Sonic Border Passages in the Making of Chinese Modernity – The Hong Kong Balzan Symposium

When:
Tuesday, December 16, 2025 10:00 am - Wednesday, December 17, 2025 5:30 pm
Where:

Zoom Webinar

Description:

The Sonic Border Passages in the Making of Chinese Modernity Symposium invites the public to explore how sound shapes Chinese modernity across geographical, political, and cultural borders. Held from December 16–17, 2025, this two-day program brings together leading scholars, musicians, and filmmakers for keynote lectures, academic panels, concerts, and film screenings. Sessions will trace sonic encounters from folk music in remote regions to Chinese opera and contemporary experimental rock, opening new perspectives on China’s evolving soundscapes.

Members of the public are invited to join via Zoom webinar with advance online registration.

 

Speakers:

  • Daniel KL Chua [opening keynote]
    Chair Professor
    Mr & Mrs Hung Hing-ying Professor in the Arts
    Chairperson, Department of Music
    The University of Hong Kong
  • Edwin K. C. Li
    Assistant Professor, Musicology
    Department of Music, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
  • Yvonne Liao
    Assistant Professor, Musicology
    Department of Music, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
  • Yuanzheng Yang
    Department of Music, The University of Hong Kong
  • David Wilson
    Assistant Professor of Music
    Harvey Mudd College
  • Ma Chi-hang
    Director
    Ballad on the Shore
  • Jen-yen Chen
    Professor
    Graduate Institute of Musicology, National Taiwan University
  • Pi-yen Chen
    Director
    Audiovisual Center of Gaomin Monastery
  • Yongfei Du
    Musikethnologie
    Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover
  • Yun Emily Wang
    Assistant Professor of Music
    Duke University
  • Rujing Stacy Huang
    Assistant Professor
    Department of Music, The University of Hong Kong
  • Adam Kielman
    Associate Professor, Ethnomusicology
    Department of Music, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
  • Nancy Yunhwa Rao [Closing Keynote]
    Board of Governors Distinguished Professor
    Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University

REGISTER ZOOM WEBINAR

Program:

December 16, 2025

Time

Program

10:00–11:00 am

Opening keynote

Daniel K. L. Chua, University of Hong Kong

  • Border Passages in Global Musicology: Is There a Chinese Way? 

11:30 am–1:30 pm

Academic Session - East Asian Borderlands, Past and Present

Chair, Victoria Mogollón Montagne, University of Chicago

 

Edwin K. C. Li, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

  • Border Listening

 

Yvonne Liao, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

  • Passages of a Postcolonial Pig

 

Yuanzheng Yang, University of Hong Kong

  • Wang Cottage, West Lake: The Qin in Changing Modern China

3:00–4:30 pm

Film/Opera Session – Staging Passage on the Screen

Chair, Giorgio Biancorosso, University of Hong Kong

 

David Shuve Wilson, Harvey Mudd College

  • Mediated Stages: Theatricality and Emotional Persuasion in Contemporary Documentary Film

 

Discussion with filmmaker, Ma Chi-hang, Hong Kong

curated by David Shuve Wilson

 

December 17, 2025

Time

Program

10:00 am–12:00 nn

Academic Session - Sounding the Contact Zones with Chinese Modernity

Chair, Boyu Zhang, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen

 

Jen-yen Chen, National Taiwan University             

  • Chinese Auditors and European Sounds in Macau and the Guangdong Region: Listening Across Borders in a Sino-Western Contact Zone, 1519–1827      

 

Pi-yen Chen, Audiovisual Center of Gaomin Monastery

  • Functioning Liturgy: Leading Authenticity of Gaomin Monastery in the Post-Traditional World

 

Yongfei Du, Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover                             

  • Transnational Musicking as Border Passage: German Performances of Chinese Songs amid Sino-German Tensions

1:30–3:30 pm

Academic Seesion - Sonic Passage along the Borders of Modernity

Chair, Mark Barnekow, The University of Chicago Hong Kong Campus

 

Yun Emily Wang, Duke University

  • Listening for Otherwise Aliveness in the Chinese Canadian Center Care Home for the Aged

 

Rujing Stacy Huang, Hong Kong University

  • Sounds of Heaven: Divine Music, Imperial Rites, and Their Resonance in China Today   

 

Adam Kielman, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

  • Groove and the Afro-Asian Imaginary in Southwest China

4:00–5:30 pm

Closing Keynote

Nancy Yunhwa Rao, Rutgers University

  • Resonant Routes, Ocean Currents, Sino-Soundscapes:  Chinese Opera and the Transpacific World