A notable characteristic of contemporary music is the innovation in musical language, particularly in the diversity of notation. Traditional Western classical music notation ensures the presentation and replication of music, but 20th- century composers increasingly found traditional notation inadequate for expressing their musical ideas (Hall, 2021). Consequently, they broke conventions by drawing on concepts and practices from other art forms (Douglas, 2013). This led to the emergence of graphic notation, which uses images, abstract symbols, illustrations, and text in both linear and nonlinear forms to convey meaning to performers, offering more interpretive space and flexibility (Hall, 2021). Musical graphics, as visual art, have their own aesthetic value and do not need to be defined by their translatability into music. Like visual scores (i.e., images rather than graphics), the creation of musical graphics is not intended to produce specific music, but they can be transformed into music (Schröder, 2009). Music borrows from visual art and vice versa (Douglas, 2013). The modern movements of the 20th century in the West facilitated the evolution of notation into graphic notation, steering music towards visuality and promoting the emergence of new music through the widespread use of graphic notation.

Chinese culture has also profoundly influenced Western experimental music. The works of composers like John Cage and Cornelius Cardew bear the imprint of ancient Chinese culture, indicating a bidirectional influence (Zhu, 2011). However, despite Western composers borrowing Chinese philosophical ideas and cultural symbols in experimental music, the application and study of traditional Chinese musical notation in modern music remain insufficient (Zhu, 2016). As an important cultural carrier, traditional Chinese musical notation has not fully participated in the development of modern music. Overall, despite interdisciplinary explorations, research on traditional Chinese musical notation in graphic notation is still rare and deserves further investigation.

The significance of this research lies in two aspects. First, as Scaldaferri (2007) concluded, cross-traditional research on compositional methods based on and inevitably surpassing notation perspectives can provide important insights (Nattiez, 2007). Symbols and notations are among the most important conceptual tools for distinguishing certain incidental factors in performance from context-independent factors. For example, the European musical art tradition considers the recording of pitch and its related durations very important, whereas the Chinese (or Sinological) musical art tradition values pitch and its related playing techniques. Therefore, each symbol reflects a traditional bias (Bhagwati, 2013). This symbolic bias is referred to as the "perspective" of symbols (Gottschewski, 2005, p.253). Secondly, traditional Chinese musical notation is not only a tool for recording music but also a carrier of Chinese cultural heritage, reflecting the aesthetic characteristics and cultural background of Chinese music (Cao and Li, 2017). These two aspects underscore the importance of traditional Chinese musical notation in experimental music. Therefore, this paper aims to fill the research gap by studying experimental music from the perspective of traditional Chinese musical notation.

This research aims to promote the development of traditional Chinese musical notation from symbolic information (musical information) to visual expression by exploring the process and experimentation of the transition from traditional musical notation to graphic notation. To address this issue, this research has identified a suitable research subject and breakthrough point, namely Jianzi notation and asemic writing. Specifically, the study proposes exploring this issue by considering Jianzi notation as a form of asemic writing. As a representative of traditional Chinese musical notation, the way Jianzi notation is composed makes it visually graphic, giving it the potential to be discussed within the realm of visual art. Asemic writing, as an avant-garde art form, has shown through its evolution and historical development that, to some extent, it shifts focus from the act of writing itself, i.e., the transmission of symbolic information, to a more prominent visual level. This shift seems to provide a perspective for discussing the transition of traditional musical notation from symbols to visuality.

To delve deeper into this issue, the study uses a semiotic perspective and comparative art methods. This research views Jianzi notation (as a representative of traditional Chinese musical notation) as a form of visual art and analyzes its visual characteristics from a semiotic perspective. Furthermore, the study explores the relationship between Jianzi notation and asemic writing, analyzing how Jianzi notation embodies the characteristics of asemic writing on a visual level, and summarizes how to use Jianzi notation as a form of asemic writing on a visual level. Based on this analysis and method, the study conducts practical graphic notation design, thus reflecting the transition of traditional Chinese musical notation from symbolic information to visual expression. Through this exploration, the research aims to reveal how traditional Chinese musical notation shifts from its traditional musical notation function to visual expression.

This thesis is divided into four chapters. The first chapter introduces the background of this research. It provides a detailed introduction to Jianzi notation and asemic writing, discussing the reasons for choosing Jianzi notation as the research subject and its potential for "breaking conventions" as an experimental approach in traditional Chinese musical notation. Additionally, this chapter explains why discussing the relationship between Jianzi notation and asemic writing can establish a connection with graphic notation. The second chapter uses semiotic theory to analyze Jianzi notation, exploring its potential as a visual art. This chapter employs Peircean semiotics to analyze the semiotic structure of Jianzi notation and provides a phenomenological description of observations when viewing Jianzi notation. Furthermore, the chapter discusses the relationship between Jianzi notation and visual art under formalist semiotics. In the third chapter, the relationship between Jianzi notation and asemic writing is explored. This chapter first analyzes the symbolic structure of Jianzi notation and further places it within the broader category of avant-garde visual poetry for longitudinal comparison. This discussion positions Jianzi notation within the larger scope of avant-garde visual poetry and explores its relationship with asemic writing, concluding how Jianzi notation can be asemic writing. The fourth chapter is about the practice of using Jianzi notation as asemic writing. This section creates graphic notation based on the rules of Jianzi notation, as derived from the methods of using Jianzi notation as asemic writing discussed in the third chapter. This practice enriches the content of this research and verifies the theoretical results in practice.

My primary research question is: As a representative of traditional Chinese musical notation, how can Jianzi notation, through its relationship with asemic writing, explore the process of transitioning traditional Chinese musical notation to graphic notation, and what is its practice in experimental notation creation? To delve deeper into this question, this research is divided into the following four specific research questions, which will be answered in subsequent chapters: 1.How can Jianzi notation establish a connection with graphic notation through its relationship with asemic writing? 2. What are the visual characteristics of Jianzi notation? 3. What is the relationship between Jianzi notation and asemic writing? How can Jianzi notation function as asemic writing on a visual level? 4. How is the practice of using Jianzi notation as asemic writing reflected?

Therefore, I conduct this research by considering Jianzi notation as a form of asemic writing. Through this approach, Jianzi notation undergoes a conceptual and visual transformation from traditional notation to graphic notation, highlighting its visual aspect and attempting to overcome the limitations of traditional Chinese musical notation on the semantic level (musical information). Through this research, I hope to provide new perspectives for the study of experimental music in China, uncover the practical value and potential influence of traditional Chinese musical notation in experimental music, and promote cross-cultural exchanges and integration of graphic notation between China and the West.