This paper explores how state-inflected nationalist discourse was expressed through pianistic
sound, structure, and performance in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) from 1960 to
1980. I argue that nationalist signification at the keyboard arises not only from topical
materials, such as pentatonic frameworks, folk-derived themes, and timbral imitations of
traditional instruments, but also from performative parameters (touch, articulation, pedalling,
tempo, and dynamic hierarchies) that encode ideology as audible and visible gestures.
Methodologically, the study integrates Gesture Theory with a culturally adapted Schenkerian
approach and Riemannian harmonic functions, linking deep-structural processes to embodied
motion and historically situated listening. To align with current priorities in archiving and
preservation, I assemble a small, open digital corpus of scores, commercial and broadcast

recordings, and press materials (1960-1980) and employ reproducible workflows for audio-
feature inspection and video-based gesture annotation. Close readings focus on Chu

Wanghua’s Celebrating our New Life (1964) and Barcarolle (1980), situating both within
East Asian and diasporic performance circuits.
The contribution is threefold: (1) an integrated analytical model that bridges structure and
gesture for cross-cultural piano repertoires; (2) a performance-centred account of nationalism
demonstrating how sonic features and expressive behaviours jointly express ideology, and
how policy shifts in the late 1970s reopened tonal and textural imagination; and (3) a
technology-enabled, preservation-driven workflow with materials adaptable for teaching,
analysis, and performance practice.