Sunday Dec 10, 2023 09:00 AM Eastern Time; 22:00 PM (China)
Meeting report
1. We welcome our new members, Mr. Geng Wang and Mr. Yining Han, both from Beijing, who successfully passed the majority vote on December 7, 2023, and have officially become members of NYQS. Wang Geng has been a longstanding friend of the New York Qin Society for over a decade. Their membership is expected to provide strong support for the New York Qin Society’s presence in China and the exchanges of guqin art between the US and China.
We also discussed some ideas about inviting qin masters from China to join our cyber events and utilizing public media platforms such as Bilibili and WeChat channels to promote NYQS news.
2. Treasury report – Matthew was absent, and the report will be shared via email. In the meantime, Peiyou announce that an anonymous member generously donated $230 to cover the website fees for 2024. We truly appreciate this member’s contribution.
3. André –
A. Announcement of the final yaji of 2023 on Sunday, Dec 17, 2023, at 14:00 EST – featuring Dr. Luca Pisano and his translation work “The Qin Shi’” (琴史)
B. Invite Dr. Luca Pisano as a member of NYQS (We will invite Professor Pisano to participate in at least two online yajis in 2024 before conducting the membership election.)
C. Proposal for the possibility of hosting an International Guqin event in São Paulo, Brazil, in 2024. (Members suggested creating a plan for costing first.)
4. Peiyou –
A. Because some qin friends mentioned that they couldn’t find recordings of past yajis, Peiyou then quickly explained how to use the NYQS official website. To view the yaji record, one can click on each schedule on the front page. For past year’s events, one can click on the ‘Events’ section in the menu. And then move your cursor, click on any title, and enter the yaji page you want to read.
This led us to a past event 10 years ago when Geng showed his Suxin silk string to everyone at John’s home on Nov 24, 2013. Geng mentioned that he is still very impressed by the pipa player Zhou Yi’s pipa playing. She does not want to publish any musical CDs but only performs live. Her pipa playing was also highly praised by Geng’s friends. (https://guqinyaji.blogspot.com/2013/11/nov-24-2013-guqin-event-to-welcome-john.html)
B. The 2024 Yaji Schedule (Tentative; Please See Below)
- Sunday January 21, 2024
- Sunday February 11 or 18, 2024 (Chinese new year will be on Saturday, February 10, 2024) – music only
- Sunday March 17, 2024
- Sunday April 14, 2024
- Sunday May 19, 2024
- Sunday June 16, 2-24
- Sunday July 14, 2024
- Sunday Sept 15, 2024 (Chinese mid autumn festival is Sept 17, 2024) – music only
- Sunday Oct 13, 2024
- Sunday Nov 17, 2024
- Sunday December 15, 2024
Suggestions
- Marilyn suggests moving the event scheduled for March 19 to March 24. (In conjunction with the next suggestion to have fewer events, the March yaji date will be eliminated.)
- Ralph suggests having fewer events, perhaps once every other month. (We will proceed with this idea, and as a result, the first event of 2024 will be on either February 11 or 18, during the Chinese New Year. The rest, please see the bold dates above.)
- Andre suggests returning to thematic programs, such as qin learning, qin dapu, qin composition, and so on. This approach could help us organize the 2024 yaji content. (We will proceed with this suggestion.)
- Renjie suggests the possibility of having an in-person event by collaborating with Prof. D’Evelyn from Skidmore College. (We will proceed with this idea and collaborate with Renjie on its implementation.)
- Renjie also suggests raising the membership fee to support larger events and other society expenses. (This proposal will need to go through a voting process.)
- Geng suggests creating a NYQS WeChat public account 微信公眾號. (We will proceed with this idea and collaborate with Geng on its implementation.)
The total meeting duration was exactly 2 hours.
紐約琴社年度會員會議議程 (12/10/2023 週日 紐約時間早上九點 台北與北京晚上十點):
1. 歡迎新會員 – 來自北京的王耕, 韓一甯, 兩位於2023年十二月七日正式通過過半數會員投票, 成為紐約琴社會員. 耕與紐約琴社是十多年的老朋友了. 耕與一甯的加入將會為紐約琴社在中國的發聲, 以及中美古琴交流起到有力的幫助.
