ABOUT US
CHIME, founded in Europe in 1990, is a worldwide platform for scholars and students of Chinese music. It started life as a Research Foundation, but has now become a meeting place. Many of us have studied ethnomusicology, sinology or anthropology. Some of us are journalists, musicians, or teachers. All of us are aficionados of Chinese or East Asian music. You can stay up-to-date with our current activities by subscribing to our CHIME News bulletin.
At our archive in Heidelberg (Germany), and at our office in Leiden (The Netherlands) Frank Kouwenhoven and his colleagues are at your disposal to answer queries about Chinese music. CHIME is a non-profit independent platform for research and promotion, ruled by a board of experts. Daily business and events are organized by the CHIME Coordinating Committee.
Consult our online journal and extensive online bibliography, join our annual meetings, contribute to our online discussion platform, or simply consult our site to find out more about Chinese music.
CHIME takes an open approach to musical culture: There are Chinese-speaking communities all over the world, some who identify closely with a Chinese motherland, some who like to stress that they are Taiwanese or Hong Kongese rather than Chinese. CHIME takes an interest in the music of all these groups. We are also interested in the music of Tibetans, Mongolians, Uyghurs, Koreans, Japanese, Vietnamese and a great many other communities in Asia whose cultures interact closely with those of Han-Chinese or other groups living inside or stemming from China. CHIME promotes musical understanding across cultures, regardless of any political, ethnic and social differences or dividing lines.
The Chime building, in the historic city centre of Leiden, The Netherlands. (Gerecht 1). This was the home of our library and audiovisual archives until our collections were moved in 2019-2021. Our books, journals and audiovisual materials are now kept at CATS, the Centre for Asian and Transcultural Studies of the University of Heidelberg. Our musical instruments were moved to the Centro Científico e Cultural de Macau (CCCM) in Lisbon, Portugal. Our international office will continue to function in Leiden.
CHIME is an abbreviation of ‘Chinese Music Europe’ – Europe is where we started our organization – but we actually operate world-wide. The word ‘chime’ (qing in Chinese) refers to many things we like: bell ringing, clear and resonant sounds, clarity, harmony, a spirit of agreement...
In its specific sense of a Chinese musical instrument, chime/qing refers to small bells or to L-shaped sonorous stones used in ancient Chinese music.
Our logo was designed by the Chinese painter and calligrapher Zhang Qinghui (Suzhou). He wrote the Chinese character qing in such a way as to bring out its musical implications.
