Editors

Andreas Steen: Professor of Modern Chinese History and Culture, Department of Global Studies, Aarhus University, Denmark

Frederick Lau 劉長江: Esteemed ethnomusicologist, flutist, and conductor with a focus on Chinese, Western, and Asian music and cultures

Andrew F. Jones: Louis B. Agassiz Professor in Chinese at UC Berkeley, focusing on modern Chinese literature and media culture

Contributors

Yuan-Yu Kuan 官元瑜: Assistant Professor, Ethnomusicology, Department of Music, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

Barbara Mittler: Chair, Chinese Studies, University of Heidelberg, Co-Founder, Centre for Asian and Transcultural Studies (CATS)

Marc L. Moskowitz: Professor and Chair, Department of Anthropology, University of South Carolina

Wang Di 王笛: Postdoctoral Fellow, Yuelu Academy, Hunan University

 

Tracing the global journeys of Chinese sounds from the nineteenth century to the present, this volume charts a vast sonic territory: from Cantonese opera arias in San Francisco to the “Far East sound” that shaped Jamaican reggae, and from the melodies of pigeon whistles over Germany to the revolutionary anthems of Cold War Italy… How have these sounds—traveling via migration, media, and diplomacy—been heard, adapted, or even rejected in disparate cultural landscapes?

Through seventeen case studies spanning Asia, the Americas, and Europe, the book uncovers the myriad ways sounds interpreted as “Chinese” are transformed, contested, and imbued with new meanings as they reverberate across geopolitical and cultural borders. This collection provides a novel auditory history of China’s global entanglements, offering a comparative lens to understand the dynamic role of sound in transnational exchange and the negotiation of cultural identity.