Professor (ethnomusicology/world music)

Music Building, 216
651-696-6520

Chuen-Fung Wong is an ethnomusicologist and music historian whose work focuses on minority nationalism, musical modernity, cultural revival, and exoticism in a number of Asian traditions. He studies Uyghur music and performing arts, and is the author of Even in the Rain: Uyghur Music in Modern China (2023). Wong has published three other books as author and editor: Silk and Bamboo: Instrumental Music from the Chinese South (2024), Soundscapes in Chinese Music (2019), and Listening to Chinese Music (2009). His essays, translations, and other writings have appeared in major peer-reviewed journals, collected volumes, and encyclopedias.

Wong is recipient of a number of prestigious awards, grants, and other recognitions, including the National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, Hong Kong Research Grants Council Grants, the Rulan Chao Pian Prize for the best article on Chinese music, the Macalester Trustee’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship, Teaching, and Service, the HKBU Outstanding Young Researcher Award, among others. He was president of the Association for Chinese Music Research and editor of the ACMR Newsletter. Wong holds a PhD in Ethnomusicology from the University of California, Los Angeles, as well as an MPhil and BA from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

At Macalester College, Wong teaches courses in world music and ethnomusicology. He is the founding director of the Macalester Asian Music Ensemble, which performs chamber genres and repertoires from across Asia.