The Chinese Art Book: Music in Visual Art

Marquis Yi Bell Set, 433 BC

Dancing Figure and Musician, 2nd Century BC

Sound are longitudinal waves that propagate through air.  For those who are fortunate enough to have a sense of hearing and sight, we instinctively correlate the size and weight of an object to its sound.  We can feel the vibrations of the instrument as it moves through our bodies.

Some music in Chinese history was used for ritual and ornate state ceremony.  In this case, the bells in the picture above are black, heavy looking, and regular it its pattern and adornments.  Everything about this piece is deliberate and controlled.  They don't appear to be household objects, too heavy to be practical.  They appear to serve a grand purpose.  The size of the bells imply the sound carries over a large distance.  The picture above isn't from The Chinese Art Book, but there are also long wooden rods used to strike the bell.

The figures on the bottom are curvaceous and asymmetric, suggesting imbalance and movement.  I will assume for now that the figures are female.  The dance figure on the left has these long sleeves that accentuate her arms.  The movements are meant to take space with the purpose of attracting attention.  The figure looks as if she's mourning over a tomb, but it's a 25-stringed instrument that sits on the ground.  The position of her heads shows her direction of focus, and the hands are poised, ready to use the fine motor skills of her fingers to pluck complex chords and melodies.

The instrumentalists in the following video look dorky, but this is an accurate historical recreation of music from the Warring States period.  Ancient music sheets survived along with someone having the foresight to label each bell with its respective note.  The dance sequence is based on small models and historical painting:

I'm not sure what to make of these pieces.  I can only imagine myself an emperor of my court.  As all of my ministers are wining and dining in front of me, I am sitting on my throne, listening with my eyes closed as I consider the present moment of my empire.  I'm hoping no one assassinates me.

Where's the Rock?

Pop music, yes.  Rock music, no. It's not popular in China.

And no, they're Japanese.

I haven't been exposed to too much to American rock, but I know something like Queen cannot currently exist within Chinese culture.

No, I'm not going to blame the Chinese Communist Party.  That's too easy.  Even a country as repressive as Russia has Pussyriot.

I blame the way "Chinese culture" (again I use this term loosely) views reading.

I agree with John Green in that reading is a means of expressing the human condition in ways that no other medium can.  Reading is valuable because it forces us to question or re-enforce our personal values.

Cao Xueqin's The Red Chamber from the Qing dynasty expresses the general sentiment of the role of reading:

"in the case of us girls it would probably be better for us if we never learned to read in the first place.  Even boys, if they gain no understanding from their reading, would do better not to read at all; if that is true of boys, it certainly holds good for girls like you and me.  The little poetry-writing and calligraphy we indulge in is not really our proper business.  Come to that, it isn't a boy's proper business either.  A boy's proper business is to read books in order to gain an understanding of things, so that when he grows up he can play his part in the governing the country."

(Cao, Xueqin. The Story of the Stone: The Crab-Flower Club. Trans. David Hawkes. Vol. 2. London: Penguin, 1977. Print.)

Be filial to your parents and study when you can.  Read about Confucian morals and anything relating to moral and social harmony.  That way you will live a happy and peaceful life with many babies.  Reading's function is utilitarian.  Beyond that reading is a waste of time.

"Now that you have your degree, how much do you earn?"

I can understand my parent's generation asking this question.  The amount of education and resources at my disposal is unheard in comparison to their background.

But when international students from China and Taiwan told me they've never read The Red Chamber, I was shocked and appalled!  Not only is a BEAUTIFUL piece of literature, the novel is incredibly critical of Chinese society.  Cao Xueqin forces you to question the happiness behind a conventional life, something most Chinese find too disturbing to ponder.

Rock music glorifies the feelings of the unique individual.

Listen to the lyrics to my favorite Japanese band Asian Kung Fu Generation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_IsnEZcl4E

Here's the English translation of this.

Ignoring the funny dark humor of the video, the lyrics have a hopeless tone.  Rock music belts about the human condition sucking because suck life occurs without our volition.  Once we sing about sucking, it establishes a sense of normalcy between the music and listener.  Sharing human emotion creates the feeling of empathy.

Reading about literature is valuable because it does the same thing!  Wanting to feel happy is easy because it's natural and intuitive, but so is feeling pain and recognizing suffering.  The lack of reception towards Chinese rock music is a symptom of a society that cannot fully cope with the existence of pain and suffering.