UC Santa Barbara

This dissertation examines the technologically mediated developments in the relationship between the Party and the People in Mao era China (1949-1976). With a focus on audio technology (radios and loudspeakers), and drawing from sound studies, media studies, and 20th century Chinese history studies, it explores the soundscape of the period, in order to understand how the proliferation of amplified sound, combined with the unique nature of the Party’s propagandizing, to forge a new form of sonic politics for New China. Chapter One focuses on Tiananmen Square parades and rallies, and the ways in which a new political culture was shaped by the Party’s application of sound media at these events, and the emotionally charged vocal responses from the People. Chapter Two broadens the scope of the inquiry by examining the nationwide construction of the Party’s sonic infrastructure in the 1950s, and considering the Party’s aspirations as well as the challenges it faced in attempting to transmit its new political culture through sound media. Chapter Three turns to the actual content that was broadcast across the sonic infrastructure, paying attention to the usage of loudspeakers in the education system, as well as the Party’s manipulation of sound effects and noise to spread propaganda and provoke appropriate emotional responses from listeners. In Chapter Four I explore the ways in which individuals reacted to extreme loudness and targeted sonic harassment in the soundscape, and consider the specific qualities of the loudspeaker that made it a useful tool for maintaining control over bodies, space, and time. Chapter Five broadens the scope of the soundscape study once more to analyze international perspectives on the Party’s usage of sound media, which centered on accusations of “brainwashing,” as well as the Party’s attempts to construct a “sound wall” around the People, by campaigning against the Voice of America. The dissertation, as a whole, constructs an overview of the Mao era soundscape, which illustrates that despite various points of failure and weakness in the PRC’s sonic infrastructure in this period, the application of sound media was integral in shaping and circulating a new political culture, and in forming new bonds between the Party and the People.