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UPCOMING MEETINGS

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27th International CHIME

Meeting in the Field

Zhejiang Conservatory, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

7-12 November 2024

THIS CALL FOR PARTICIPATION IS CLOSED

Call for Participation

Dear Friends, Colleagues and Chinese Music Enthusiasts,

The Zhejiang Conservatory of Music in Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China, is proud to announce the 27th International CHIME – Meeting in the Field, 7-12 November 2024. It will be a unique five-day event, combining three days of immersive fieldwork across Zhejiang province (8-10 Nov) with a two day-conference (11-12 Nov) at the Conservatory campus, in which the participants are invited to exchange experiences and present ad hoc reports on their musical fieldwork.

About the Conference

Inspired by the 11th CHIME meeting, held in Yulin, Shaanxi province in 2006, the 27th edition of CHIME once again takes up the format of a ‘traveling conference’ – a Meeting in the Field. This time we aim to explore local musical traditions scattered across Zhejiang province. Through hands-on fieldwork sessions and insightful discussions, we hope to uncover the rich cultural tapestry woven into the various landscapes of the Jiangnan area.

Chinese and international scholars from diverse corners of the globe are expected to join forces in this meeting. Ethnomusicologists who carried out little or no fieldwork in China so far are welcome to take up the challenge. The gathering in Zhejiang will offer them rare chance to engage with China’s musical heritage and native fieldwork practices. Those who have already carried out extensive fieldwork elsewhere in China are equally welcome to take up this opportunity to access a rich and varied panoply of rural musical traditions in Zhejiang. Scholars with backgrounds in Sinology or Anthropology are also explicitly welcomed to list up! A team of seasoned local music scholars will join the event as guiding experts.

The meeting’s key objectives are to foster a rich cross-cultural dialogue and to make unexpected discoveries! Come prepared to find inspiration in local music cultures, to develop ideas for future in-depth research, and to build relationships with research collaborators of diverse backgrounds.

Two Itineraries

For the fieldwork segment, two distinct groups will be formed, each designated to explore a specific area within Zhejiang province:

Group 1. Central and northern Zhejiang, conducting research around Yue opera and other local music culture;
Group 2. South-west Zhejiang, conducting research about puppet shows and music in relation with traditional architecture.

Each field group will also be accompanied by a dedicated team of audiovisual experts to aid in collecting and documenting materials. The conference organizers will ensure that ethical concerns (including privacy and use of personal data) are taken into full consideration.

To avoid over-crowding during fieldwork, we aim at a conference of max. 25 to 30 participants, to be divided into groups of approximately 15 for the two separate itineraries.

The Zhejiang Conservatory of Music will serve as the central hub for keynotes, individual presentations, and collaborative discussions.

The hosting institution will provide accommodation, meals, and cover internal travel expenses related to the fieldwork to the international scholars.

Participants will be expected to cover their own travel to the conference site and back home.

Submission Guidelines

To participate in the conference, all prospective applicants are required to submit a formal application comprising a motivational letter plus a succinct (max 200 word-)biography. The submission deadline for these documents is 30 May 2024.

Ensure your submission aligns with the conference's theme and objectives.

Key Dates

Submission Deadline: 30 May 2024

Notification of Acceptance: 30 June 2024

Conference Dates: 7-12 November 2024

Join us in this extraordinary journey across Zhejiang province, where music resonates in diverse landscapes, and fieldwork unveils the stories behind the melodies.

For inquiries and submissions, please contact serratore.f@gmail.com (Francesco Serratore).

Conference Committee

Wu Fan, (Chair), Zhejiang Conservatory of Music

Francesco Serratore (Co-Chair), Zhejiang Conservatory of Music

Frank Kouwenhoven, CHIME Foundation, The Netherlands

Odila Schroeder, Heidelberg University, Germany

28th CHIME Conference

Digital Futures for Chinese Music

University College Cork, Cork, Ireland

4-8 July 2025

CHIME – European Foundation for Chinese Music Research

Annual Conference, 4–8 July 2025

University College Cork, Cork, Ireland

Digital Futures for Chinese Music

Keynote Speaker: Yu Hui, Changjiang Distinguished Professor, Yunnan University

Call for Papers

In this conference we focus on the various ways new media (digital media especially) provide spaces for preserving, creating, playing, sharing, teaching, or discussing music, and the ways these spaces are impacting what musicians, culture bearers, and others do in the musical part of their lives. Prospective participants are encouraged to submit proposals that resonate with this theme. However, presentations of any new research in the broad area of Chinese music studies are also welcome, whether these engage with the theme or not.

New digital media provide for “repackaging” of traditions, access to distant events, gestures of sharing and commemoration, and spaces (and toolkits) for new creation, online learning, critical commentary, or playful remixing. We might study these situations in several ways:

as platforms and tools for new kinds of musical creation, curation, and participation
as spaces for new formats of presentation, repatriation, and commemoration
as settings where performance facets like musical expression, liveness, or authenticity are open to striking reformulations
as a source of musical materials, influences, threats, or inspirations
as contexts that raise expanded economic and reputational possibilities as well as ethical or legal concerns

We welcome proposals that address one or more of these questions, or which pose other questions related to the digital futures for Chinese music, as well as those relating to new research more broadly.

Please note that this is an in-person conference.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: 15 JANUARY 2025. Successful applicants will be notified c. 1 February 2025. A registration website will be available c. 15 January 2025. Attendees who need letters of invitation for visa or funding purposes are encouraged to register as early as possible to allow the necessary time for those arrangements.

Proposals are invited for:

Solo Papers (20 minutes with 10 minutes for questions)

Panels (3 or 4 linked papers around a theme, totalling 1.5 or 2 hours)

Roundtables (3 or 4 shorter presentations, around 15 minutes each, followed by a chaired discussion, totalling 1.5 or 2 hours)

Performance-based presentations or workshops (with durations as above)

Films or other media presentations (with durations as above)

Collaborative or multidisciplinary presentations that include a group of researchers, practitioners, or other research participants (again with durations as above).

Abstracts for individual papers should be 250-300 words in length. For panels and roundtables, send an abstract for each paper/contribution together with an overall panel/roundtable description of c. 150 words. Submission of abstracts: https://www.chimemusic.net/28th-chime

All proposals will be peer reviewed.

Keynote speaker: YU Hui is a Changjiang Distinguished Professor of the Chinese Ministry of Education and Director of Center for Ethnomusicology at Yunnan University. An ethnomusicologist specializing in Chinese traditional music in the digital era and ethnic minority music in Yunnan, his recent publications include: The Oxford Handbook of Music in China and the Chinese Diaspora (Yu, Hui and Jonathan P.J. Stock. Oxford University Press, 2023) and Global Perspectives on Chinese Music in the Internet Age (Yu, Hui and Wild Stephen. eds., Hangzhou: Zhejiang University Press, 2019). He is currently chief editor of Asian Musicology.

Conference Organiser and contact for enquiries:

Dr. Lijuan Qian, lijuan.qian@ucc.ie

Dr. Alexander Khalil

Dr. Keyi Liu

Prof. Jonathan Stock