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Letters from Jong Hai
For flute, cello, percussion, and fixed media (2023-2024)
PERUSAL SCORE
Program Note:
“Letters from Jong Hai” depicts the story of Charles Wong (Wong Mingzhu) and Flora Wong (Lee Jong Hai), a Chinese-American couple separated by geographical and political barriers during a tumultuous period in history.
Flora and Charles Wong had an arranged marriage in 1947 when Charles was 41 and Flora was 18. They would proceed to fall in love, as Charles was, in Flora’s words, “a handsome guy, a good father, and a good husband.”
When Charles Wong departed to start a new life in the United States of America, his wife Flora was forced to remain in her home country due to her inability to secure exit papers for immigration. Despite the lifting of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1943, the process of emigrating from China to the United States remained arduous. The letters, written in 1948 and preserved in the Wong Family Collection as part of the Montana Historical Society’s “Re-Imagining Migration” model, offer a poignant glimpse into the bureaucratic challenges the couple faced, along with the emotional toll of confronting the frustrating immigration system that repeatedly treated its citizens with neglect and indifference. Flora would detail these experiences in her book, Long Way Home: Journeys of a Chinese Montanan.
The variety of instrumental ensembles reflects the period of separation between Flora and Charles Movements, alternating between digitally created music, accompanied with Chinese text narrated by Asian-American vocalist Yi-An (Esther) Tien, and instrumental performances. Only three movements (mvts 1, 3, and 8) contain parts for all accoustic instruments, while all others are either entirely electronically generated (mvts 2, 5, and 8) or contain instrumental subsets (mvts 4, 6, and 7). In the final movement, although they appear to have plans to reunite in the near future, this optimism is coupled with both exhaustion and emotional suppression.
Text and Translations from the Montana Historical Society. Permission has been obtained in advance by the copyright holder.
Letters between Charles Wong and Flora Wong, 1948. Wong family papers. SC 2523. Montana Historical Society Library & Archives, Helena, Montana.
Performances:
March 16, 2024: “For Mum and Dad 3.0: Distant Letters” 345 East 103rd Street New York, NY
March 15, 2024: “For Mum and Dad 3.0: Distant Letters” 345 East 103rd Street New York, NY
March 14, 2024: “For Mum and Dad 3.0: Distant Letters” 345 East 103rd Street New York, NY
February 24, 2024: Corey Chang Doctoral Degree Recital (Auer Hall), Bloomington, IN