Revolution in the ear: Mao era noise and the making of meaning

Abstract

What is the experience of noise? What does it ask of us? What traces does it leave? At first listen, the Mao era PRC seems in harmony with an understanding of noise as inherently revolutionary or destructive. Whether we think of noise as opposed to signal, to music, to social norms, or in terms of volume, the Mao years offer endless examples. However, this case, in which a regime both purveyed radical change and established order, calls for a reexamination of the relationship between noise and revolution. In this article, we explore the role of noise, of novel and errant sonic events, not for the revolutionary regime, but for those who heard and lived the Chinese revolution. Drawing on personal testimonies from letters, literary sources, and particularly from memoir, we explore noise as a prompt for renewed examination of the social and sensory world. We consider how it prompted individuals to make sense of the period both at the time, and as memory and history. Examining these assorted ‘earwitness’ accounts, we show that noise and signal, like revolution and order, defy binary categorization in the Mao years. We argue that while noise was indeed disruptive, it also provoked active responses to make sense and create order. The dissonant, the loud, and the cacophonic were afforded value and in turn offered structure. Noise further had the capacity to create, as well as erode, social bonds. Finally, we argue that in affective understandings of rock music lie clues for interpreting both the experience and memory of Mao era noise, and through these, the Mao era as lived and remembered.