Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PPLMEC (Politics and Practices of Listening in Mao era People's Republic of China.)
Reporting period: 2023-09-01 to 2025-08-31
Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project
This interdisciplinary project explores the politics and practices of sound and listening in the Mao era People’s Republic of China (PRC), their interpretation and their impact on social and intellectual change. It does so through an innovative three-tiered analysis of the use and apprehension of sound at state, local, and individual levels.
Sound played a central role in state-building in the Mao era. Radio, megaphones, fixed speakers, and recording technologies were used to relay messages to audiences beyond the literate, to pass on Mao’s voice, and as weapons against class enemies. In the process, the primacy of text over voice was inverted as a literati culture built on quiet study became a land of sound and voice.
While we know of the material conditions of state use of sound, no study has sought to understand either the intellectual history behind state initiatives or the social and cultural impact of this effort. Understandings of listening, sound, and the individual reflected in state initiatives are unexplored, as are how ways of listening transformed in response. The state had clear goals, but how people apprehended or misapprehended sonic propaganda, how they contested or worked around the sounds controlled by the state, remains to be explored, as does how sound, soundscapes, and listening were negotiated between state and citizen in the Mao era. Sound-studies as a field has matured and its approaches and theories may be applied to the PRC, but thus far it has been so directed in very few cases. Sources for studies of sound in the PRC have previously been limited. However, now we have available state, local, and individual sources that enable such a study to proceed.
This study, by drawing in underexplored elements to deepen our understanding of the rising international power of the 21st century, will contribute to both the fields of modern Chinese social and political history and sound-studies. Modern Chinese history, with a few notable exceptions, has largely remained a visually or textually oriented endeavour. Sound studies, for its part, has remained largely Eurocentric. Uniting the two will interrogate the assumptions of, and return important results to, both fields.
For sound-studies, it offers, through the counter-example of China, an opportunity to explore which aspects of listening and making sound are universal, and which are culturally and historically contingent. It offers also the first system-wide attempt to study how state goals for sound met local and individual conditions, and how cultures of listening were negotiated through this process.
For Chinese history, it explores a neglected aspect of the relationship between citizen and state in the formative years of the new global superpower. The sensory focus of the project will also help to deepen understandings of the politics and culture of the PRC
Sound played a central role in state-building in the Mao era. Radio, megaphones, fixed speakers, and recording technologies were used to relay messages to audiences beyond the literate, to pass on Mao’s voice, and as weapons against class enemies. In the process, the primacy of text over voice was inverted as a literati culture built on quiet study became a land of sound and voice.
While we know of the material conditions of state use of sound, no study has sought to understand either the intellectual history behind state initiatives or the social and cultural impact of this effort. Understandings of listening, sound, and the individual reflected in state initiatives are unexplored, as are how ways of listening transformed in response. The state had clear goals, but how people apprehended or misapprehended sonic propaganda, how they contested or worked around the sounds controlled by the state, remains to be explored, as does how sound, soundscapes, and listening were negotiated between state and citizen in the Mao era. Sound-studies as a field has matured and its approaches and theories may be applied to the PRC, but thus far it has been so directed in very few cases. Sources for studies of sound in the PRC have previously been limited. However, now we have available state, local, and individual sources that enable such a study to proceed.
This study, by drawing in underexplored elements to deepen our understanding of the rising international power of the 21st century, will contribute to both the fields of modern Chinese social and political history and sound-studies. Modern Chinese history, with a few notable exceptions, has largely remained a visually or textually oriented endeavour. Sound studies, for its part, has remained largely Eurocentric. Uniting the two will interrogate the assumptions of, and return important results to, both fields.
For sound-studies, it offers, through the counter-example of China, an opportunity to explore which aspects of listening and making sound are universal, and which are culturally and historically contingent. It offers also the first system-wide attempt to study how state goals for sound met local and individual conditions, and how cultures of listening were negotiated through this process.
For Chinese history, it explores a neglected aspect of the relationship between citizen and state in the formative years of the new global superpower. The sensory focus of the project will also help to deepen understandings of the politics and culture of the PRC
Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far
The primary objectives of the work plan in the early stages of the project (WP3) were the review of the field of sound studies and a delimitation of the project scope to specific historical contexts. During the first 3 months of the project, I reviewed the extant literature. In the process wrote a chapter discussing the specific benefits of a sonic approach to the historiography of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). This chapter has been included in an edited volume to be published by Amsterdam University Press (forthcoming 2026-7).
