Ling U

The Advanced Institute for Global Chinese Studies successfully hosted the premiere documentary screening of “Music beyond Sound: An American's World of Guqin”on October 22nd, 2022. This 112-minute documentary, produced and directed by Hong Kong veteran filmmaker Lau Shing-hon. The event was hosted by AIGCS’s director Prof. Zong-qi Cai and opened by Professor Leonard K. Cheng, President of Lingnan University.

Post-Screening Talk (Mr. Lau Shing Hon, Mr. John Tompson, President Cheng, Prof. Cai)

This documentary features John Thompson, the best-known performer of early music for the Chinese guqin zither. Mr. Thompson has since 1976 reconstructed over 200 melodies from 15th to 17th century sources and given numerous solo performances worldwide. His website, www.silkqin.com, the most comprehensive source of information on this subject, receives thousands of hits daily. In 2019 a two-hour documentary about his guqin work was released.

In the post-screening sharing, Mr. Thompson played the melody of Liu Shui (Running Rivers) and the Qin song of Jiu Kuang (Wine Mad). Impressed by Mr. Thompson’s dedication to reconstruct and preserve the Guqin cultural tradition, President Cheng shared his thoughts about the importance of acquiring an extra-dimension to self-understanding and self-improvement. Prof. Cai observed that Mr. Thompson’s reconstruction of the ancient melodies has created a new element to the Qin cultural tradition. Mr. Lau expressed his gratitude to Lingnan University and hoped that more screenings could be held in other educational and cultural institutes in Hong Kong.

For the video-recording of the post-screening sharing, please click here.