Digital Dialogue #22

July 02, 2025, 14:00-15:30

"Digital Dialogues" #22: Where Water Falls – Perspectives on Man and his Environs: Crisis, Culture, and Change. A Digital Dialogue with Shih-Hui CHEN, Marc J. REICHOW, Rolf SCHEUERMANN and Barbara MITTLER

Registration: please register by contacting: xiaojie.chang@zo.uni-heidelberg.de.

As part of the Digital Workshop Series “Digital Dialogues”, researchers discuss various aspects and questions related to the topics pursued at the Joint Center “Worldmaking from a Global Perspective: A Dialogue with China”, funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR, Bundesministerium für Forschung, Technologie und Raumfahrt). The 18th session of this series is hosted by the Joint Center’s Heidelberg sub-project Epochal Lifeworlds—Narratives of Crisis and Upheaval.

Where Water Falls – Perspectives on Man and his Environs: A Digital Dialogue
Culturally diverse conceptions of water are at the core of this digital dialogue, which brings together Taiwanese composer CHEN Shih-Hui (Rice University), the pianist Marc J. REICHOW  Heidelberg, ecocritical Tibetologist Rolf SCHEUERMANN (University of Heidelberg) and Moderator Barbara MITTLER for a transdisciplinary conversation that takes its departure from musical takes on water poetry by Franz SCHUBERT and CHEN Shih-hui.
Water is life and death. It unites and divides, it nourishes and destroys, it is transparent and permeable but it can also congeal and stagnate, it is strong and weak—malleable and vigorous, all at the same time. It is an element crucial for the survival and development of both humans and more-than-humans alike. Floods and changes in water flows have played a key role throughout history, with the potential both to let societies thrive or to put an end to them. In this digital dialogue, we will highlight how water is understood, interpreted, and used in various cultural contexts and question its  rich symbolic connotations that feature prominently in cultural representations in literature, music, and art, but are also closely related to religious narratives and practices.
Inspired by Franz Schubert’s “Song of the Spirits over the Waters”, based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s six-stanza poem of the same name from 1779, the Taiwanese-American composer CHEN Shih-Hui has created a new composition that draws on poetry  by Li Bai (701–762), Su Shi (1037–1101), and Zhang Jiuling (ca. 673–740), all of which reflect, in a myriad different ways, on the same waterfall at the legendary Chinese mountain Lushan. The composer writes: “Like Goethe's muse, the Staubbach Falls, these poems convey a deep, spiritual connection to nature that transcends time and cultural boundaries.”
In our conversation, diverse symbolic conceptions of water will be water will be taken as our entry-point to reflect the relationship of man and his environs, exploring the potential of various cultural settings, such as art—poetry, music, painting— and religion for hope and action—what can we learn from everchanging water? Bringing a number of cultural, ethical and social questions into focus, we will, last but not least, address questions of climate change and related waterborne crises.
 
The speakers:

Shih-Hui Chen (Composer, Rice University US)
Recipient of the 2023 Walter Hinrichsen Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Taiwanese American composer Shih-Hui Chen explores themes of identity, culture, and tradition. Her work bridges music and society, diverse cultural traditions, and other art forms. Recognized by institutions such as the American Academy in Rome, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Fulbright Scholar Program, Chen has worked with major orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra. Recent projects include a multimedia cello concerto and a shadow puppet viola concerto. She serves on the Performing Arts and Culture Committee at the Asia Society Texas Center and teaches at the Shepherd School of Music, Rice University.
 
Marc J. Reichow (Pianist, KlangForum Heidelberg, Germany ) Having studied in Cologne and The Hague (concert exams on modern piano in 1992, in chamber music in 1994 and on fortepiano in 1994), Marc J. Reichow has since worked as the pianist for, most notably, ensemble aisthesis and as an artistic advisor for KlangForum Heidelberg. As a piano soloist, he has made first recordings of 20th century piano works (by composers such as Boehmer, Koenig, Krenek, Leibowitz, Steuermann and Wolpe) and has been invited by international festivals and radio stations. Apart from his activities as a chamber musician and song accompanist, he is an author and producer of music and literature for concert, theatre, radio and online media.

Rolf Scheuermann (Ecocritical Tibetologist, University of Heidelberg, Germany)
Rolf Scheuermann is a Tibetologist/Buddhologist, currently engaged at the Thematic Research Network "DENK(T)RÄUME - (Re-)Thinking and Doing Futures", University of Heidelberg, as a research fellow. His work centres on Classical and Contemporary Buddhist Studies, with a focus on Buddhist Environmentalism. He was the main organizer of a large International Symposium on “Precarious Water Futures and the End(s) of World(s)” (New Delhi, November 2024) for  CAPAS, the Center for Apocolaptic and Postapocalyptic Studies.
 
Barbara Mittler (Sinologist, CATS, University of Heidelberg, Germany )
Barbara Mittler holds a Chair in Chinese Studies at the University of Heidelberg were she co-founded Centre for Asian and Transcultural Studies (CATS). She studied Sinology, Musicology and Japanese in Oxford, Taipei and Heidelberg. She is one of the Co-Speakers of the Joint Center for Advanced Studies Worldmaking: A Dialogue with China (Heidelberg: Epochal Lifeworlds: Narratives of Crisis and Change), which, together with international fellows, investigates the interplay of man, nature and technology in moments of ‘collapse’ or  ‘critical’ (https://www.worldmaking-china.org/projekte/3/index.html).