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FashionFriday: Lang Lang’s Visual Marketing
Citation
Teniswood-Harvey, A, FashionFriday: Lang Lang's Visual Marketing, 18th International Conference of Association RIdIM - Music and Image in Social, Cultural and Political Discourse Program, 9-12 July 2018, Canterbury Christ Church University, pp. 80-81. ISBN 978-3-033-06809-4 (2018) [Conference Extract]
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Official URL: https://ridim.org/conferences-2/
Abstract
This paper will examine the self-fashioning, construction of identities and cultivation of
fan interaction that lies at the heart of Lang Lang’s strategic use of visual media, and of
social media platforms such as Instagram. Using Glenn Gould’s iconography as a point of
comparison (given that both pianists have been represented by Columbia Artists and that
Gould’s rise to fame coincided with the increased use of popular media for publicity, a trend he wholeheartedly embraced), the paper will analyse Lang Lang’s iconography in light
of the changing relationships with classical music experienced by Chinese and Western
audiences over the past decades. In particular, the association of classical music with wealth
and prestige through Lang Lang’s endorsement of luxury brands and his overt cultivation
of celebrity status, will be considered in light of the special status Western classical music
(particularly the piano) enjoys in contemporary China, and China’s increasing consumption of
luxury goods. Furthermore, as scholars have noted, Lang Lang’s commitment to his cultural
background and his overt displays of "Chineseness," enable him to effectively straddle two
cultures: in the West he is "exoticised" and "orientalised," while in China his home-grown
but internationally-acclaimed stardom is embraced and promoted. As David Remnick wrote
in The New Yorker in 2008, Lang Lang "does not earn the money he does because he is
better than, say, Maurizio Pollini, Martha Argerich, or, in truth, a dozen others. He earns
it because of his shiny novelty and flair, and, perhaps especially, because he is an avatar of
the Chinese ascendance." The paper will analyse Lang Lang’s visual marketing in relation
to this ascendance, and to the combination of traditional values and increasing capitalism
that characterises contemporary Chinese culture.
Item Details
| Item Type: | Conference Extract |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | music |
| Research Division: | Creative Arts and Writing |
| Research Group: | Art history, theory and criticism |
| Research Field: | Art history |
| Objective Division: | Culture and Society |
| Objective Group: | Arts |
| Objective Field: | The performing arts |
| UTAS Author: | Teniswood-Harvey, A (Dr Arabella Teniswood-Harvey) |
| ID Code: | 127767 |
| Year Published: | 2018 |
| Deposited By: | Office of the School of Creative Arts and Media |
| Deposited On: | 2018-08-15 |
| Last Modified: | 2018-08-15 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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