About the Conference

The Bard College Music Program, in partnership with the Asian Studies, Religious Studies, Anthropology, and Bard in China Programs and CHIME (The European Foundation for Chinese Music Research), presents

The 13th International CHIME Conference on

Music and Ritual in China and East Asia

October 16-19, 2008
Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, USA

This conference aims to explore the complex and diverse intersections between music and ritual in Chinese and other East Asian contexts. It seeks to bring together international scholars working on East Asian musics from various disciplinary perspectives to discuss and explore the big picture of the relationship of music and ritual in this region, historically as well as in the present age. Ritual as understood here is any performed act separated from the flow of common, everyday experience and imbued with a special significance in that it is intended to and has the power to transform the states of being of the participants. Given the great upheavals and radical social and political transformations in China and other East Asian countries such as Korea, Japan and Vietnam during the 20th century, how have traditional and folk musics in these countries managed to retain their ritualistic nature? In what ways have they changed or adapted to the changing times and historical circumstances? What ritual purpose or function do they serve now in this day and age marked by intense market capitalism and increasing globalization? How are state agents dealing with or coming to terms with the persistence of religious practices amidst such changes? How are meaningful forms of beliefs and rituals (re-)produced in response to modern and postmodern life?  This conference will revisit and reexamine the powerful roles of religious traditions and ritual practices and their convergences with music in East Asia.