While the West drowned in its own diversity, Japan watched… and remembered who it was. Not with panic. Not with shame. But with the cold, ancient clarity of a country that knows what it's willing to die for. In a world that celebrates mass immigration — Japan says no.
It is AI generated (the "Not with panic. Not with shame." is a tell) and it is astonishing that not one of the videos discusses the shitshow that the US is operating currently. It's bullshit clickbait.
2025-12-17 23:06:32
re: marching band as being for girls
Both marching and school band, when transported to Japan, became something that women could excel at. Instrumental stereotypes run deep (if you don't know about Abbie Conant, it's worth it to read about it. Malcolm Gladwell wrote about it in a chapter in Blink which brought a lot of attention. I would pass that on, but Gladwell wrote the chapter without ever contacting Conant or even giving her the courtesy of letting her know she was going to be the focus of a chapter in his book. I guess some people would argue that he brought attention to her case, I tend to think this is shitty on the part of Gladwell)
Unfortunately, because brass band is often for women, it is often viewed as a skill to raise a woman's marriagability. English functions in a similar way and I tell people that in some ways, my job is like teaching needlepoint in Victorian England.
2025-12-16 02:14:04
That's Kyoto Tachibana HS. I hesitated to add it because it is a private school and so draws a lot of students because of the marching band (as well as the volleyball and soccer clubs) Fun fact, it was originally Kyoto Handicraft Girls' School and changed its name in 1957, going co-ed in 2000 (the band was formed in 1961 with the "original goal of improving girls’ health" according to a fan website)
https://kyototachibanashsbandunofficialfanblog.wordpress.com/tachibana-fact-sheet/
2025-12-14 07:28:41
cleek, nous, that's really interesting, at my university and I believe at every other university, there is always a large contingent of students who are in a band, and I think the large majority of them leaning to heavy metal/hard rock. I'm wondering if it can be connected to the love of classical music, it is hard for me to see it as the same, though it could very well spring from the same source.
2025-12-13 02:07:29
I think Japan does have that Chinese heritage of music education for young people, but the Cultural Revolution destroyed large ensembles of Western music, so you don't have the same ethos as Japan.
The institutions in China have been rebuilt in the intervening 50 years, and music is a required subject for primary and secondary school, but that discontinuity, plus the fact that academic subjects are more highly emphasized means that the situation is a little different from Japan.
You do have the same thing here with students who said that their mother (usually, the father most of the time doesn't deal with this) forced them to play piano, but a number of them say that they hated it at the time, but now appreciate it.
A couple of anecdotes, in Japan, every jhs and hs has a class chorus competition and it always surprised me that there was always at least 1 or 2 students within the class who played piano well enough to accompany. The whole thing is often run by the students, so you get this move away from a teacher centered thing to student led.
Another factoid that always amazed me, when a broadcaster records/televises a concert, they don't have to train the broadcast staff, they can simply give them annotated orchestra scores because they all can read music to a degree that the score acts as a shot list.
In Willie Ruff's autobiography, Call to Assembly, there is a chapter about the Mitchell-Ruff duo (Ruff plays french horn and bass) going to visit China and lecture at the Shanghai conservatory in 1981, which was 5 years after the end of the Cultural Revolution. The whole chapter is interesting, but this is particularly relevant
One [question] came from an older Chinese teacher. "When you created 'Shanghai Blues' just now," he asked, "did you have a form for it, or a logical plan?" I said, "I just started tapping my foot, then a theme suggested itself, which I played on the horn, and Mitchell heard it. And he answered And after that we heard and answered, heard and answered, heard and answered." "But can you play it again?" the professor asked. "We never can. He would not accept my answer. "But that is beyond our imagination. Our students here play a piece a hundred times, or two hundred times, to get it exactly right. You play something once-something that has great value-and then you throw it away." I said that if we played the same music twice in an improvisation, the second time would be no improvisation at all. "We call improvisation the lifeblood of jazz because the performer is challenged to do it better each time." The old teacher as much as threw up his hands. The mystery persisted.
This isn't to suggest that there are no Asian musicians who improvise, on the local level, there are some folks here whose concerts I go to and have great chops. (perhaps the topic of a future music thread), but I think all of them have had a period overseas where they immersed themselves and then have returned.
