Drum Tower: The sounds of old Beijing
Economist Podcasts
The Economist
4.3 • 5K Ratings
🗓️ 13 February 2024
⏱️ 29 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In some ways, Beijing now sounds like a lot of other mega cities. Yet, back in imperial times, sound was used in creative ways to display wealth, to conduct everyday business and, most importantly, to keep order. David Rennie, our Beijing bureau chief, takes us on a sonic journey through the places where Beijing’s ancient soundscape is being kept alive. He meets Colin Chinnery, a sound artist and archivist, to find out why sound has long been a vital part of Beijing’s spirit, and the ways in which it still is today.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, David here. You're listening to a free episode of Drumtire. To listen every week, |
| 0:07.0 | you'll need to be a subscriber. For a special half-price offer, click on the link in the show notes, |
| 0:12.5 | or just search Economist Podcast Plus. |
| 0:20.4 | In a world of seismic change, will your business shape the future or be shaped by it? |
| 0:25.6 | How will we capture the imagination of tomorrow's consumers? |
| 0:30.6 | Overcome operational constraints to focus on future growth |
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| 0:39.5 | environmental responsibility. With EY's full spectrum of services across sectors, we're all in |
| 0:45.8 | to shape the future with confidence. Start your transformation journey at EY.com |
| 0:51.3 | slash transformation. |
| 1:00.9 | Okay. at EY.com slash transformation. The Economist This intimidating sound is dear to my heart. |
| 1:18.4 | The drums of Beijing's gulow, its drumtow, for which this podcast is named. |
| 1:34.3 | The drums. This podcast is named. Those drums were recorded by Colin Suuan Chinnery, a Chinese British sound artist. |
| 1:40.5 | We're in the drum hall of the drum tower. |
| 1:43.8 | It's quite high up above the city. |
| 1:46.2 | And there used to be 25 drums here that used to be beaten every two hours to announce the time for the city. |
| 1:53.1 | In Imperial Beijing, sand was remarkably important. |
| 1:57.4 | And the drum tower was used to keep order. |
| 2:00.7 | And the way that the drums used to be, it was the saying is in Chinese, |
| 2:04.6 | in 18, man, 7,000, but not in, |
| 2:06.6 | which means you hit the drums 18 times fast, |
| 2:10.6 | 80 times slow, and 18 times neither fast nor slow, |
... |
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