Red Gate Gallery, Beijing, China

20th Anniversary of the Beijing Cricket Tournament, Bao Guo Si Temple continued

The back room is where the assessment for fighting fitness takes place.
There was a lot of photographing and videoing taking place by everyone, locals and foreigners alike. We were the only group of foreigners attending, and I noticed our presence was documented almost as much as the fights themselves.

Velocity UK

One of the recordings has been selected for inclusion in Velocity – Festival of Digital Culture in Lancashire, UK. The work will be available as a podcast within a group of selected sound works designed to be heard during a train journey around the Morecambe Bay area. The selection will be available from 25th October at http://www.folly.co.uk/

The work is entitled Jing Shan Park 01 [detail].

– A group of women gather under the trees of Jing Shan Park, central Beijing, to sing together in the afternoon heat. Using pre-recorded instrumentation from traditional songs and microphones to amplify their voices, the women attract an appreciative audience. High above in the trees and competing for sonic attention are two groups of cicadas. These cicadas are common in Beijing and are known locally as hei za chan [roughly, black noisy cicada] and hui gu [roughly, dedicated group of insects] –

I was particularly interested in including work from Beijing in this exhibition as a small form of acknowledgement of the tragedy that struck there in 2004, where 23 Chinese cockle pickers were killed in the fast morning tide and quicksands. See the Guardian link at http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,2106950,00.html

National Day fervour

Continuing thoughts

So, the research now has a number of strands. The audio recordings are my direct, empirical experience ‘in the field’ [or rather in the parks of Beijing…] where the crickets and cicadas are singing in public spaces. These recordings frequently contain music and singing by locals as well. I wonder how influential the sound of the insects is on the music played. Professor Ai-Ping Liang and Dr Chun-Xiang Liu provide identification and scientific expertise, but are not particularly acquainted in the cultural context of these species. Looking at the insect markets illustrates the activities of those who are heavily involved in cricket culture, or who would like to be. They confirm a continued existence of this historical/traditional human-insect relationship. The interviews will provide a response from the general population. It will be interesting to see how much people know, or want to know, about singing insects and how far an interest in these creatures penetrates the broader population.