Chinese Sound Art In Contemporary Cultural System

The present paper will describe a proposed study devoted to the phenomenon of sound art in China and its current place in the global culture. Since the emergence of this art form in China during the late 1990s, years after its origination in the west, it has been evolving rapidly, exploring the regional tradition and reflecting on contemporary Chinese culture as well as catching up with the global art trends resulting in the unique outcome. Surprisingly enough this phenomenon has remained relatively obscure to the western academic audience since very few scholars outside of China have conducted studies on this subject. This paper is an attempt to fill this unfortunate gap and outline the evolution of Chinese sound art since it’s inception while emphasizing on the unique features of this art form in China compared to its western counterpart. In order to achieve this goal it’s necessary to analyze both written texts on the subject and the artworks as well as the major events (i.e. exhibitions, performances etc) related to it. Moreover, the main goal is to determine the current state of sound art in China and its position in the global art-world.