Chou Wen-Chung Distinguished Lecture on Chinese Culture

21st Century China Center named this lecture after the esteemed Chinese-American composer, teacher and cultural ambassador, Chou Wen-Chung (1923-2019). Chou was the first Chinese composer to achieve international recognition. His ground-breaking works defy cultural categories and inspired generations of composers. UC San Diego Music Department is the recipient of several dozen historically significant percussion instruments from the Chou Wen-Chung estate. 

Chou Wen-Chung Distinguished Lecture on Chinese Culture presents scholars and artists with the belief that arts and culture are important to promoting mutual understanding between China and the U.S., a belief that was shared by Chou Wen-Chung who established the Center for U.S.-China Arts Exchange at Columbia University in 1978.

Redefining Music: Traditional Guqin Music in Performance and Scholarship

Tuesday, May 2, 2023 from 4:30-6:30 p.m. PDT | Register
Conrad Prebys Concert Hall, UC San Diego Music Department

Speaker: Bell Yung, emeritus professor at the University of Pittsburgh; affiliate professor at the University of Washington
Moderator: Lei Liang, Chancellor's Distinguished Professor of Music at UC San Diego

In this unique talk, which will feature both a musical performance and a discussion of China's musical tradition, Bell Yung, professor at the University of Washington, will examine one of China's traditional instruments, the guqin. China’s guqin music is historically associated with the literati, who left volumes of treatises, essays and poems explicating their philosophical views of music. This talk and performance will explain how music for these individuals was both intellectual and expressive art, shedding new light on the limits of what music can be.

Bell Yung, an ethnomusicologist specializing in China, is an emeritus professor at the University of Pittsburgh and affiliate professor at the University of Washington. He has published 10 books and more than 100 journal articles, book chapters and reviews in English and in Chinese. His most recent publications are “The Scholar and the Courtesan: songs on the Pearl River’s Flower Boats” and “From humble beginnings to qin master: the remarkable cross-fertilization of folk and elite cultures in Yao Bingyan’s dapu music." His biography of his qin teacher Tsar Teh-yun, "The Last of China’s Literati," was recently published in Chinese. He holds a Ph.D. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a Ph.D. in musicology from Harvard University and an honorary doctorate from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.