The Marlowsphere Blog (#130)

[Over time] Man’s communications technologies . . . have moved from the verbal, to the alphabetic, to the typographic, to the filmic, and to the electronic . . . , [I]t would be absurd to presume that “electronic” is the end of the. . .technology chain. . . .The next significant [and dominant] medium will be based in some form of light.

I wrote the above in 1990. They appear on page 155 of Shifting Time and Space: The Story of Videotape published by Praeger in 1991 (Eugene Secunda, Ph.D., was co-author).

Since the publication of this book, I have evolved a paradigm of the invisible affect of dominant media that posits, in part, that photonic technologies—first developed in the 1960s—have emerged as the dominant technology in the latter half of the 20^thcentury and the early part of the 21^st century and are slowly but surely combining with or supplanting electronic based technologies. In turn, I posit that in no small measure this emergence accelerated the advent of “globalism,” and this has resulted in the re-emergence of “tribalism,” this time on a planetary scale with several attendant challenges.

“Globalism” is defined as:

1. A national geopolitical policy in which the entire world is regarded as the appropriate sphere for a state’s influence.
2. The development of social, cultural, technological, or economic networks that transcend national boundaries.

A “Tribe” can be defined as:

1. A unit of sociopolitical organization consisting of a number of families, clans, or other groups who share a common ancestry and culture and among whom leadership is typically neither formalized nor permanent.

“Tribalism” is defined as:

1.  the organization, culture, or beliefs of a tribe.
2. a strong feeling of identity with and loyalty to one’s tribe or group

Clearly, globalism is in sharp contrast to tribalism. The former takes on the whole world contextually, whereas, the latter refers to a much smaller grouping.

In 1844 A.D. Samuel F.B. Morse commercially introduced the telegraph, launching the so-called “electronic age.” It is my contention that a little more than a 100 years after the birth of the electronic age and shortly after World War II we entered yet another “age” in Homo Sapiens’ technological evolution; this one based not on electrons, but on photons. To put it another way, we have already entered the age of “light” or what I am calling “the photonic age.”

Photonics is the science of light (photon) generation, detection, and manipulation through emission, transmission, modulation, signal processing, switching, amplification, and detection/sensing. The term photonics developed as an outgrowth of the first practical semiconductor light emitters invented in the early 1960s and optical fibers developed in the 1970s.

The use of “light” technology has spread “silently” into various aspects of society. And as Marshall McLuhan, author of Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (McGraw-Hill 1964), has stated: “Once a new technology comes into a social milieu, it cannot cease to permeate that milieu until every institution is saturated.” This is true of orality, early writing, typography, electronics, and now photonics.

The evidence that we are now living in an age of photonics is all around us. One can find photonic technologies in a broad spectrum of human activity: 

• Consumer equipment: barcode scanner, printer, CD/DVD/Blu-ray devices, remote control devices
• Telecommunications: optical fiber communications, optical down converter to microwave
• Medicine: correction of poor eyesight, laser surgery, surgical endoscopy, tattoo removal
• Industrial manufacturing: the use of lasers for welding, drilling, cutting, and various methods of surface modification
• Construction: laser leveling, laser range-finding, smart structures
• Aviation: photonic gyroscopes lacking mobile parts
• Military: IR sensors, command and control, navigation, search and rescue, mine laying and detection
• Entertainment: laser shows, beam effects, holographic art
• Metrology: time and frequency measurements, range-finding
• Photonic computing: clock distribution and communication between computers, printed circuit boards, or within optoelectronic integrated circuits; in the future: quantum computing

And many of these photonic technologies are not only becoming more present, they are also replacing older, more familiar technologies.

The National Academy of Engineering has pointed out:

“From surgical instruments and precision guides in construction to bar code scanners and compact disc readers, lasers are integral to many aspects of modern life and work. But perhaps the farthest-flung contribution of the 20th century’s combination of optics and electronics has been in telecommunications. With the advent of highly transparent fiber-optic cable in the 1970s, very high-frequency laser signals now carry phenomenal loads of telephone conversations and data across the country and around the world.”

George Basalla, professor of the history of technology at the University of Delaware, cogently points out in his book The Evolution of Technology (Cambridge History of Science Series, 1988), all technologies have antecedents. In other words, they do not just appear, like mice via spontaneous generation in straw as those in the Middle Ages surmised.

