International Journal of Asian Studies (2020), 1–3
doi:10.1017/S1479591420000546

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https://doi.org/10.1017/S1479591420000546

BOOK REVIEW

Vamping the Stage: Female Voices of Asian Modernities
By Andrew N. Weintraub and Bart Barendregt. University or Hawai’i Press,2017. Pp 363. ISBN 13: 9780824869861
Takako Inoue
Daito Bunka University
Takako Inoue, E-mail: itakako@ic.daito.ac.jp(Received 2 August 2020; accepted 7 August 2020)

This edited book describes the various activities and subjectivities of Asian female singers, and theirforms of agency in ongoing struggles and negotiation with the social circumstances that have surrounded by them from the early twentieth century until today, following the historical accumulationof one hundred years of Asian popular music. The word “VAMP” in the title of this book, not only has
a literal meaning, but also constitutes the abbreviation of the Voice of Asian Modernity Project. This
book is a collection of the project papers that relate to the main theme of this book: female singers in
Asian popular music. As stated by the editors, it is significant that this is the first book to offer a historical and comparative examination of women and popular music in Asia. According to my review ofthe development of gender studies in the field of music, I believe this book is a must-read, equivalent
to significant books such as Women and Music in Cross-Cultural Perspectives, edited by Ellen Koskoff
in 1987, and Feminine Endings: Music, Gender, and Sexuality, which was written by Susan McClary in
1991.
In the introductory chapter, the editors address the following themes: the historical and culturalconditions, the relationship between female singers and the modern media, esthetic forms and practices, and the meanings about women and gendered relations. Further difficulties do emerge in thiskind of study. First, the editors point out that as a term, “Asia” is not limited to suggesting a geographical imagination. As a scholar of Asian area studies focusing on India, whenever I hear this term, I am
immediately reminded of another, “Orientalism,” as defined by Edward Said, along with its ideologicalimplications. We must inevitably consider colonial experiences that resulted from the unequal power
relations between Asia and Europe, and we can easily identify the influences of colonial rule anywhere,
even in the postcolonial globalizing world.
This perception also leads to consideration of the term, “modernity,” which the editors carefully use
in its plural form (“modernities”) in the subtitle of this book. Here, “modernity” is explained as both adiscursive construct and an experimental project within Asia. I argue that the political implications of
the unequal power relations that still exist between the colonized and the colonizer, the East and theWest, Asia and Europe, or the Orient and the Occident, might be weakened if modernity is ambiguously defined. Although it is natural for people’s experiences to be varied according to their social circumstances, and I agree that we should not essentialize “modernity” according to a Euro-Americanmodel, we should not forget that the practical reality is the common experience of colonized Asians.
This point is also closely related to gender issues in Asia. Women are often relegated to a position
characterized not by “modernity” but “tradition.” We can find numerous examples: unmarried women
who are accompanied by men, housewives who subscribe to western fashion, and educated women
who assert themselves. As a whole, westernized women in the public sphere have often been criticizedby conservatives as those who rebel against tradition, social norms, and even the national identity. In
this sense, some scholars have noted that women are often ignored or left out of accounts of© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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https://doi.org/10.1017/S1479591420000546

