Prof. Junyuan JIA

Growing up in a family where Teresa Teng’s songs were constantly playing, Dr. Junyuan Jia developed an early and enduring interest in the history of Chinese popular music. This interest eventually led her to pursue a PhD thesis on the history of the Pathé record company in China (1906–1949), based on archival research in French, Chinese, and English collections.

Working on the dissertation opened new questions about the circulation of Mandarin popular songs between China and Southeast Asia from the 1930s to the 1960s, which has since become the focus of Junyuan’s current research. Previous experience in the Sound, Video and Multimedia Department of the National Library of France and at the Center for Research in Ethnomusicology at Université Paris Nanterre further shaped her interest in sound archives and early recordings.

This archival work led to the discovery of a great number of remarkable early Chinese recordings, including recordings connected to the 1900 Paris Exposition and three recordings made by Chinese interlocutors for the Archives de la Parole, founded in 1911 as France’s first institutional sound archive and the predecessor of the Sound, Video and Multimedia Department of the National Library of France.

Recording Industry, Popular Music and Folk Songs, Sound Archive, Cylinder and 78rpm Discs, Early Recordings, Performing Arts

• RGC Junior Research Fellow Scheme (2026/27)
• Île-de-France Mobility Grant, 450€ (2022/23)
• Excellence Grant from the National Library of France, 10 000€ (2021/22)
• Flora Blanchon Foundation Grant, 3000€ (2020/21)

Journal Articles

• (under revision). Junyuan Jia. “Voix chinoises aux Archives de la parole (1913–1921) : Motivations, représentations et limites d’un témoignage sonore.” Cahiers d’ethnomusicologie, 40.

• (under revision) Junyuan Jia. “Modernisation musicale et hybridité culturelle : La transformation de la chanson chinoise à l’ère républicaine.” Epistrophy, 7. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448251338497

• 2024 Junyuan Jia. “La Chine entendue par l’Occident : Les enregistrements sonores de la Chine à l’Exposition universelle de 1900.” Artefact, 21 :171-196. https://doi.org/10.4000/12o3o https://doi.org/10.4000/12o3o

Research Blog Article

• 2025 Junyuan Jia. “Les disques 78 tours chinois conservés dans les institutions françaises : un patrimoine sonore à redécouvrir.” Blog post on the Hypotheses research blog of Pôle Image-Son of the Maison Méditerranéenne des Sciences de l’Homme (MMSH). https://imageson.hypotheses.org/6173

• 2023 Junyuan Jia. “Fêter le Nouvel An lunaire au son des musiques chinoises.” Blog post published on Gallica, the digital library of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF). https://gallica.bnf.fr/accueil/fr/html/feter-le-nouvel-lunaire-au-son-des-musiques-chinoises

Grants and Research Funding

• 2026/27 RGC Junior Research Fellow Scheme, “Circulating Mandarin Songs: Music, Media, and Cultural Connections between China and Southeast Asia (1928–1966).”

• Postdoctoral Researcher in MusiCol project (ERC Advanced Grant Project, The Sound of Empire in 20th-c. Colonial Cultures: Rethinking History through Music), 2025-2026
• Guest Lecturer, Department of East Asian Studies, University of Toronto (2025)
• Guest Lecturer, Shanghai Conservatory of Music (2024) Delivered lectures on early Chinese sound recordings and the history of the sound archives of the Société d’Anthropologie de Paris.
• Associate Researcher, National Library of France (BnF), Department of Sound, Video, and Multimedia (October 2020-October 2023).
• Archival and Metadata Specialist, Center for Research in Ethnomusicology (Crem), University of Paris Nanterre (October-December 2022, April 2023).