Levi S Gibbs
I am an Associate Professor of Chinese language and literature at Dartmouth College. My research interests include regional identity, cultural politics, and oral traditions. My first book looks at why the life stories of iconic singers resonate with audiences, how singers adapt performances as they move from smaller to bigger places, and how singers' lives and songs intersect with tensions resulting from social change.
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Books by Levi S Gibbs
Cutting-edge and original, Social Voices reveals how singers and their songs equip us to process social change and divergent opinions
Contributors: Christina D. Abreu, Michael K. Bourdaghs, Kwame Dawes, Nancy Guy, Ruth Hellier, John Lie, Treva B. Lindsey, Eric Lott, Katherine Meizel, Carol A. Muller, Natalie Sarrazin, Anthony Seeger, Carol Silverman, Andrew Simon, Jeff Todd Titon, and Elijah Wald
Contributors: Charlotte D'Evelyn, Emily Wilcox, Sue Tuohy, Helen Rees, and Levi S. Gibbs.
ISBN: 978-0-253-04586-7
http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/product_info.php?cPath=1037_3130_8852&products_id=809862
Born in a small mountain village near the intersection of the Great Wall and the Yellow River in a border region with a rich history of migration, Wang Xiangrong was exposed to a wide range of songs as a child. The songs of Wang’s youth prepared him to create a repertoire of region-representing pieces and mediate between regions, nations, and multinational corporations in national and international performances. During the course of a career that included meeting Deng Xiaoping in 1980 and running with the Olympic torch in 2008, Wang’s life, songs, and performances have come to highlight various facets of social identity in contemporary China. Drawing on extensive fieldwork with Wang and other professional folksingers from northern Shaanxi province at weddings, Chinese New Year galas, business openings, and Christmas concerts, Song King argues that songs act as public conversations people can join in on. As song kings and queens fuse personal and collective narratives in performances of iconic songs, they provide audiences with compelling models for socializing personal experience, negotiating a sense of self and group in an ever-changing world.
Papers by Levi S Gibbs
Cutting-edge and original, Social Voices reveals how singers and their songs equip us to process social change and divergent opinions
Contributors: Christina D. Abreu, Michael K. Bourdaghs, Kwame Dawes, Nancy Guy, Ruth Hellier, John Lie, Treva B. Lindsey, Eric Lott, Katherine Meizel, Carol A. Muller, Natalie Sarrazin, Anthony Seeger, Carol Silverman, Andrew Simon, Jeff Todd Titon, and Elijah Wald
Contributors: Charlotte D'Evelyn, Emily Wilcox, Sue Tuohy, Helen Rees, and Levi S. Gibbs.
ISBN: 978-0-253-04586-7
http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/product_info.php?cPath=1037_3130_8852&products_id=809862
Born in a small mountain village near the intersection of the Great Wall and the Yellow River in a border region with a rich history of migration, Wang Xiangrong was exposed to a wide range of songs as a child. The songs of Wang’s youth prepared him to create a repertoire of region-representing pieces and mediate between regions, nations, and multinational corporations in national and international performances. During the course of a career that included meeting Deng Xiaoping in 1980 and running with the Olympic torch in 2008, Wang’s life, songs, and performances have come to highlight various facets of social identity in contemporary China. Drawing on extensive fieldwork with Wang and other professional folksingers from northern Shaanxi province at weddings, Chinese New Year galas, business openings, and Christmas concerts, Song King argues that songs act as public conversations people can join in on. As song kings and queens fuse personal and collective narratives in performances of iconic songs, they provide audiences with compelling models for socializing personal experience, negotiating a sense of self and group in an ever-changing world.