Chinese Translations

Recently there are several publications—in Chinese language translation—of various music R&D projects that I have been working on. Chinese is certainly one of the most important languages, with around 1.4 billion people, or 17% of the world’s population speaking Chinese as a native language, so it is exciting to be directly reaching these readers in an approachable and inclusive way.

 

Pictured here is the Chinese translation of our book Teaching World Music in Higher Education (World Music Pedagogy, vol.7), and a very impressive translation of Theory and Method in Historical Ethnomusicology was also published just a few years ago.

 

I also had the opportunity to assist in development of a Chinese-English bilingual book called English Coursebook on Chinese Music, led by Dr. Zijin Yao of Beijing Language and Culture University, which offers a very approachable overview (for students) of all aspects of Chinese music tradition in both Chinese and English languages.

 

Most recently, the following chapter was translated, to be published very soon in Chinese language:

·       Hebert, D. G. (2026, submitted/forthcoming). Music, Diplomacy, and Intercultural Understanding (translated into Chinese). In C.-H. Leung (Ed.), Proceedings of International Conference on One Belt One Road Arts and Culture 2025. Hong Kong: Sino United Publishing/Chung Hwa Book Co.  

And here are selected reviews in Chinese language:

·       ----Click HERE for a review of our book A New Philosophy of Music Education for the Era of AI (Routledge, 2026).

·       ----Click HERE for discussions in Chinese surrounding the translation of Theory and Method in Historical Ethnomusicology.

·       ----Click HERE to access Chinese language discussion of one of my conference speeches.

·       ----Click HERE to access records from one of my many keynote speeches in China.

 

Historical Ethnomusicology 2026

I look forward to participating in the 71st Annual Meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM), which will be held on November 5 - 8, 2026, in Bloomington, Indiana (USA), on the Indiana University campus.

 

At this conference, I will lead one meeting as Chair of the Historical Ethnomusicology Section, and will also be presenting a paper, “A Philosophy of World Music Instruction for the Age of AI”. I also intend to visit the university's world-renowned Archives of Traditional Music to discuss digitization and research procedures related to a proposal to develop a major interdisciplinary MUSIC research center in Bergen, Norway.  

 

The Historical Ethnomusicology Section meeting will be on Thursday, 05 November 2026, 7:00pm - 9:00pm, in the Walnut room, Main Floor, 60.

The abstract of my paper presentation is below.

 

 

A Philosophy of World Music Instruction for the Age of AI

David Hebert

Western Norway University of Applied Sciences; Education University of Hong Kong

 

In most ethnomusicology graduate programs, current debates in philosophy of education tend to receive little to no attention. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the application of a new philosophy in the teaching of world music, a common responsibility of ethnomusicologists in higher education. While previous books (e.g. World Music Pedagogy, VII: Teaching World Music in Higher Education) offer helpful methods for collegiate world music instruction, the purpose of a philosophy text is to provide foundations that empower us to reconceptualize the meaning and ultimate purpose of instruction in this field, while illuminating new resources for sustained inspiration, thereby reducing professional “burnout”. The presenter’s twelfth book, co-authored with a Chinese ethnomusicologist (Routledge, 2026), is concerned with how music educators can respond to the array of novel challenges coming from generative AI, and serves as background for this paper. Our book applies a systems science approach to global philosophy of history by arguing how and why human narratives evolved in particular ways across time, which ultimately engenders a new perspective on musical meaning in relation to both personal identity and AI. This matters for ethnomusicologists teaching world music, particularly as the popularization of generative AI tools challenges us to reconsider what quality education entails and what we could hope world music students might learn to do and understand through our teaching. AI prompts us to rethink not only classroom activities and approaches to assessment, but also notions of creative originality, ownership, and music heritage, demanding a new educational philosophy.

 

Session Details:

12I: Mediating World Music: Authority, Authenticity, and Musical Tradition in a Global Age
Time: 08/Nov/2026: 10:45am-12:15pm · Location: Dogwood

 

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications

It is exciting to now be joining the Editorial Board of Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (Springer Nature). 

With a distinguished history, this is a major international journal, and according to some metrics, ranked first in general humanities and social sciences, with a 4.8 impact factor. 

It will be quite interesting to have a chance to review articles submitted to this journal and to contribute to its quality assurance. 

Here is a description of the journal's scope: 

Our scope is inclusive and is open to theoretical, methodological, quantitative and qualitative scholarship that makes a contribution to the literature. We particularly welcome research that speaks to emerging areas of thinking, agenda-setting issues, or grand societal challenge—irrespective of the field of study.

We encourage the submission of interdisciplinary perspectives where there is a clear relevance to the advancement of the humanities, or behavioural or social sciences. This includes research arising in, or informed by, the physical, life, clinical and environmental sciences, for instance: medical humanities, digital humanities, environmental sociology, and complex network studies. 

Scholarship that reflects on, or seeks to inform, policymaking of all types, is also welcomed.

Second Intl. Symposium on AI + Music Education

It is exciting to be participating again with an invited keynote for the Second International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence and Music Education (Jimei University, China), at the end of October 2026.

 

Across recent years, China has emerged as the world’s leading hub for research on AI in music education, with what appears to be more publications in the main international journals (in music, computer science, and education) than all other countries combined.

 

I attended the first conference of this kind in Xiamen at Jimei University last year, and was deeply impressed by how far China has contributed to innovation in this field, and eagerly look forward to returning this year to see how the situation has evolved. It is also encouraging to see the position that China appears to be taking on AI safety: actively encouraging international cooperation for sensible regulation. 

 

Here are some recent publications on this topic:

 

BOOK:

Xie, J. & Hebert, D. G. (2026). A New Philosophy of Music Education for the Era of AI. Routledge. 

https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003545453

 

BOOK CHAPTER:

Hebert, D. G. (2026). International Law and Efforts to Ensure Just Forms of AI in Music and Education. In F. Abrahams, S. Kang, and C. Randles (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Artificial Intelligence in Music Education. New York: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/9780197824818.001.0001

[Available online -- from 22 September -- along with the first ten chapters posted on 20 August.]

JOURNAL ARTICLE:

Chen, Y. & Hebert, D. G. (2026). Exploring the reception of Artificial Intelligence-enhanced music education: A multimethod study of higher education vocal music students. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 249. DOI: 10.5406/21627223.249.1.04

 

Image retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiamen#/media/File:An_overall_view_of_Xiamen_Island.jpg