What makes chinese music chinese?

In an effort to push the study of music, culture, and architecture a little deeper, I spent a few weeks last month researching Chinese music. My initial research of Arabic music during my thesis proved fruitful, as some of the ideas of proportion, heterophony, and organization found in music can be translated into an Architectural language (you may find a summary of my thesis presentation on this blog, or can access the whole thesis document here). Both Arts, while they may not have a direct link connecting them, share common cultural attributes that can be found trickling down in other arts as well. In order to pursue this further and take it to the next level, it was felt that a study of other musical regions was also important. The end expectant result (at the moment) is a new methodology that both architects and musicians can develop; one that extrapolates elements of the culture through other art-forms and then reapplying it to their own, creating an artifact that adheres to the regional cultural heritage without being too nostalgic about its traditions.

During the early stages of the research, I was struck by how little information is out there regarding pre 1949 PRC music, and most of the literature deal with how western music was adopted into the region. Starting with Fredercik Lau's Music in China (part of the Experiencing Music, Experiencing Culture series), I still had one of the major question reserved in my mind unanswered : What makes Chinese music Chinese?