>expected to learn something at least about classical music at school,
>not necessarily because the parents are musical, but because it is seen
>as one of the attainments that "nice" people have, like speaking a foreign
>language, playing sport, doing math etc.... There's nothing freaky or
>abnormal in liking classical music, it's just part of life.  Perhaps
>because these are societies where learning is cherished.  Whatever, there
>ois a social and political understanding that music is a part of life not
>something to be knocked as elitist, so there's commitment to funding
>music in schools.
>
>Look at many orchestras - Korean players, Chinese and Japanese.  Both
>native born, mixed race and second generation.

I do see some possibility of this changing in the future, at least with
regard to the prevalence of classical music in the cultures.  What Anne
says may have be true, but there is the competition brought on by a much
more internationalized Pan-Asian pop music culture (such as the popularity
of Korean artists in China etc.) as well as a rapidly growing internet
gaming sub-culture.  I saw evidence of the latter especially during my
most recent trip to Korea, a trend which is being accelerated by the
high percentage of broadband availability there.  Changing demographics
toward a younger population which has become more assertive as to their
societal presence could also become a factor.

None of this is necessarily incompatible with a strong (Western) classical
music presence, of course.  Only that the drivers for it may need to be
nurtured from elsewhere, given the new activities competing with it.
We'll see, I guess.

Bill H.