China News Service, Beijing, September 26th
: From 6 square meters to 6,000 square meters, Qin Siyuan's "Voice of China" journey
Author Gan Tian Zhai Lu Hao Yunhui
Although "fifty know the destiny", Qin Siyuan is still anxious and busy for the unknown tomorrow.
This Chinese-British half-blood with a foreign face and a Beijing accent once prepared a 6-square-meter sound exhibition room for the Beijing Shijia Hutong Museum.
In the past ten years, more and more sounds have been collected, and the work place has been transferred to the 6,000-square-meter Sound Art Museum in Songzhuang, and the worries have also doubled.
Qin Siyuan's "Voice of China" journey is about to start a new journey.
Qin Siyuan.
Photo by Chinanews reporter Zhai Lu
Out of Beijing Hutong
From 6 square meters to 6000 square meters
Walking into the Sound Art Museum at the northeast corner of the intersection of Luyuan North Street and Xusong Road in Songzhuang, Beijing, there is a crisp "bang bang" mixed with a low "dong dong" sound. Final preparation.
As one of the main organizers of the museum, Qin Siyuan's heart has been tense for a long time: staring at the decoration design of the museum, holding a meeting to discuss the exhibition planning, worrying about the audience's reaction and fund operation after the opening of the museum...
"To make a new thing, there are many unknown factors. You can only solve the problem slowly and relieve anxiety during the operation process."
Compared with the 6-square-meter exhibition room in the Shijia Hutong Museum, the Sound Art Museum has a construction area of 6,000 square meters, and the exhibition content is also richer, including "Old Beijing Sound", "Nature Sound", "Language", "Music", "Sound". principles”, and six themes of “Sound and Emotion”.
One of the exhibition halls has a dazzling array of old Beijing objects. There are several styles of pigeon whistle alone - "Drum Tower with Bean Juice Burnt Circle, Pigeon Whistle with Blue Sky and White Clouds", large and small pigeon whistle, different high and low whistle tones .
This is the "Voice of Beijing" in Qin Siyuan's memory, and it is also his initial stop for collecting "Voices of China".
A pigeon whistle on display at the Songzhuang Sound Art Museum in Beijing.
Photo by Chinanews reporter Zhai Lu
Check in China
Document life and culture
"In your opinion, what exactly is a 'Chinese voice'?"
"There is no specific answer to this. Because China is so big."
After living in China for several years, Qin Siyuan has traveled through Beijing, the mountains in the southwest, and Taiyuan in Shanxi, collecting about 500 or 600 voices one after another.
Among them, the voice of Litang County in Sichuan made his memory fresh.
In July 2019, Qin Siyuan set foot in Litang County, which is more than 4,000 meters above sea level, for the first time to collect the sounds of local life and culture for the Litang Himalayan Sound Museum.
Although I only stayed for a week, with the guidance of my local friends, I have gained a lot. "Sometimes it is very tiring to go back to the hotel, and I have altitude sickness, so I just lie in bed and go to bed."
At that time, the villagers could always see a small foreigner, wearing headphones and holding a microphone, walking through the temple corridor, recording the clear sound of "ding-ding-" from the prayer wheel;
In the farmland, the villagers who were originally very shy and refused to take pictures finally agreed to the recording under Qin Siyuan's persuasion.
At the wedding, a group of Tibetan men even sang a lively and joyful toast to the camera, even though they only had mineral water bottles in their hands.
Qin Siyuan in the Old Beijing Culture Exhibition Room of Beijing Songzhuang Sound Art Museum.
Photo by Chinanews reporter Zhai Lu
the power of listening
A "letter" that will never be opened
With sound as the pen, there is a concrete evidence of existence.
Even sometimes, such a letter of proof may never be unpacked and circulated.
Such as burial.
This is the most popular and dominant one among the many funeral customs in Tibetan areas, and it is also one of the voices Qin Siyuan hopes to record during his trip to Litang.
Although I plan well before I go out to record, it is inevitable that I will encounter setbacks and struggles.
At that time, until the last day of the trip, Qin Siyuan hadn't received the notice to hold a celestial burial.
Having said that, he paused for a moment, then continued, "I can't hope for this to happen, can I? So I just gave up."
Unexpectedly, the master in charge of the celestial burial suddenly called later to say that he had arrived at the celestial burial.
Qin Siyuan and his party immediately rushed to the scene and recorded the whole process.
"These (voices) certainly can't be used, but you can keep them, like in the archives, as important material. Go and listen to it."
Sound can be fun
Build a time tunnel with "guyin"
However, the recording itself is not an art, Qin Siyuan emphasized.
"Put some sound (at the exhibition), it's just a background sound. I don't play like that. I create based on the project site or the exhibition elements and themes."
In recent years, Chinese contemporary art has become increasingly active, and Qin Siyuan has participated in many exhibitions with his sound art works.
In July 2021, the "Time Words" created for the "Original Sound: Local Soundscapes in Taiyuan" project hosted by the Changjiang Art Museum is a piece of his satisfaction.
Qin Siyuan specially invited Shanxi literature experts and Chinese historical linguists to read passages from classic literary works from the Tang Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty using the "ancient sounds" of the corresponding era, and selected a space similar to a patio in Taiyuan to present this work. .
"Ancient sound" wraps around the ear, as if setting up a "time tunnel" to communicate ancient and modern Chinese and foreign.
Qin Siyuan, who was born and raised in Edinburgh, England, why did he think of using "guyin" to represent the voice of Shanxi?
He recalled that it was a lecture on Shanxi culture that inspired him. "There are so many writers in the history of Shanxi. It would be interesting to restore their ancient sounds."
The picture shows Qin Siyuan's exhibition room in the Songzhuang Sound Art Museum in Beijing.
People sit in different chairs and hear different sounds.
Photo by Chinanews reporter Zhai Lu
"Voice of China" Tour
new road, new experience
Sound is tangible, carrying the history of personal growth, and a glimpse of it is full of sadness and joy.
Sound is invisible, and different "playing methods" lead to unknown new experiences.
For Qin Siyuan, when he re-records those "sounds that have disappeared or are disappearing" - the screams at the gate of the courtyard, the ticking rhythm of taxis - the memory of "home" will be deeply rooted in the brain. was mobilized.
In 1979, Qin Siyuan's mother brought him back from the UK to live in China. At that time, Beijing "had almost no high-rise buildings, it was like a village".
Later, except for not coming back because of the university entrance examination, "I live here almost every year. I have witnessed the development of Beijing. This is my only home."
Of course, looking back at the voices in his memory, Qin Siyuan admitted that there are naturally "good voices" and "bad voices".
In the face of the continuous impact of the modernization wave, how should people deal with these voices and the accompanying losses and gains? He hopes that his work can provide more clues for thinking in this regard.
As the beginning of autumn has passed, the Sound Art Museum has entered the final intensive preparations. Qin Siyuan's journey of "Voice of China" is about to start a new journey.
There is no longer just recording the sounds of the past, but more trying to create a different immersive exhibition that is entertaining and educational, "giving people new experiences, as well as new ways of understanding and feeling the world. Such a new Museums are meaningful." Qin Siyuan emphasized.
(Finish)