Is musicology an irredeemably Western, even inadvertently colonialist, endeavour? Can it have any real relevance, other than as an imported curiosity, to music education and understanding in South East Asia, an area of much older and deeper musical traditions than the relatively recent 19thcentury German origins of musicology itself? 

This presentation poses these and other related questions in order to facilitate discussion on the uses and potential abuses of musicology in a SEA context, catalysed both by the current conference, and by the recent experience of setting up the SEA Chapter of the Royal Musical Association. 

From this discussion might emerge some answers to a final question: how might we forge a distinct SEA musicological identity, and would we wish to do so?