Similarly, photonic or laser technologies did not just appear in the mid-1950s. In 1917 Albert Einstein proposed the theory of stimulated emission—that is, if an atom in a high-energy state is stimulated by a photon of the right wavelength, another photon of the same wavelength and direction of travel will be created. Stimulated emission forms the basis for research into harnessing photons to amplify the energy of light.

Leaping forward over 90 years, in 1997 the Fiber Optic Link Around the Globe (FLAG) became the longest single-cable network in the world and provides infrastructure for the next generation of Internet applications. The 17,500-mile cable begins in England and runs through the Strait of Gibraltar to Palermo, Sicily, before crossing the Mediterranean to Egypt. It then goes overland to the FLAG operations center in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, before crossing the Indian Ocean, Bay of Bengal, and Andaman Sea; through Thailand; and across the South China Sea to Hong Kong and Japan. (Copyright © 2009 by National Academy of Engineering).

What are the effects?

To quote Robert Reich, Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy, University of California at Berkeley and former Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration (Huffpost, “The Blog,” 5/26/2014):

We are witnessing a reversion to tribalism around the world, away from nation states. The same pattern can be seen even in America–especially in American politics. . . .

Over the last several decades, though, technology has whittled away the underpinnings of the nation state. National economies have become so intertwined that economic security depends less on national armies than on financial transactions around the world. . . .

News and images move so easily across borders that attitudes and aspirations are no longer especially national. Cyber-weapons, no longer the exclusive province of national governments, can originate in a hacker’s garage.

The nation state, meanwhile, is coming apart. A single Europe–which seemed within reach a few years ago — is now succumbing to the centrifugal forces of its different languages and cultures. The Soviet Union is gone, replaced by nations split along tribal lines. Vladimir Putin can’t easily annex the whole of Ukraine, only the Russian-speaking part. The Balkans have been Balkanized.

Separatist movements have broken out all over—Czechs separating from Slovaks; Kurds wanting to separate from Iraq, Syria, and Turkey; even the Scots seeking separation from England.

The turmoil now consuming much of the Middle East stems less from democratic movements trying to topple dictatorships than from ancient tribal conflicts between the two major denominations of Islam—Sunni and Shia.

To this list we can add: the Catalonians have long wanted to separate from Spain.

When early writing systems appeared in the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East around 5,000 years ago the inhabitants there did not all of a sudden observe “Hmmm, we’re not just an oral-only society anymore. We’ve entered the age of early writing.” In the early 21^st century, however, with global literacy at an all-time high of around 85%, we have the benefit of much hindsight. We have also had the benefit of such media scholars as Harold Innis, Marshall McLuhan, Eric Havelock, et al. Their collective scholarship provides the intellectual foundation for looking at the world with a wide view.

It is from this perspective that I conclude we have entered a new “technological” age—the age of photonics. Photonics have accelerated the evolution of “globalism” and has resulted in an equal and opposite response: “tribalism.” As the speed of information has accelerated, and corporate entities have fostered homogeneity on a global scale, people have retreated into their tribal cultures to regain some semblance of unique identity.

Eugene Marlow, Ph.D.
October 12, 2015

© Eugene Marlow 2015

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Marlowsphere Blog (#129)

Western perceptions to the contrary, jazz in mainland China has survived through four generations.  Starting in the 1920s when jazz first came to China, specifically Shanghai, till now there have been several generations of indigenous jazz musicians.

The first generation responded to the demand for jazz at the time—dance hall music. While there were a plentitude of non-Chinese jazz musicians performing in Shanghai—such as drummer Whitey Smith, pianist Teddy Weatherford, trumpeter Valaida Snow, and trumpeter Buck Clayton, and a host of bands from the Philippines and Russia—Chinese jazz musicians eager to perform for their own also formed their own ensembles to perform in Shanghai’s many dance halls.

A ccording to an account by bassist Da Ren Zheng (who also contributed charts to the Peace Hotel Jazz Band profiled later), these early Chinese jazz bands included: Yu Yuezhang (who organized the first all-Chinese jazz band), several so-called Cantonese jazz bands, Chen’s “New Band,” Jin Huaizu’s (a.k.a. Jimmy King) famous Paramount Dance Hall band, the Huang Feiran Band, and the Kaixuan Band. Fan Shengqi (dubbed “The King of the Saxophone”) was a member of this generation; he survived Mao’s tenure, and began performing jazz again in Beijing after his demise.

