The Sounds of Beijing

      Colin Siyuan Chinnery, sound artist and co-founder of Beijing's Sound Art Museum, captures the unique noises of Beijing in a way that offers people a sensory experience of a different kind. He provides an acoustic journey that invites listeners and visitors to learn about the old Beijing hutong culture, which is tightly connected to his family’s background, too. Siyuan is of British-Chinese descent. Born as the grandson of Chinese writer and painter Ling Shuhua (who is the author of e.g. UK's bestseller, "Ancient Melodies"), and son of British sinologist John Derry Chinnery. His grandmother's father was the last imperial mayor of Beijing, whose ancestral home he has turned into today’s Beijing Hutong Cultural Museum. Siyuan has become fascinated with sound in its purest form from an early age on. His fascination for sound started in a 5-square meters sound exhibition room, which he has turned into today's 6000-square meters sound art museum – a place where people enter old and new memories through acoustic experiences across time and space, with visual cues (like the Beijing illustrations of his grandmother), combined with sounds of old Beijing scenes.