Harmony enhanced by music discussion

There were no musical instruments or singing in the meeting room on the first afternoon of East-West Center and East-West Center Alumni International Conference on Saturday in Beijing, but scholars from the United States and China joined in harmony through a panel discussion on music.

Frederick Lau, director of the Center for Chinese Studies at University of Hawaii at Manoa, spoke of his study of Chinese music in a Hawaiian context during a lecture titled Singing as Collective Memory: Chinese Choir in the Diaspora, his insights gleaned through his six years with the Han Sheng Chinese Choir - literally, "voice of Han people" - in Honolulu.

"The choir members join not only for fun or as an artistic pursuit," Lau said. "They build an identity for themselves."