Chinese Émigré Composers and Divergent Modernisms: Chen Yi and Zhou Long

This Element examines the factors that drove the stylistic heterogeneity of Chen Yi and Zhou Long after the Cultural Revolution. Known as ’New Wave’ composers, they entered the Central Conservatory of Music once the Cultural Revolution ended and attained international recognition for their modernism after their early careers in America. Scholars have often treated their early music as contingent outcomes of that cultural and political moment. The author proposes unique personal factors that shaped their modernisms despite their shared experiences of the Cultural Revolution and education at the Central Conservatory and Columbia University. Through interviews on the six stages of their development, the author examines and explains the reasons for their stylistic divergence.