Following Mao’s takeover of China in 1949 through his death in 1976 all performances of jazz in dance halls were forbidden. But by 1980 China was opening up economically to the west.
At that time the Chinese government requested that a group of former dance hall jazz musicians—who survived in the intervening years by playing Chinese classical music—create a sextet and perform at the Peace Hotel on the Bund in Downtown Shanghai. The motivation was economic: entertainment for western visitors. This group—holdovers from the 1930s-1940s—has performed there (with some changes in personnel) every night for the last 35 years. They are the subject of a German produced film entitled “As Time Goes By in Shanghai.”

Since the mid-1980s a second generation of jazz musicians—partly influenced in Beijing by  German diplomat (and bass player) Martin Fleischer, now an ambassador in Brussels—began to emerge. Among this small group is tenor saxophonist Liu Yuan considered the “father” of jazz in China (Martin Fleischer can be called the “godfather of jazz in China”). Liu Yuan gained initial fame by performing with trumpeter/songwriter/protester Cui Jian, China’s so-called “father of rock” in the 1980s. Liu Yuan now owns a club in Beijing called the East Shore Café. Liu Yuan and others of his generation have performed and are performing jazz as a means of individual freedom of expression, much like Cui Jian on the rock side of the musical ledger.

A third generation of jazz musicians—definitely in the mode of individual freedom of expression—include (in Shanghai): guitarist Lawrence Ku, singer/songwriter Coco Zhao, saxophonist and professor Zhang Xiaolu, and singer/pianist Joey Lu. In Beijing this third generation includes: virtuoso bassist and jazz festival promoter “Adam,” “cool” pianist Xia Jia, pianist Kong Hong Wei (a.k.a. Golden Buddah), Mongolian-born alto saxophonist Liu “Kenny” Xiaoguang, drummer Xiao Dou, singer Yao Yi Xin, bassist Zou Tong, bassist Zhang Ling, saxophonist Yinjiao Du, and saxophonist Wu Yun Nan (formerly with the Chinese Navy Band). Several of these musicians received training in jazz in the United States.

The youngest and fourth generation of Chinese jazz musicians is now coming to the fore. With the Chinese government’s apparent blessing, 20-year-old saxophonist virtuoso Li Gaoyang attended International Jazz Day, April 30, 2013 in Istanbul, Turkey. Heading up the delegation was saxophonist Liu Yuan, profiled briefly above.

Li Gaoyang(李高阳) started learning music at the age of 4. By the tender age of 8 he had already been playing and studying the saxophone. Basically he’s self-taught on the instrument and has become the most famous jazz saxophone player, educator and composer of his generation in China.

Li has embraced East coast jazz and has considerable experience in this style of performance. With his unique style, Li considered tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone and EWI (i.e., Electric Wind Instrument), in descending order, his main instruments. Through the years, Li has composed a considerable amount of originals covering different style/spectrum of music and has been lauded as the top jazz saxophone player by audience and critics alike.

Since the age of 14, Li Gaoyang has founded the Li Gaoyang Trio and Li Gaoyang Quartet with drummer Shao Ha Ha, bassists Hu Hao, Bi Zi Gang, keyboardists Jin Ye and Han Yun, all recognized jazz players in China. Li has brought his groups to many large scale events and jazz festivals. Li Gao Yang Quartet has been recognized as one of the top jazz bands in China.

Next to leading his own group, Li Gaoyang has also performed in the following established jazz formations: Beijing Jazz Orchestra, Du Yinjiao Jazz Big Band, CD Swing Band, Big John (Zhang Ling) Blues band, Blue Head Sextet, among others.

In 2012, Li Gaoyang was invited to join the famous Golden Buddha Jazz band, headed by virtuoso jazz pianist Kong Hong Wei, also profiled above. Li has also been featured on some performances of American jazz instrumentalist Antonio Hart during Hart’s tour in China. Through his acquaintance with the legendary Sonny Rollins, who is his biggest influence on saxophone so far, Li has received valuable teaching from the maestro. Li has also received had lessons with masters such as Bob Cranshaw, Sammy Figueroa, and Peter Erskine among others.

The Chinese jazz musicians notwithstanding, performing spaces for these musicians appear to be expanding. Jazz @ Lincoln Center has announced plans to open a jazz club in Shanghai in 2016, and Blue Note Entertainment (owner of the famous Blue Note jazz club in New York City) has announced plans to open a jazz club in Beijing in 2017.

Eugene Marlow, Ph.D.
September 21, 2015

© Eugene Marlow 2015

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