Half Sound, Half Philosophy: Aesthetics, Politics, and History of China's Sound Art

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Acknowledgements List of Illustrations
Introduction 1. Sound, Resonance, the Philosophy of Qi Ancient Chinese Acoustics The Philosophy of Qi Sound Explained Through Qi-Philosophy
Conclusion 2. A Brief History of Sound in China's Contemporary Art Conditions and Precursors New Media Art After 2000 Sound Art after 2000 3. A Brief History of Electronic and Experimental Music in China The Electronic Instrument Builders Academic Electro
Conclusion 4. Shanshui-Thought in Experimental Music Practice Shanshui-Thought: An Overview Shanshui: The Existential and the Epistemological Making Shanshui-Thought Audible: Two Aesthetic Qualities
Conclusion 5. In Praise of Strange Sounds of the Shamanistic The Minor Tradition in Ancient Chinese Culture: Shamanism and Chimei Wangliang Acoustic Cultural Heritage and Nationalism Huanghu and Its Two Aesthetic Operations of Resonance and Withdrawal
Conclusion 6. Ubiquitous Control: From Cosmic Bell, Loudspeakers to Immanent Humming Zhang Peili and Anti-monumentality of Sound Zhang Ding and the Military-entertainment-art Complex Liu Chuang and the (Im)Possibility of Not Being Governed
Conclusion Qi-Thinking, or Cybernetics: A way of Going On
Glossary of Terms
Bibliography
Index

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From the late 1990s until today, China’s sound practice has been developing in an increasingly globalized socio-political-aesthetic milieu, receiving attentions and investments from the art world, music industry and cultural institutes, with nevertheless, its unique acoustic philosophy remaining silent. This book traces the history of sound practice from contemporary Chinese visual art back in the 1980s, to electronic music, which was introduced as a target of critique in the 1950s, to electronic instrument building fever in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and to the origins of both academic and nonacademic electronic and experimental music activities. This expansive tracing of sound in the arts resonates with another goal of this book, to understand sound and its artistic practice through notions informed by Chinese qi-cosmology and qi-philosophy, including notions of resonance, shanshui (mountains-waters), huanghu (elusiveness and evasiveness), and distributed monumentality and anti-monumentality. By turning back to deep history to learn about the meaning and function of sound and listening in ancient China, the book offers a refreshing understanding of the British sinologist Joseph Needham’s statement that “Chinese acoustics is acoustics of qi.” and expands existing conceptualization of sound art and contemporary music at large.

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