About
"The Hearing Subject: Noise and Sociality in Urban Taiwan"
My book analyzes the linkages, dependencies, and allegiances that are created through noise in its multiple manifestations as an object to be eliminated, a regulatory puzzle, and a symbol of social progress. Since the late-1970s, noise has been the number one environmental complaint in urban Taiwan at the same time that Taiwan has had a cultural heritage steeped in the celebratory noise of religious festivals, weddings, and funerals. Moreover, while government records indicate that the rate of noise violations, determined by decibels, has gone down throughout Taiwan, the number of noise complaints continues to rise to record levels each year. What this suggests is that noise is not a static object but is produced in relation to the changing perception, measurement, and governance of noise. Drawing on over twenty-four months of fieldwork and archival research in Taipei from 2012-2019, I examine how the ever-increasing number of noise problems are a referendum on the state’s efforts to deliver social progress and economic growth following decades of rapid urbanization—and construction noise. The ritualistic process of inspecting noise in Taipei, combined with the limitless possibility of sounds that residents might hear as noise, points to sensory perception as an indomitable force in mediating citizens’ relations with the Taiwanese state.
Jennifer Hsieh is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology.
