Half Sound, Half Philosophy

Jing Wang is Associate Professor in the College of Media and International Culture at Zhejiang University, China. She is an art anthropologist, sound studies scholar, sound event curator. She completed her PhD in the school of Interdisciplinary arts at Ohio University. She was a visiting professor at MIT anthropology (2019-2020). Artistically, Jing (Adel) works with field-recordings and installation-based performance. In January 2015, she founded The Sound Lab at College of Media and International Culture at Zhejiang University.

• AcknowledgementsList of IllustrationsIntroduction1. Sound, Resonance, the Philosophy of QiAncient Chinese AcousticsThe Philosophy of QiSound Explained Through Qi-PhilosophyConclusion2. A Brief History of Sound in China’s Contemporary ArtConditions and PrecursorsNew Media Art After 2000Sound Art after 20003. A Brief History of Electronic and Experimental Music in ChinaThe Electronic Instrument BuildersAcademic Electronic Music: InaugurationNon-Academic Electronic and Experimental MusicConclusion4. Shanshui-Thought in Experimental Music PracticeShanshui-Thought: An OverviewShanshui: The Existential and the EpistemologicalMaking Shanshui-Thought Audible: Two Aesthetic QualitiesConclusion 5. In Praise of Strange Sounds of the ShamanisticThe Minor Tradition in Ancient Chinese Culture: Shamanism and Chimei WangliangAcoustic Cultural Heritage and NationalismHuanghu and Its Two Aesthetic Operations of Resonance and WithdrawalConclusion6. Ubiquitous Control: From Cosmic Bell, Loudspeakers to Immanent HummingZhang Peili and Anti-monumentality of SoundZhang Ding and the Military-entertainment-art ComplexLiu Chuang and the (Im)Possibility of Not Being GovernedConclusion: Qi-Thinking, or Cybernetics: A way of Going OnGlossary of TermsBibliographyIndex

In this book, WANG Jing offers the reader the unique opportunity to investigate sonic creativity within but mainly outside of academe in China ranging from sound art to experimental and electroacoustic music to DIY culture and electronic instrument building. The historical discussion covers much ground but is not restricted to a multi-strand survey. Key to her approach is the investigation of Chinese cultural and philosophical elements that permeate this substantial body of creative work demonstrating beyond any doubt that experimentalism with sound in China is hardly a simple reflection of developments from other, mainly western countries but is instead largely deeply rooted in Chinese traditions, some ancient, related to sound, to qi and much more.