Hou Hsiao-hsien’s acousmatic sound: Listening to urban noises and decadent music in Daughter of the Nile

Abstract

This article reconsiders the mediation of urban noises and decadent music in Hou Hsiao-hsien’s long-overlooked film Daughter of the Nile (1987) under the dual contexts of noise control and popular entertainment in the late 1980s in Taiwan. It argues that the film embeds distinctive sounds in urban environments to create acousmatic soundscapes that are typically considered ambient noises in mainstream discourse. It further observes that the film provides a critical entry point to the historical debates over the definition and governance of noise at the time, complicating an overdetermined concept throughout the history of sonic perception. Offering a framework to understand the film’s mediation of Taipei’s urban soundscapes, the article suggests that the film implies an ethics of listening that calls for a more careful attention to the multifarious sounds that reflect the power dynamics between the authority and the residents in the city.