Diandian Zeng

Bio

Diandian Zeng is an M.A./Ph.D. student in Ethnomusicology at UC Santa Barbara. Her research interests center around radio, music and health, and gender in Chinese music. Her current research focuses on Chinese radio calisthenics, where she examines the way Chinese government intentionally used radio and music to promulgate calisthenics in order to achieve their goals of promoting health as part of a nation-building project. As a musician, Diandian serves as the conductor and percussionist of the Jasmine Echo Chinese Music Ensemble and plays the ‘ud in the Middle East Ensemble at UCSB.
 
Diandian received her B.A. in Musicology and Music Therapy from Central Conservatory of Music in China. She worked as a music therapy intern at Capital Institute of Pediatrics and Chinese PLA General Hospital. Her undergraduate thesis “Women Guqin Players in Intelligentsia Families in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912)” explores the relationship between guqin and educated women in literati families by collecting demographic information of female guqin players and analyzing their poems and musical scores.