Chinese Modernity and Global Biopolitics

8 Dialect and Modernity in Twenty-first-Century Sinophone Cinema

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . c h a p t e r e i g h t Dialect and Modernity in Twenty-first-Century Sinophone Cinema T his chapter attempts to explore and differentiate the uses and functions of dialects in varieties of Chinese-language films in the early twenty-first century. I briefly examine such diverse films as The Dance Age (Taiwanese documentary, 2003), which hinges on a notion of local modernity based on the Fukienese/Taiwanese dialect in early twentieth-century Taiwanese popular songs; a mainland Chinese art-house film The World (2004) by Jia Zhangke, whose works have developed a dialectal film aesthetics based on the Shanxi dialects of Fenyang and Datong; Feng Xiaogang’s new-year films Cell Phone (2003) and A World without Thieves (2004), in which some key characters speak provincial dialects; and Zhang Yimou’s pan-Chinese films Hero (2002) and House of Flying Daggers (2004), which employ a cast of stars from Greater China, all of whom speak Mandarin. I analyze the articulation of distinct visions of China as nation-state and Chineseness as ethnicity in such films. The films address different audiences and embody various conceptions of China. The employment of specific local and provincial dialects, or the lack thereof, is an important marker of the cultural imaginary of a film, be it local Taiwanese identity, the moral economy of the mainland Chinese nation, or d i a l e c t a n d m o d e r n i t y i n s i n o p h o n e c i n e m a . 151 historico-cultural China. Overall, the chapter lays out a spreadsheet of the typography of different dialectal strands that make up contemporary Chineselanguage film production in relation to identity formation at various levels: local, national, subnational, supranational, and global. The Dance Age and Taiwanese Modernity In 2003, the Public Television Service (Gonggong dianshi tai) of Taiwan produced and broadcast a documentary, The Dance Age (Tiaowu shidai), about the flourishing of popular Taiwanese-language songs in the 1930s. The title of the film is taken from that of a 1933 popular song written by the songwriter Chen Junyu. The film documents the rise and fall of Columbia Records, which produced Taiyu songs; interviews singers and staff of the company; and broadly canvasesalargepictureofTaiwan’smodernizationunderJapanesecolonialrule. The narrative voice of the documentary is that of a female speaking in Taiyu, southern Fujianese (Hokkienese) dialect, or Minnanese. The narrator asserts that, although citizens of Taiwan lost their political rights under Japan’s colonial rule (1895–1945), Taiwanese society modernized quickly. The island’s infrastructure improved enormously. Railroads, electricity, tap water, and medical schools were made available to Taiwanese, and items and icons of modern life such as bicycles, eyeglasses, watches, photography, radio, and the music record became part of people’s daily lives. People’s consciousness underwent a modern transformation as they tuned in and sang along with Taiyu songs, with the words “Ruan is a civilized woman” (Ruan shi wenming nü). The documentary valorizes the values of civilization (wenming), modernization, and freedom in the early twentieth century. In this nostalgic reconstruction of a bygone golden age of popular culture, Taiwan appeared on the same page as such metropolises of the world as New York, Tokyo, and Shanghai. The beat of the age was foxtrot and waltz. The pastime of the modernizing urbanites was ballroom dance and drinking coffee in cafés. The phonograph became a symbol of Taiwanese modernity. The key to the commercial success of a recording company such as Columbia Records was to produce songs in Taiyu, or to translate and rewrite Japanese and Chinese songsintoTaiyusongs.Linguisticdeterminationwasofparamountimportance to win the hearts and minds of the local residents of Taiwan. Taiwanese politicians were quick to seize upon the relevance of the film to promote their political agenda. Pro-independence leaders such as ex-president Lee Teng-hui and current president Chen Shui-bian praised the film as a good example of Taiwan’s independent spirit. But the documentary itself is more nuanced . Although it highlights the importation of modern ideas and inventions from Japan to Taiwan, the documentary also points to the importance of mod- 152 . s i n o p h o n e c i n e m a a n d p o s t s o c i a l i s t t e l e v i s i o...