The International Asian-Pacific Island Conference on Musical Therapy in Beijing: A New Measuring Reference

Abstract

The article presents information about the work of the International Asian-Pacific Island
Conference on Musical Therapy, which took place on September 18–22, 2019 at the Beijing
Pedagogical University (Beijing, China) and which posed topical questions related to the presentday
condition and paths of development of world and regional musical therapy in dialogue with the
challenges of the current time. This was the first conference devoted to this scholarly problem range,
which brought together representatives of a number of countries of that region: China, Russia,
South Korea, Japan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Turkey, Iran, etc.
The contradictions were acknowledged between the traditional ethno-cultural anthropo-practices
and the notions and standards of American musical therapy, the latter exerting a considerable
expansion into the Asian region. The authors emphasize the importance of the interdisciplinary
approach in forming a single scholarly foundation and national standards of musical therapy
from the positions of clinical methodology, both the cultural-anthropological and the exploratory
psychological varieties. During the course of the conference ongoing paths of cooperation were
set in the sphere of scholarly and educational programs, the development of cultural variations of
an effective musical therapy, which would be on demand for clinical, social and psychologicalpedagogical
practice.

Keywords: scholarly-practical conference of the Asian-Pacific Island Region, musical therapy,
musical-psychological anthropology.