Rural Soundscape: Acoustic Rurality? Evidence from Chinese Countryside

Abstract

Although rurality is regarded as core terminology in rural geography and an essential characteristic of rural and rural tourism, researchers have not attached enough academic importance to the hybridity and multisensory characteristics of the rural, including its soundscapes. From the perspective of history and culture, the ancient Chinese were obsessed with the geomantic conception of the harmonious coexistence of man and nature in their rural construction, and Chinese pastoral poetry covered the harmonious soundscape symphony of natural ecology and rural community. Acoustic rurality can be defined as sustainable rural soundscapes in the changed and changing human–environment contexts comprising quiet and tranquility; wild, domestic, and social soundscapes; and the rural soundscapes as important indicators of good rural ecological environment and traditional rural heritages that can be preserved and developed through acoustic rurality-based planning. Using the practical roadmaps of China’s Beautiful Rural Construction and Rural Vitalization Strategy for reference, this study sums up the four proposed guidelines for conserving and developing acoustic rurality: noise control and protecting the quiet and tranquil countryside, conserving wildlife habitat of the rural wild soundscapes, safeguarding cultural soundscape heritages, and developing recreational soundscapes for rural tourism.