IMPACTS OF URBANIZATION AND MODERNIZATION ON GUCHUIYUE: SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW

Yue Mao — 2026-08-26

Background and Objectives: Guchuiyue (鼓吹乐, Chinese drumming and bowing music), a traditional Chinese wind and percussion ensemble, has undergone profound transformation amid China’s rapid urbanization and modernization. While previous studies have documented changes in performance contexts and transmission practices, few have systematically examined how these transformations are structurally linked to broader socio-economic processes. This study aims to: (1) synthesize how urbanization and modernization have reconfigured the functions and ritual ecology of guchuiyue; (2) analyze the transmission challenges emerging under these structural changes; and (3) identify the adaptive strategies and regional patterns through which practitioners negotiate continuity within evolving cultural fields.

Methods: Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Literature Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA 2020) protocol were systematically searched for studies published between 2000 and 2024. Keywords related to guchuiyue, urbanization, modernization, transmission, and functional transformation were combined using Boolean operators (AND/OR) in bilingual search strategies. After multi-stage screening and eligibility assessment, 41 studies were included. Quality appraisal followed the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) checklist, which was used to guide interpretive weighting rather than strict exclusion, given the qualitative nature of the reviewed studies.

Results: Urbanization has reconfigured guchuiyue across four interrelated dimensions. First, functional transformation is characterized by a shift from ritual-centered communal service toward diversified domains including staged performance, cultural tourism, and digital dissemination. Rather than a linear replacement, these functions coexist along a continuum, with funerary practices remaining relatively resilient while wedding-related and community rituals decline. Second, a transmission crisis has emerged through the convergence of aging practitioner populations, declining youth participation, and the erosion of repertoire and notation systems. These challenges are driven by rural–urban migration, educational mobility, and the misalignment between traditional apprenticeship systems and contemporary socio-economic expectations. Third, adaptive responses are evident in the institutionalization of training through schools and conservatories, the expansion of digital platforms for dissemination and recruitment, and participation in Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) initiatives. These strategies enhance visibility and economic sustainability but may also contribute to repertoire simplification and the weakening of ritual functions. Fourth, distinct regional typologies can be identified, including conservative–ritual-centered models with strong communal embedment, hybrid–stage-oriented models balancing ritual and performance functions, and industry/digital-oriented models driven by commercialization and media platforms. These typologies illustrate differentiated pathways of adaptation shaped by local cultural resources, policy environments, and market conditions.

Conclusions: This article shows that urbanization and modernization are structural forces that reshape the functional roles, ritual ecology, transmission conditions, and regional pathways of guchuiyue in contemporary China. Rather than producing a simple linear decline, these processes have generated an uneven pattern of functional reconfiguration in which ritual, staged, touristic, and digital forms coexist, compete, and overlap across different local settings. At the same time, urban change intensifies transmission pressures—aging practitioners, youth disengagement, and repertoire loss—while also prompting adaptive responses through educational institutionalization, heritage programs, and digital dissemination. Guchuiyue’s contemporary transformation is therefore best understood as an urbanization-driven process of negotiated continuity, shaped by migration, marketization, educational mobility, platformization, and heritage institutionalization. Taken together, these four dimensions—functional transformation, transmission crisis, adaptive responses, and regional typologies—constitute a functional reconfiguration framework for understanding how guchuiyue is reshaped under conditions of urbanization and modernization.

MYTH, MEANING AND STRUCTURE: A LÉVI-STRAUSSIAN ANALYSIS OF THAI-LANGUAGE OPERAS

Fueanglada Prawang Carlson — 2026-09-04

Background and Objectives: This research examines four Thai-language Western-style operas: Ngau Pa (2000) by Pathorn Srikaranonda, The Lunch Box (2009) by Thanapoom Sirichang, and The Story of the Long-Gone Animals (2008) and Covido The Opera (2021), both by Krisada and Napisi Reyes. Though relatively new, they already play a key role in Thailand’s opera tradition, bringing together old stories, Buddhist ideas and issues from modern life. The research employed Claude Lévi-Strauss’s theory of myth to examine ways operas use story patterns, and how their narrative structures maintain cultural values and tradition, while incorporating modern issues. The study aims to highlight inclusions such as family responsibility, love, grief, sacrifice, despair and renewal, as well as symbolic and supernatural entities which bring about transformation. As a result, the study shines a light on the ways Thai-language operas remain tied to tradition while integrating contemporary issues.

Methods: The research employs Lévi-Strauss’s structuralist method of analysis, in which each opera is first segmented into minimal narrative units (mythemes) based on libretti, synopses, and available performance materials. These units are then grouped into binary oppositions according to narrative tension, such as filial rejection versus maternal devotion or stasis versus reconnection. The oppositions are subsequently arranged into vertical columns to map how narrative relationships shift and develop across each work. This process enables rigorous comparison across the four operas while revealing underlying structural coherence. Secondary sources on structuralism, mythology, and opera provide contextual support and guide interpretation in line with Lévi-Strauss’s approach.

Results: The findings indicate that all four operas follow a consistent four-part mythic structure, demonstrating the continued influence of traditional narrative logic in Thai-language opera. Across the works, binary oppositions such as love versus duty, despair versus support, and isolation versus engagement are consistently shaped through symbolic or supernatural figures. These elements drive narrative transformation and allow contemporary concerns, including environmental crisis, mental health, and pandemic-induced isolation, to be expressed within enduring mythic patterns.

Conclusions: This research demonstrates that Thai-language opera functions as a contemporary vehicle for myth, using structural oppositions and symbolic elements to negotiate both traditional values and modern social issues. By applying Lévi-Straussian analysis, the research highlights how inherited narrative structures remain active and adaptable within a Southeast Asian operatic context. While limited by the small number of available works, the findings position Thai-language opera as a dynamic site of ethnomusicology in which cultural continuity and contemporary relevance intersect.

Mahidol Music Journal

IMPACTS OF URBANIZATION AND MODERNIZATION ON GUCHUIYUE: SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW

MYTH, MEANING AND STRUCTURE: A LÉVI-STRAUSSIAN ANALYSIS OF THAI-LANGUAGE OPERAS