The opening of Charles' video
While the West drowned in its own diversity, Japan watched… and remembered who it was.
Not with panic. Not with shame.
But with the cold, ancient clarity of a country that knows what it's willing to die for.
In a world that celebrates mass immigration — Japan says no.
It is AI generated (the "Not with panic. Not with shame." is a tell) and it is astonishing that not one of the videos discusses the shitshow that the US is operating currently. It's bullshit clickbait.
re: marching band as being for girls
Both marching and school band, when transported to Japan, became something that women could excel at. Instrumental stereotypes run deep (if you don't know about Abbie Conant, it's worth it to read about it. Malcolm Gladwell wrote about it in a chapter in Blink which brought a lot of attention. I would pass that on, but Gladwell wrote the chapter without ever contacting Conant or even giving her the courtesy of letting her know she was going to be the focus of a chapter in his book. I guess some people would argue that he brought attention to her case, I tend to think this is shitty on the part of Gladwell)
Unfortunately, because brass band is often for women, it is often viewed as a skill to raise a woman's marriagability. English functions in a similar way and I tell people that in some ways, my job is like teaching needlepoint in Victorian England.
That's Kyoto Tachibana HS. I hesitated to add it because it is a private school and so draws a lot of students because of the marching band (as well as the volleyball and soccer clubs) Fun fact, it was originally Kyoto Handicraft Girls' School and changed its name in 1957, going co-ed in 2000 (the band was formed in 1961 with the "original goal of improving girls’ health" according to a fan website)
https://kyototachibanashsbandunofficialfanblog.wordpress.com/tachibana-fact-sheet/
cleek, nous, that's really interesting, at my university and I believe at every other university, there is always a large contingent of students who are in a band, and I think the large majority of them leaning to heavy metal/hard rock. I'm wondering if it can be connected to the love of classical music, it is hard for me to see it as the same, though it could very well spring from the same source.
I think Japan does have that Chinese heritage of music education for young people, but the Cultural Revolution destroyed large ensembles of Western music, so you don't have the same ethos as Japan.
The institutions in China have been rebuilt in the intervening 50 years, and music is a required subject for primary and secondary school, but that discontinuity, plus the fact that academic subjects are more highly emphasized means that the situation is a little different from Japan.
You do have the same thing here with students who said that their mother (usually, the father most of the time doesn't deal with this) forced them to play piano, but a number of them say that they hated it at the time, but now appreciate it.
A couple of anecdotes, in Japan, every jhs and hs has a class chorus competition and it always surprised me that there was always at least 1 or 2 students within the class who played piano well enough to accompany. The whole thing is often run by the students, so you get this move away from a teacher centered thing to student led.
Another factoid that always amazed me, when a broadcaster records/televises a concert, they don't have to train the broadcast staff, they can simply give them annotated orchestra scores because they all can read music to a degree that the score acts as a shot list.
In Willie Ruff's autobiography, Call to Assembly, there is a chapter about the Mitchell-Ruff duo (Ruff plays french horn and bass) going to visit China and lecture at the Shanghai conservatory in 1981, which was 5 years after the end of the Cultural Revolution. The whole chapter is interesting, but this is particularly relevant
One [question] came from an older Chinese teacher. "When you created 'Shanghai Blues' just now," he asked, "did you have a form for it, or a logical plan?"
I said, "I just started tapping my foot, then a theme suggested itself, which I played on the horn, and Mitchell heard it. And he answered And after that we heard and answered, heard and answered, heard and answered."
"But can you play it again?" the professor asked.
"We never can.
He would not accept my answer. "But that is beyond our imagination. Our students here play a piece a hundred times, or two hundred times, to get it exactly right. You play something once-something that has great value-and then you throw it away."
I said that if we played the same music twice in an improvisation, the second time would be no improvisation at all. "We call improvisation the lifeblood of jazz because the performer is challenged to do it better each time."
The old teacher as much as threw up his hands. The mystery persisted.
This isn't to suggest that there are no Asian musicians who improvise, on the local level, there are some folks here whose concerts I go to and have great chops. (perhaps the topic of a future music thread), but I think all of them have had a period overseas where they immersed themselves and then have returned.