Reviewing the existing literature also led me to adjust the temporal focus of the project. It became clear that the formative period of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sonic state-making was not after the founding of the PRC, but in1940s when it began its first experiments with radio during its war with first Japan and then the Chinese Nationalists (KMT). As important as these develops were, they had not been discussed in any depth in the existing literature. This led me to add this period as a key inflection point of the study.
The resultant project, which I am now developing into a monograph, now focuses on the state use of sonic technology, as well as social and individual responses to this technology, in the following key periods:
1940-1949: The establishment of CCP broadcast radio culture and radio as a tool of emotional mobilization.
1950-1959: Social transformation and individual responses to an expanding sonic state.
1960-1969: The role of and meaning of noise in the Cultural Revolutionary period.
1970-1979: The emergence of a modern sonic aesthetic.
Following this initial work, I began data collection (WP4). This took three forms: 1) the scanning and OCRing of archival materials already in the Researcher’s collection; 2) the purchase of materials from the PRC via online second-hand marketplaces; 3) transcription or photographing materials held in archives in Taiwan. Each is discussed briefly below:
1) I scanned and OCRd my initial collection of CCP broadcasting material. These included internal (not for public circulation) circulars such as Broadcast Trends, as well as memoirs.
2) I purchased further materials from the PRC. This now substantial collection includes further internal circulars (including those from a wide variety of locations), broadcast scripts (including those that have been redacted and corrected by broadcasters), further diary and memoir material, audio recordings (reel to reel and vinyl) that were used in radio broadcasts, and letters to individual radio stations written by listeners.
3) In Taiwan, at Academica Sinica, I visited the archives of the Institute of Modern History. This collection includes intelligence reports written about by KMT agents about CCP radio in the period 1940-1960.
After collection and collation of the above materials, I began data-analysis (WP5). As a historian this process organically includes the process of writing, and therefore dissemination (WP6). To develop an understanding of CCP goals for radio in its formative period, I composed two articles.
Reviewing the existing literature also led me to adjust the temporal focus of the project. It became clear that the formative period of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sonic state-making was not after the founding of the PRC, but in1940s when it began its first experiments with radio during its war with first Japan and then the Chinese Nationalists (KMT). As important as these develops were, they had not been discussed in any depth in the existing literature. This led me to add this period as a key inflection point of the study.
The resultant project, which I am now developing into a monograph, now focuses on the state use of sonic technology, as well as social and individual responses to this technology, in the following key periods:
1940-1949: The establishment of CCP broadcast radio culture and radio as a tool of emotional mobilization.
1950-1959: Social transformation and individual responses to an expanding sonic state.
1960-1969: The role of and meaning of noise in the Cultural Revolutionary period.
1970-1979: The emergence of a modern sonic aesthetic.
Following this initial work, I began data collection (WP4). This took three forms: 1) the scanning and OCRing of archival materials already in the Researcher’s collection; 2) the purchase of materials from the PRC via online second-hand marketplaces; 3) transcription or photographing materials held in archives in Taiwan. Each is discussed briefly below:
1) I scanned and OCRd my initial collection of CCP broadcasting material. These included internal (not for public circulation) circulars such as Broadcast Trends, as well as memoirs.
2) I purchased further materials from the PRC. This now substantial collection includes further internal circulars (including those from a wide variety of locations), broadcast scripts (including those that have been redacted and corrected by broadcasters), further diary and memoir material, audio recordings (reel to reel and vinyl) that were used in radio broadcasts, and letters to individual radio stations written by listeners.
3) In Taiwan, at Academica Sinica, I visited the archives of the Institute of Modern History. This collection includes intelligence reports written about by KMT agents about CCP radio in the period 1940-1960.
After collection and collation of the above materials, I began data-analysis (WP5). As a historian this process organically includes the process of writing, and therefore dissemination (WP6). To develop an understanding of CCP goals for radio in its formative period, I composed two articles.
Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)
As noted in the above section, I have completed two original research articles that exploit the new data and new methods discovered in the project.
The first article explored the use of radio as a tool of emotional mobilization. This focus was arrived at quite simply because it was clear as I read through the materials collected that CCP leaders and broadcasters saw radio as a medium that was particularly suited for the propagation of emotion. The article explores why exactly this became the focus of CCP vocal broadcasting, and how CCP broadcast culture developed out of the revolutionary practice and emotional mobilization of the Yan’an base area (particularly the Rectification campaign of 1942-45). This article has now in press with the high-impact journal Modern Asian Studies and should be published in late 2025 or early 2026
The second article focuses on the same period, but instead of being written for scholars of Chinese history takes a media history approach. It asks how the technology of radio and the extant political culture of the CCP interacted. I argue in this article that while radio has been seen by scholars as a western technology that was imported to developing countries, the example of the CCP shows that as technology is adopted it is re-imagined and deployed in diverse ways that represent not a technological transformation of society, but an elaboration of extant social and political practices. This article is now in press with the journal Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies and should be published in early 2026.
