East Asia is a region with a particularly rich tradition of musical documentary sources that stretches back over more than two millennia. Until recently, source-based historical studies have tended to be nationally rather than regionally or internationally based. Chinese scholars have tended to study Chinese sources, Japanese scholars Japanese sources, Korean scholars Korean sources and so on. Since the 1970s, however, the field has become increasingly international, as western scholars entered the field in increasing numbers and as Asian scholars increasingly engaged in research into the musical sources of neighbouring countries.

At the ICTM World Conference in China in 2004, a number of scholars from a range of countries met and agreed to begin the process of forming a Study Group for the East Asian Musical Sources. Professor Zhao Weiping of the Sino-Japanese Music Cultures Research Centre of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, China agreed to host an international symposium in November 2005 and this symposium was duly held from 3—6 November under the title ‘2005 Symposium on Ancient East-Asian Tablature Notations. Presentations were made by scholars from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, The United States of America and Australia.