2. 財政報告 – 感謝一位匿名會員贊助2024年度所有網路費用
3. 預告本年度最後一次公開雅集(12月17日下午兩點) , 邀請Pisano 教授成為會員(將邀請Pisano 教授參與至少兩場2024年線上雅集後執行入會選舉), 以及討論舉辦巴西古琴大會的可能性 (會員建議先進行可能會需要花費的預算)
4. 解釋官網, 及明年度雅集計畫討論 (見上列暫定雅集時間表)
5. 建議
妙蓮建議將原定於3月19日的活動改至3月24日舉行。 （配合以下減少活動的建議，3月雅集的日期將被取消。）
Ralph建議減少活動次數，也許每隔一個月舉辦一次。 （我們將實施這一想法，因此2024年的第一個活動將在農曆新年的2月11日或18日進行。詳情請參見上面的粗體日期。）
林柏儒建議回歸主題性的活動，如琴學習、琴打譜、琴曲創作等等。這種方式可以幫助我們組織2024年雅集的內容。 （我們將實施這一建議。）
人傑建議與Skidmore College的D’Evelyn教授合作，探討舉辦實地活動的可能性。（我們將實施這一想法，並與人傑合作實現。）
人傑還建議提高會費以支持更大規模的活動和琴社其他開支。 （這個提議將需要進行投票程序。）
王耕建議創建一個紐約琴社的微信公眾號。（我們將實施這一想法，並與耕合作實現。）
Attendance
Peiyou Chang, André Ribeiro, Marilyn Wong Gleysteen, Ralph Knag, John Thompson, Lawrence Kaster, Andrea Lioy, Renjie Song, Juni Yeung, Mingmei Yip, Geng Wang, Yining Han, and Michale Bretti.
Feedback quotes from Marilyn
Peiyou, Yining, and Renjie,
Thanks for conducting today’s meeting and to Renjie for adding his recent activities with Charlotte D’Evelyn of the Skidmore College Music Dept. Thanks also to Yining , who quickly looked up her bio. online.
I didn’t know too much about Skidmore College or its music department. I was surprised and happy to see that …
Since Yining mentioned 崑曲 and the 崑古 協會, I looked up the UNESCO website to review since I recall that kunqu was recognized as an Intangible Cultural Heritage earlier than guqin. Here are links to kunqu and guqin from the UNESCO website with short video recordings, which members might review: https://www.unesco.org/archives/multimedia/search/China
https://www.unesco.org/archives/multimedia/document-3741
I recall the year 2003 when Jungping 袁中平mentioned that guqin had been recognized by UNESCO, but I had forgotten that the year before, several of us had attended the anniversary meeting in Suzhou of Wu Lansun 吳蘭蓀, father of Wu Zhaoji 吳兆基, Jungping’s teacher, and that 20 years had elapsed! The open discussion we had today was useful in sharing ideas which we often don’t have time to do during regular meetings. ‘Eg. hearing from Wang Geng about his harpsichord venture (what was the name of the shop in Beijing where he mounted his qin-harpsichord performance?) and also about the bilibili.com website and the qin postings on it. I also didn’t realize he had attended Univ. Kansas in Lawrence, where there is a long history or contacts between the art history students, eg of the late Pro Li Chu-tsing, and the Nelson Gallery with its founding curator Laurence Sickman and director Marc Wilson, a colleague. (Marc’s wife Elizabeth also runs a shop called Asiatica since the early 70s when I first met her, that may have served as a model or the shop that Wang Geng had his harpsichord performance…?).
Apologies for all this old news, but it might serve as a reference point to younger members about the sinology and museum fields at large of which I’ve been a part since 1964 when I graduated Mt Holyoke College and entered Princeton for my doctoral degree in Chinese art & archaeology, which I rec’d in 1983.
Thanks to Peiyou, the officers and members –wishing everyone Peace and Good Health in the New Year!
Marilyn Wong Gleysteen, PhD
NYQS Corresponding Secretary
紐約琴社
總幹事
王妙蓮