A Way of Music Education ― Classic Chinese Wisdoms

Moving back through Dewey, Heidegger, Nietzsche, and Rousseau, the lineage of Western music education finds its origins in Plato and Pythagoras. Yet theories not rooted in the ancient Greek tradition are all but absent. A Way of Music Education provides a much-needed intervention, integrating ancient Chinese thought into the canon of music education in a structured, systematized, and philosophical way. The book's three central sources - the Yijing (The Book of Changes), Confucianism, and Daoism - inform author C. Victor Fung's argument: that the human being exists as an entity at the center of an organismic world in which all things and events, including music and music education, are connected. Fung ultimately proposes a new educational philosophy based on three key ideas in Chinese thought: change, balance, and liberation. A unique work, A Way of Music Education offers a universal approach engrained in a specific and ancient cultural tradition.

C. Victor Fung is Professor of Music Education and Director of Center for Music Education Research at the University of South Florida, Tampa. His research emphasizes on social psychological aspects, multicultural issues, and international perspectives of music education. He has given over eighty presentations at professional conferences, and open lectures and seminars at over twenty institutions, across five continents. He has served as a Board Member for the International Society for Music Education, the College Music Society, and Florida Music Education Association.