Assistant Professor Dr Ch'ng Xin Ying
Assistant Professor
Academic Qualifications
PhD Musicology
MMus Musicology
BMus Classical Music
Associate Diploma (Recital Piano) (ATCL)
Areas of Interest
Ch’ng Xin Ying received her Ph.D. in Musicology at the University of Southampton where she also completed her MMus. Her background as a classically-trained pianist with a minor in violin performance have enabled her to pursue further interests in historical musicology and a passion for how music can ‘voice’ socio-cultural and political issues of the past and present.
Her work has been received at various international conferences. This included meetings organised by the American Musicological Society in Milwaukee (2014), the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and the ‘Directions in Researching Post-1900 British Music’ at the University of Surrey. As a recipient of awards and research grants such as the Louise Dyer Award of the Musica Britannica Trust and the American Musicological Society Membership and Professional Development Grant, Xin Ying completed her doctoral research on twentieth-century British singers Kathleen Ferrier, Alfred Deller and Peter Pears. Other future projects include one that investigates media and sound as a potential colonizing force in the British Empire.
Before joining UCSI University, Xin Ying worked as a lecturer and seminar leader at the University of Southampton. She devised and taught a new Pre-Masters course focused on a broad overview of Western music history and taught an undergraduate music history course that spanned from 1750 to 1900. Her inventiveness in devising new courses and her commitment to creative pedagogy was evidenced in recognition as runner-up of the Doctoral College Director’s Award in Education. She was also an English language independent learning facilitator and PhD tutor under the Brilliant Club Scholars Programme (UK), which is dedicated to mobilise doctoral students to teach and inspire high school pupils from underrepresented backgrounds.
Xin Ying welcomes collaborators and students who intend to pursue any research areas listed below and is happy to expand her interests towards popular and contemporary music studies.
Publications
• Ch’ng, X.Y. (2022), Voicing the Muhibah spirit through Namewee’s Ali, Ahkao Dan Muthu. In Santaella, M. (Ed.), Popular music in East and Southeast Asia: Sonic (under) currents and currencies (pp320-330). Bandar Sunway: Sunway University Press.
Conference Presentations
• Ch’ng Xin Ying, ‘Rapping Racial Tension: Namewee’s Rap Songs and the Malaysian Education System’, International Association for the Study of Popular Music XXI 2022, Daegu, Korea, July 5-9 2022.
• Ch’ng, Xin Ying, ‘Voicing Multi-Racial Harmony through Namewee’s Ali, Ahkao Dan Muthu’, 7th Inter-Asia Popular Music Studies (IAPMS) Conference, Sunway University, 3-6 December 2020.
• Ch’ng, Xin Ying and Jeremy Leong, ‘“Zoom-ing” Music History during the COVID-19 Pandemic,’ Is the Virtual Real?: Music Communities in the 21st Century, Princess Galyani Vadhana Institute of Music International Symposium 2020 (Online Edition), 24-30 August 2020.
• Ch’ng, Xin Ying, ‘Namewee’s Negarakuku: Rapping Racial Discourse in the Malaysian National Anthem,’ Music and National Identity, Middle Tennessee State University, 25-26 July 2020.
• Ch’ng, Xin Ying, Pears as the Closeted “Voice” of Britten,’ Other Voices Study Day, University of Southampton, 20 February 2016
• Ch’ng, Xin Ying, ‘Ferrier as Lucretia: Chastity and Exploitation in The Rape of Lucretia,’ The State We’re In: Directions in Researching Post-1900 British Music, University of Surrey, 16-17 April 2015
• Ch’ng, Xin Ying, ‘What is an “English” Voice: Alfred Deller and the English Musical Renaissance,’ American Musicological Society, Milwaukee, 6-9 November 2014
• Ch’ng, Xin Ying, ‘What is an “English” Voice: Alfred Deller and the English Musical Renaissance,’ Confronting the National in the Musical Past, Sibelius Academy, Helsinki, 21-23 May 2014
• Ch’ng, Xin Ying, ‘Kathleen Ferrier’s Voice and Benjamin Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia,’ Royal Musical Association Student Conference, University of Southampton, 3-5 January 2013
RESEARCH GRANTS AND CONSULTANCIES
• 30 June-2 July 2022: Invited as presenter in Symposium on Sustainability, Mobility and Nationalism in Malaysian Performing Arts and Culture, organised by Penang House of Music
• 07-09-2021 to 06-09-2023: Co-Researcher of a FRGS Grant entitled ‘A History of Integration, a Future of Unity: Developing a Framework on Interethnic Unisonance in Malaysian Patriotic Music’
• 18-19 January 2021: Invited as Music Panellist for the ‘Impact Study of the Effectiveness of a Decade of Implementing the PERMATA/GENIUS Seni Programme’. Impact Study for PERSIDAYA (Association for the Appreciation of Arts and Culture) c/o Department of Culture and Performing Arts Malaysia.
• 9 December 2021: Invited as a Panellist under UKM-KITA Discourse Series on ‘Policing Namewee: Ethnonational Contestations and Reconciliations of a Malaysian Chinese Rap Icon’
• 2018: Invited as Peer Reviewer for the Journal of Royal Musical Association, UK
RESEARCH GRANT AND CONSULTANCIES