This study sought to investigate how a cohort of American preservice graduate students in music education reconceptualize their pedagogical lens after participating in an immersive cultural music exchange program in China. By embracing a critical ontology framework, we interwove Western ways of knowing alongside local knowledge to examine the ways in which participants explored their cultural competence through self-reflection. Data indicated that participants in this study were receptive to non-Western social and musical experiences within learning environments that minimized power dynamics, such as peer-to-peer instruction and informal music making. This finding suggests that music teacher educators preparing a cultural immersion program could construct multiple types of learning opportunities in an effort to build preservice teachers' cultural competence. In addition to careful research, design, and implementation of immersion programs, music teacher educators might also prepare students for the messiness of the cultural competence work, including cultural misunderstandings, issues of authenticity, and varying interpretations.