Exploring the gender-stereotypes in musical instruments choice among chinese undergraduates / Zhuang Chun Mei

• Main Author: Zhuang, Chun Mei
• Format: Thesis
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: M Music; PN Literature (General)
• Online Access: http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/5904/2/Cover_page.pdf; http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/5904/3/Front_page.pdf; http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/5904/1/Abstract_%2B_Title_of_Content.pdf; http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/5904/5/TEXT3107.pdf; http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/5904/
• Institution: Universiti Malaya

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether gender-stereotypes with musical instruments exist in China and to explore the reasons for instrument choice. Survey one was designed to measure subjects’ perceived gender associations of 10 Western orchestra instruments and 7 Chinese traditional musical instruments. Subjects were 194 college level undergraduates from LinYi University, China. They were asked to indicate the perceived degree of each instrument from very masculine to very feminine on a 5-point scale. The result showed the gender-stereotypes towards musical instruments also existed among the Chinese undergraduates. The rank order of the 10 Western orchestra instruments from masculine to feminine was Trombone, Trumpet, Saxophone, Drum, Clarinet, Guitar, Cello, Piano, Flute and Violin in this study. To compare with the previous related Western studies, the Clarinet was perceived as more masculine and the Drum was perceived as more neutral in this study. In addition, the degree of instrument-gender stereotyping was lessened, this may be due to the homogeneous society of China, or introverted character of Chinese. The rank order of the 7 Chinese traditional musical instruments from masculine to feminine was Suona, Xiao, Dizi, Erhu, Guqin, Guzheng, and Pipa. Survey two aimed to explore the reasons that influence participants’ choice of musical instruments. 51 subjects were recruited from the LinYi University Students’ Folk String and Wind Orchestra. Survey two listed 15 reasons for the instrument choice, subjects were asked to rate each item on a 5-point Likert scale from “not influential” to “very influential.” The results showed the most influential reason was the “I liked the sound of the instrument.” While the “The instrument was inexpensive to buy or rent.” item had almost no influence. Several reasons that were not previously identified were revealed in the open-ended responses.