Conference Room Rave: Chinese Cyber-Bodhisattva

2026.01.31 Saturday 14:00

Location

Grey Cube, Goethe-Institut China

Guest: DENG JIA

“Cyber Bodhisattva” electronic music has gradually crystallized into a widely recognized subcultural label within the Chinese internet sphere. Coined and shaped by online communities, the term refers to a listening experience in which spirituality and technological sensibilities intertwine. This event specially invites Dr. Deng Jia as a guest to examine the mechanisms behind the formation of this label, its modes of audience reception, and the forms of community bonding it enables, shedding light on emerging configurations in which music, religion, and digital culture converge in contemporary contexts.

Conference Room Rave is a time-limited weekly experience taking place in the Goethe-Institut’s Grey Box space. The Grey Box temporarily returns to its original role as a meeting room, and every Saturday from 2:00 to 4:00 pm, audiences are invited to bring the underground rhythms of the night into everyday life. With sound and bodies present, perhaps any space can become a dance floor.

 

About the guest: DENG JIA 

Deng Jia is a postdoctoral fellow in musicology at Peking University (Beijing, China). She received her PhD degree in musicology from the China Conservatory of Music (Beijing, China) in 2024. Her research explores topics in Western music history, modern Chinese music history, and music aesthetics, with a recent focus on experimental music and contemporary Chinese electroacoustic music.

MACA Art Center is a non-profit contemporary art institution housed in a standalone building of minimalistic industrial style and futuristic design in Beijing's 798 Art District, a major hub for arts and culture in the city. Through forward-looking and experimental content, MACA aims to enable communication traversing disciplinary boundaries while forging international dialogues grounded in the specificities of a Chinese perspective. Our programmatic scope, which spans exhibitions, research initiatives, pan-performance practices, and alternative communal engagement, signals a commitment to exploring ideas outside established epistemic frameworks. MACA seeks to position itself as a new institutional mode, proposing an alternative coordinate within the topology of Chinese contemporary art. Through art, we address our radically transforming times.