CISI X ACCENT ACCENT

In New York, international students from different regions all carry distinct accents. Taking the “Dialect Corner” as its starting point, Accent Accent creates a free and sincere space for Chinese-language expression. Here, some speak Cantonese while talking about the flavors of home; some recount childhood stories in Minnan; others weave their native accents into Mandarin as they share their growth and struggles.

Initiated by Accent Accent and specially supported by the Carnegie International Student Institute (CISI), the multilingual sound art project Sunset Comes Too Early was held on the evening of July 23 at Creative Time’s physical space in New York. This immersive, cross-disciplinary event brought together sound art, food culture, dialect practice, and memories of identity. Through the activation of sound and the body, it sought to explore the echoes of cultural roots amid movement and diaspora.

The project originated from the cultural resonance evoked by a simple act of “guozao.” In Hubei, “guozao” is the local term for breakfast—not merely a routine to fill the stomach, but a sensory ritual that awakens the body and sets the rhythm of the city in motion. From lotus root soup and hot dry noodles to egg wine, these tastes and sounds together form a living archive of local culture. For this project, the Creative Time space was transformed into a “sonic archive,” reimagining the breakfast-stall culture of Hubei streets through sound installations and performances that reinterpret local dialects, food memories, and urban soundscapes.

Sound Archives and Field-Based Creation:
Sound researcher Ou Ning premiered his audio essay The Aftersound, narrated bilingually in Cantonese and Mandarin. Blending field recordings, food memories, classical texts, and music, the work guides the audience back to his detailed experiences as a Cantonese native who once lived briefly in Hubei. The piece features readings of poetry by Yuan Hongdao, performances in regional dialects, and reverberations of music from the Shōwa era, Japan, Hong Kong, and mainland China.

Dialect Teaching and Performative Lecture:
Curator Chirina Chen introduced basic spoken Wuhan dialect and presented a “curatorial lecture” staged in the form of a street stall. Using local language to respond to the often opaque critical discourse of contemporary art, the lecture examined the exclusivity of knowledge structures and how they might be challenged.

Music and Dialect Fusion Performances:
Musician Siyi Chen offered a rare live performance in dialects seldom heard from the Zhongxiang region, reconstructing the poetry of Wuhan poet Yu Xiuhua through a jazz approach. Chinese American musician John Tsung and poet Jiaoyang Li collaborated on a sonic ritual centered on “eating”: dozens of contact microphones were installed on bowls and plates filled with hot dry noodles, beef rice noodles, and tangyuan, capturing the subtlest vibrations and collisions among chopsticks, spoons, ingredients, and utensils—allowing the sound of a single bowl of soup to stand as cultural testimony.