From Molihua to Arirang:

The Role of Folksong in Modem China and South Korea

Su Zheng(Wesleyan University, USA)

I would like first to express my gratitude to Dr. Hwang Jun Yon and

Asian Music Research Institute, Seoul National University, for hosting

this stimulating conference. I am honored to be invited to this exciting event,

and very pleased to have the opportunity to meet my distinguished

colleagues from Korea, Japan, and the U.S. I also want to express my sincere

thanks to Dr. Yong-Shik Lee for his excellent work in bringing us together.

Comparative studies of Korea, China and Japan's musical cultures have

been mostly focused on, and for the right reasons, written historical sources,

court music or theatrical genres, and the shared Confucian, Daoist or

Buddhist roots as foundation for the formation of musical aesthetics and

social functions. Chinese scholar Weng Minhua's resent monograph, Zhong

Ri Han xiju wenhua yinyuan yanjiu (A comparative research on China, Japan,

and Korea's theatrical cultures) (2004) reveals much fascinating

connectionand divergence in theatrical performances among these three

countries. It is rather uncommon, however, and perhaps also for the right

reasons, to compare folksong among these three countries. One obvious

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