After years of ethnographic fieldwork, scholars often end up with boxes (or hard drives) of materials, some of which might not be used in any project. In the field of ethnomusicology, there has long been a tendency for scholars to deposit field recordings in a sound archive, which may function as a site of future primary source research or repatriation (Seeger Reference Seeger1986). But as internet access has become more widespread, the donation of materials to archives is no longer the primary method for sharing recordings, fieldnotes, and even research findings with the public. The emergence of website builders allows people with different levels of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) proficiency to create their personal sites, which is how ethnomusicologist Stephen Jones chooses to release his materials to the world.

With a subtitle of “Daoism—lives—language—performance. And jokes,” Stephen Jones: a blog starts with an introduction to the author’s work on Daoists in northern China, but it does not end there. Jones divides his myriad materials into eight major sections on the navigation menu, four of which would be of particular interest to those seeking audiovisual supplements to his work. “The book” and “The film” provide information regarding his book Daoist Priests of the Li Family: Ritual Life in Village China (Reference Jones2016) and the documentary Li Manshan: Portrait of a Folk Daoist (Reference Jones2015) that complements the monograph. Jones even embeds a video player with access to the documentary so anyone can watch it free of charge. The blog also comes with an audio player that includes music from his fieldwork (and one of him performing a medley of Bach’s Goldberg variations on the erhu with Rowan Pease on the sanxian). As space is limited on the player located in the permanent sidebar, Jones supplies a programme note supported with photographs and musical notations on the “Playlist” page. Adding to the multimedia materials, “Images: Li family” includes a substantial number of colour photographs, some of which are from Jones’ books, ranging from portraits of musicians to ritual documents and maps.

While these topical sections are directly related to his work on Daoists, “Themes” and “Other publications” will attract scholars who are interested in other Chinese rituals. Whether Jones’ photographs and stories from the Li family arouse your curiosity about rituals in China or his methodologies, the section labelled “Themes” will most certainly “float your boat.” This section, with ten options (and more sub-options), lists details of religious rituals from different parts of north(west) China and the author’s reflections on issues that concern music scholars, including but not limited to the modes of fieldwork, common yet misleading translations, and the questionable idealisation of a tradition untouched by modernity. What specialists in Chinese rituals may find particularly useful is the section on “Other publications,” where Jones introduces his other books, adapts portions of his books into vignettes, and recommends other scholars’ work on the topics in question.

For specialists in music outside China, Jones’ blog is also full of treasures to be found. The last two major sections of the website include posts that feature a variety of subjects. “WAM” (i.e., Western art music) includes entries where Jones, also a professional violinist, delves into topics that concern musicians and musicologists, such as the supposedly authentic early music movement, the contentious concept of serious music, and a multi-angled perspective connecting WAM to other musical cultures. The thousands of entries in “My Blog” that began in 2016 cover a wide range of subjects. While some focus on non-musical art forms, like his English haiku poems and reviews of satires and memoirs, others are substantial essays that introduce readers to music from China and beyond. Although the number of entries can be overwhelming, hidden in this haystack of posts are needles that point you to narrative song traditions in southern China, gagaku court music from Japan, inspiring art music, Cretan musical traditions, and many more. The site interface becomes crucial in determining the accessibility of this magnitude of information.

Created using WordPress, an open-source website builder, the blog has features that many of us take for granted nowadays. The site has a responsive design that changes the presentation to fit the user’s screen, be it a laptop or a mobile phone. The layout is straightforward, with a navigation menu positioned in the header that stays on every page of the site. The right-hand side of the body consists of a permanent column of recent posts, the aforementioned audio player, and search tools that act as an interactive index using tags, keywords, dates, or photographs. On the homepage of the website, the author meticulously lists the available topics and different ways to locate them, creating both a detailed table of contents and instructions on site navigation.

However, some of the blog entry tags are too generic to be useful. For example, the tag “film” directs users to posts discussing a documentary film about a journalist’s journey in Syria, a British comedy television series, and a parody of the Disney movie Beauty and the Beast (1991), among others. Visitors to the blog without a defined subject of interest in mind should be prepared to filter through a massive amount of information with the help of search tools. Nevertheless, Jones provides each photograph and recording with elaborate descriptions that answer the questions “who, what, where, when, by whom,” which Seeger identifies as the essential information that ethnomusicologists should document (Seeger Reference Seeger1986:269). These descriptive metadata, combined with the site functionality, keep Jones’ photographs and recordings accessible and useful to researchers.

This short review cannot do justice to the sheer volume of information available on Stephen Jones: a blog. I encourage readers to explore the “jokes” that are prevalent throughout the website, whether it is “The T-shirt” option on the menu or Jones’ humorous writing style. Jones’ blog is most useful to advanced researchers on Daoist rituals, but even if one is not looking for primary sources or information on Chinese Daoists, the blog offers introductions to an array of topics including Chinese regional musical cultures, WAM, film music, and much more. For students who find a text-only reference list boring and are comfortable with using search tools, looking through Jones’ informative annotated bibliography, often filled with pictures and amusing remarks, would most certainly pique their interest.