Seeking the Sound: Sound Slices of Old Beijing

This field recording piece emerged from an urban exploration of sound. Zhao Chaoyi and her fellow actors traversed the hutongs and alleyways of Beijing city, systematically collecting slices of the soundscapes that compose daily life: from the 'Jing Yinyue' (Beijing Music) at Zhihua Temple and the Silver-Haired Folk Orchestra in the Temple of Heaven Park, to the whirring of diabolos in parks, pigeon whistles above the hutongs, and the sizzling sounds of street stalls alongside conversations by braised stew pots. Each sound slice represents a selective recording and archiving of contemporary Beijing's soundscape. Through walking and listening, the actors capture these fading auditory traces, weaving them into an audible portrait of the city. This work does not aim for nostalgia. Rather, through the collection, editing, and reorganisation of sound slices, it constructs an audible archive based on field recordings: one open to analysis and reflection. It serves both as a sound documentation of Beijing's way of life in the past and as an active pursuit of the cultural memory and local identity these sounds carry, before they fade away.