Given the increased focus on the 1940s, the remaining work for the monograph is still under progress. In brief, I am currently working on the following three articles:
1) A study of the social and individual impact of CCP radio as it expands from local to national broadcaster. Where I establish in the article mentioned above that emotional mobilization was a key goal of CCP broadcasting, this article explores the emotional world of the listener. Based predominantly on diary and memoir, it studies the role that radio played in the social and intimate worlds of everyday listeners during the 1950s. I argue that, while recent work on radio in 20th century China suggest the medium was primarily one of information, and that listeners tuned in largely to gain access to this information, life-writing from the period shows us that the radio became an emotional support and an intimate companion for many individuals.
2) A study of the changing relationship with silence as the CCP’s network of diffusion grows. Silence has played a key role in the lives of Chinese literati and cultural elite since the dynastic era. As I argue in my previous work, the campaigns of the Mao era, and particularly the Hundred Flowers and Anti-Rightist Campaigns greatly reduced the space for silent retreat, and simultaneously created a socio-political atmosphere in which remaining silent (refraining from speech) was suspect. This article expands the scope of my earlier work to explore how individual and social groups transformed their relationship with silence.
3) In the months leading up to the commencement of this PPLMEC project, I co-authored an article on noise in the Mao era. I am currently developing this theme for inclusion as a chapter in the monograph. This work will, as with the question of silence, explore how social and individual conceptions of noise changed during the Mao years, and how ideas of noise reflect subtle transformations in society.
I am also developing the final chapter of the monograph, on the development of a modern sonic aesthetics in the late Mao years and the beginning of Reform and Opening.
The first article explored the use of radio as a tool of emotional mobilization. This focus was arrived at quite simply because it was clear as I read through the materials collected that CCP leaders and broadcasters saw radio as a medium that was particularly suited for the propagation of emotion. The article explores why exactly this became the focus of CCP vocal broadcasting, and how CCP broadcast culture developed out of the revolutionary practice and emotional mobilization of the Yan’an base area (particularly the Rectification campaign of 1942-45). This article has now in press with the high-impact journal Modern Asian Studies and should be published in late 2025 or early 2026
The second article focuses on the same period, but instead of being written for scholars of Chinese history takes a media history approach. It asks how the technology of radio and the extant political culture of the CCP interacted. I argue in this article that while radio has been seen by scholars as a western technology that was imported to developing countries, the example of the CCP shows that as technology is adopted it is re-imagined and deployed in diverse ways that represent not a technological transformation of society, but an elaboration of extant social and political practices. This article is now in press with the journal Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies and should be published in early 2026.
Given the increased focus on the 1940s, the remaining work for the monograph is still under progress. In brief, I am currently working on the following three articles:
1) A study of the social and individual impact of CCP radio as it expands from local to national broadcaster. Where I establish in the article mentioned above that emotional mobilization was a key goal of CCP broadcasting, this article explores the emotional world of the listener. Based predominantly on diary and memoir, it studies the role that radio played in the social and intimate worlds of everyday listeners during the 1950s. I argue that, while recent work on radio in 20th century China suggest the medium was primarily one of information, and that listeners tuned in largely to gain access to this information, life-writing from the period shows us that the radio became an emotional support and an intimate companion for many individuals.
2) A study of the changing relationship with silence as the CCP’s network of diffusion grows. Silence has played a key role in the lives of Chinese literati and cultural elite since the dynastic era. As I argue in my previous work, the campaigns of the Mao era, and particularly the Hundred Flowers and Anti-Rightist Campaigns greatly reduced the space for silent retreat, and simultaneously created a socio-political atmosphere in which remaining silent (refraining from speech) was suspect. This article expands the scope of my earlier work to explore how individual and social groups transformed their relationship with silence.
3) In the months leading up to the commencement of this PPLMEC project, I co-authored an article on noise in the Mao era. I am currently developing this theme for inclusion as a chapter in the monograph. This work will, as with the question of silence, explore how social and individual conceptions of noise changed during the Mao years, and how ideas of noise reflect subtle transformations in society.
I am also developing the final chapter of the monograph, on the development of a modern sonic aesthetics in the late Mao years and the beginning of Reform and Opening.