The Panaural People’s Republic: Loudness, Loss of Self, and Sonic…

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DC Field	Value
dc.identifier	ECF_article_11213
dc.title	The Panaural People’s Republic: Loudness, Loss of Self, and Sonic Social Control in Mao’s China
dc.contributor.author	Lovell Joseph
dc.publisher	Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Venice University Press, Fondazione Università Ca’ Foscari
dc.type	Research Article
dc.language.iso	en
dc.identifier.uri	http://edizionicafoscari.it/en/edizioni4/riviste/annali-di-ca-foscari-serie-orientale/2023/2/the-panaural-peoples-republic-loudness-loss-of-sel/
dc.description.abstract	Perspectives on the establishment of social control have long been shaped by theories concerning visibility and observation, such as Foucault’s concept of the Panopticon. In Mao era China, however, sound and hearing had a greater impact on citizens becoming self-disciplined. Reflecting on a variety of sources, with a particular focus on memoirs, this article details how the Mao era soundscape helped to fashion a new form of disciplinary society. This disciplinary society was chaotic, however, and sites of resistance remained, in which some individuals fought to retain their sense of self, even amid all the tumult and violence.
dc.relation.ispartof	Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie orientale
dc.relation.ispartof	Vol. 59 \| October 2023
dc.issued	2023-12-01
dc.dateAccepted	2023-01-28
dc.dateSubmitted	2022-11-24
dc.identifier.issn
dc.identifier.eissn	2385-3042
dc.rights	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.identifier.doi	10.30687/AnnOr/2385-3042/2023/02/002
dc.peer-review	yes
dc.subject	China
dc.subject	Loudspeaker
dc.subject	Noise
dc.subject	Radio
dc.subject	Sound
dc.subject	Soundscape

Research Article
open access peer reviewed

The Panaural People’s Republic: Loudness, Loss of Self, and Sonic Social Control in Mao’s China

Joseph Lovell University of California, Santa Barbara

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abstract

Perspectives on the establishment of social control have long been shaped by theories concerning visibility and observation, such as Foucault’s concept of the Panopticon. In Mao era China, however, sound and hearing had a greater impact on citizens becoming self-disciplined. Reflecting on a variety of sources, with a particular focus on memoirs, this article details how the Mao era soundscape helped to fashion a new form of disciplinary society. This disciplinary society was chaotic, however, and sites of resistance remained, in which some individuals fought to retain their sense of self, even amid all the tumult and violence.

Published

Dec. 1, 2023

Accepted

Jan. 28, 2023

Submitted

Nov. 24, 2022

Language

Keywords: Soundscape • Loudspeaker • Sound • Noise • Radio • China

permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/AnnOr/2385-3042/2023/02/002

Copyright: © 2023 Joseph Lovell. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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