Daejeon, July 27–31
In June 2010, the United Nations conferred upon Harbin, China, the title of ‘City of Music’ (Global Times 2010; WTCF 2022). This city in Northeast China, renowned for its snow and ice landscapes, is also a significant centre for music and the performing arts (World Federation of International Music Competitions 2023). Harbin’s musical culture constitutes a vital component of its urban identity and lies at the core of its local cultural memory.
Harbin’s musical culture possesses a diverse background. In the late 19th century, the construction of the Eastern China Railway led to the settlement of many Russians in the area, followed by numerous Jewish migrants fleeing persecution in Tsarist Russia (Guo and Guo 2024). They introduced European musical traditions into the local community, fostering the development of music clubs, schools and symphony orchestras (Wang 2018). These cross-cultural musical practices not only shaped the city’s musical landscape but also laid the foundations for its cultural memory. Following the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Harbin continued to develop musical institutions and public cultural spaces (IOMGH 2022; Ren 2022), further consolidating its cultural narrative as the ‘City of Music’ through the establishment of ‘Harbin Summer’ concert series in 1961 (Luan 2024).
Existing research on the dissemination of Harbin’s musical culture primarily focuses on three aspects. First, the historical context and origins of the Harbin Summer Music Festival (Lu 2015; Luan 2024). Second, the relationship between musical culture and the development of urban public spaces (Yang and Lu 2019). Third, the influence of Russia on Harbin’s musical culture (Zhang 2025). These studies provide valuable insights into the formation mechanisms of Harbin as a city of music. However, a significant research gap exists concerning the preservation of Harbin’s musical cultural memory.
From a theoretical perspective, Assmann (2011) argues that cultural memory is preserved over the long term through institutionalised cultural forms, such as texts, rituals and cultural institutions, and plays a key role in the construction of collective identity. Harbin’s concert halls, music museums and music festivals can be understood as vessels of cultural memory. Building on this, Erll (2011) further emphasises the mediality and fluidity of memory, highlighting that cultural memory is not statically stored, but is constantly reconstructed and disseminated across different media and contexts.
With the development of the digital age, Harbin’s musical cultural memory is no longer preserved solely through traditional archives, performances and oral accounts, but is increasingly being re-recorded and disseminated via digital media and online platforms (Zou et al. 2024). Consequently, this study focuses on how the musical cultural memory of Harbin, the ‘City of Music’, is reconstructed, preserved and disseminated against the background of globalisation and digitalisation. This research will not only fill a gap in studies concerning local musical heritage and cultural memory but also offer fresh insights for the cultural heritage preservation and digital transformation of other cities.
How is digital media currently reshaping Harbin’s musical cultural memory? What challenges does it face? What does the future hold?
a. Following the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, did the musical cultural memory formed during Harbin’s period of Russian colonial rule undergo reconstruction or reinterpretation?
b. How does Harbin construct its cultural memory through concerts, music institutions, and historical and cultural practices?
1.Semi-structured interview
This study employs semi-structured interviews to collect primary data on musical cultural memory in Harbin. The interviewees will include fifteen residents, two representatives from the music festival, two professionals working within the music culture sector, and one official from the relevant governmental department. The interview questions are designed around the formation, dissemination, and transformation of musical cultural memory, aiming to explore its diverse manifestations at the individual, social, and institutional levels. At the same time, the interview data will be coded using thematic analysis, with core themes distilled through open coding and inductive analysis, thereby systematically presenting the understanding and practices of musical cultural memory among different groups.
2.Textual analysis and content analysis
This study employs a combined approach of textual and content analysis for data analysis. Firstly, this study systematically reviews media reports and music archives to identify key information and underlying patterns in textual analysis. Existing research indicates that such analysis facilitates a deeper understanding of how media information is disseminated and how meaning is constructed (Frey, Botan and Kreps 1999). Consequently, this study collects archives from the Harbin Music Museum, documents from the Concert Hall, reports on the ‘Harbin Summer’ Music Festival, and government policy texts. During the analysis, natural language processing methods will be employed to identify keywords, sentiment, and relevant entities within the texts, thereby enabling a more systematic grasp of the main content and modes of expression of Harbin’s musical cultural memory.
Secondly, in terms of thematic structure analysis, this study categorises the collected texts by theme to identify recurring narrative elements and their evolving trends. Specifically, thematic modelling methods will be employed to cluster the texts, followed by comparative analysis of thematic differences across sources and time periods. This allows for an examination of how Harbin’s musical cultural memory is represented in different contexts and how it has evolved over time.
Finally, content analysis is applied to examine media content such as text, images, audio, and video, revealing thematic threads, dissemination patterns, and strategies within them (Herring 2004). This study collects news reports, feature programmes, live concert broadcasts, and social media content from platforms such as Douyin, including user comments, shares, likes, and other interaction data. In addition, data on urban cultural activities, such as attendance figures, are collected to provide comprehensive assessment of the role of digital media in disseminating Harbin’s musical heritage and shaping cultural memory.