ABSTRACT
This chapter reveals how the documentary From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China (1980) and the feature film Mozart in China (2008) stage China’s encounter with Mozart and his music, which becomes an indispensable component of the filmic narratives while also carrying social, cultural, and political implications. Rather than dwelling directly on Chairman Mao, the documentary revisits the historical trauma caused by the Cultural Revolution (1967–77) and inadvertently highlights the often imbalanced terms of musical exchange and Eurocentric conceptualizations of Chinese modernity. In the latter film, Mozart’s fictional encounter with China dismantles the hegemony of Western culture, and the dynamic exchange of music between the West (Austria) and China stimulates the construction of a globalized music culture. This chapter focuses on the re-mystification of Mozart and his music, and explores the voyage undertaken by China in its pursuit of musical modernization within a globalizing context, a process accelerated through the dynamic exchange of music with the West (Austria), through mutual cultural acceptance, through a global musical practice, and through the promotion of a more universal musical aesthetic.