2

Book Review

modernity. However, the scholars contributing to this book have endeavored to describe female singers
as powerful individuals with their “own voice,” while also highlighting their marginalized histories.
Several projects have focused on female subjectivities and their agencies using various approaches
to examine global modernity. Substantial difficulties emerge in such projects, as women have rarely left
a personal account of themselves; they have instead frequently been discussed by others collectively, as“women” but not as individuals. Although we can recognize that female singers with fame and a professional skill owing to their own unique expression are accustomed to having a voice in public (unlike
ordinary women), those same voices off-stage might be “silent” (or silenced), in which case, they must
engage in the performance of conventional characters that the audience expects them to perform,
which are often objectified by the male gaze. Most scholars who contributed to this book also dependon an analysis of lyrics composed by others, as well as gossip columns, articles, and other accounts
appearing in magazines, newspapers, and other media that were written and spoken by critics, fans,the audience, and other entities. Many years passed before female singers were able to obtain themeans of expressing themselves with their own authentic voice. Thus, research on Asian female
pop singers addresses three issues affected by unequal power relations: Asia, modernity, and gender.
Following its introductory chapter, the book is divided into four parts, each of which includes threeor four chapters following the introductory chapter. Part I is titled “Triumph and Tragedies of theColonized Voice: Colonial Modernity, Commodification, and the Circulation of Women’s Voices,”and includes papers on Chinese singers who appear in films (two chapters), Malay women singers,
and migrant comfort women from East Asia. Part II is titled “Modern Stars and Modern Lives:Nation, Memory, and the Politics of Gender,” and includes papers on Japanese Diva Hibari
Misora, a famous Indonesian pop singer, and a female playback singer of South India. Part III is titled,“Silenced Voices and Forbidden Modernities: Censorship, Morality, and the National Identity” andincludes papers on the female singers of South Korea, a post-Islamic pop diva in Malaysia, and anIranian female singer. Part IV is titled, “Body Politics and Discourses of Femininity: Image,
Sexuality, and the Body” and includes papers on Filipina female singers from the time period of1913–1972, a Javanese female singer who is described in print media, South Korean dance divas,
and the virtual idol Hatsune Miku in Japan.
As we can see from the above chapters, the papers are ordered almost chronologically, beginningwith those situated in colonial times (the first half of the twentieth century or the prewar era), then theera characterized by the postcolonial struggle with modernization following the independence of particular Asian countries (1950s–1970s), followed by the next stage of identity exploration during the eraof nation-building (1960s–1980s), and finally, the era of the postmodern globalizing world (1980sonward). In terms of geography, more papers are focused on East Asia (China, Japan, and Korea)
and Southeast Asia (Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia) but fewer focus on South Asia (oneon India) and West Asia (one on Iran). This may suggest that academic research on Asian popular
music has been mainly led by English-speaking scholars focused on the study of East Asia. Given
that South Asia is my main field, I can observe that not only are playback singers typical in Indianfilm-making but various types of female singers have attracted large audiences because the popular
music industry has independently evolved in India since the early twentieth century. Although a number of English-speaking scholars in India are involving themselves in Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, one
reason fewer papers are published on South Asia may be related to the fact that studies on the popular
culture of contemporary India are dominated by film studies, since the film industry in India is themost prolific in the world in terms of productivity.
In addition to the above, I would like to comment on the relationship among gender, religion, andgeography, which comprise as my primary area of study, although I cannot discuss each paper in thisreview. I also regret that there is only one paper on the so-called Middle East countries, which scholars
may consider to be located between Asia and Europe, the very area of confrontation between theOrient and the Occident, about which Said conceived the idea of his book, Orientalism.
Furthermore, it is important to highlight that Muslims are in the majority in this area; the paperon an Iranian singer reveals her fame during the prerevolutionary era and her silence after theDownloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 110.133.75.154, on 12 Oct 2020 at 13:57:30, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S1479591420000546

International Journal of Asian Studies

3revolution. Due to the segregation of women and the negative view of music, popular music industries
are typically difficult to develop; female singers face discrimination and exclusion from the scene in
Islamic countries. Nevertheless, a few well-known female divas have emerged, such as Umm
Kulthum in Egypt and Fairuz in Lebanon. It is quite interesting to note that in Chapter 9, theMalaysian pop diva Siti’s commercial success with religious songs was formally certified as halal (permissible). I wonder whether it would be possible to recognize a halal entertainer like Siti in stricter
Islamic countries. How are Arab nations characterizing Umm Kulthum among increasingly fundamental Muslims today?
I am somewhat perplexed as to why the editors decided to include the last chapter, which focuseson Hatsune Miku, as this particular phenomenon has no subjectivity and is instead merely a software
operated by those who purchase it. Although I agree that it is important for popular music studies toresearch the creation of virtual idols based on individual user preferences, we should introduce different perspectives to analyze this phenomenon. In particular, we should focus on those who operate
Hatsume Miku. In this sense, the distinction that was made previously between idols and fanscould be transformed into more ambiguous and multitiered relations mediated by an operable idol.
The main themes of this book (female singers’ subjectivities and agencies in Asia at the time of modernization) do not emerge from the software itself but through the operators, whose gender is notalways recognized by the public. I think that this topic should have been treated as another project.
However, there can be no doubt that this book provides various ideas and inspirations for carryingout further projects on musical performance, gendered relations and Asian modernities.