mOthertongue: Lived Experience in Asian America

mOthertongue: Lived Experience in Asian America

Jennifer Lien, soprano
Annie Jeng, piano

Exotic landscapes. Virtuous, submissive, sexualized women. Ineffective, emasculated, villainous men. These images of Asia have long been a staple of the European imagination, whether in colonial-era art song, grand Italian opera, film, or television. Here, in the 21st century, these stereotypes about Americans of Asian descent persist (see: pandemic-era anti-Asian hate).  

I believe that the way to challenge outdated cultural ideas is by sharing new art with fresh cultural ideas. I wanted to perform songs that assert the Asian American lived experience, from the perspective of those of us who live it. But when I went looking for songs by Asian American composers set to contemporary Asian American texts, I came up empty. So I reached out to Chen, Dunphy, and Sankaram, three Asian American women composers in their prime who also write beautifully for the voice. To my surprise, all three readily agreed to my proposal.  

The new songs on today’s program express the joys, pains, contradictions, and pride we experience as Asians living in this land we call home. I am struck by the recurring themes that resonate across the three song cycles: colonization; cultural shame; living in between cultures; culture loss; microaggression; pride. To sing these truths is to find and reclaim power that has been lost somewhere along the way. 

My deepest gratitude goes to Justine, Melissa, Kamala, and the poet Ophelia Hu Kinney; to Sam Martin of Cincinnati Song Initiative for recognizing the importance of this project and co-commissioning these songs with me; to the Minnesota State Arts Board for awarding me a Creative Individuals grant in 2024; to all my Asian American pianist partners on this project, in particular Annie Jeng here in North Carolina; and to all the host institutions welcoming this project to their concert stages. 

My wish for this project is that these songs feed the hunger of singers for repertoire that expresses their lived experience, and inspire marginalized composers to create works that assert their truths, take up space, and shift the cultural needle in the right direction. Our stories are all American stories. To answer the question in Chen’s second song: All of us belong here.

— Jennifer Lien