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with the diegetic silence of the protagonist, signifying the powerlessness
of any speech. His bewilderment, his dignity, and his struggle over his
self-worth all seem to be encapsulated in the lyrics “Wen cangtian, sifang
yundong / Jian zai shou, wen tianxia shui shi yingxiong?” (Ask the deep
blue sky, clouds moving in all directions. With sword in hand, I ask the
world, who is the hero?).
In this section, I have described the use of local language versus
Putonghua Mandarin in the framework of public and private spaces
defined by the soundtrack. The analysis has explored how popular songs,
as an integral part of the soundtrack, serve the empathetic function for
the silent protagonist. The local dialect, as the everyday language for the
local community, is extensively used in both public and private spaces. By
contrast, Putonghua Mandarin, symbolizing the mainstream, is subdued
most of the time as background noise in the heteroglossic public space.
Virtually no character speaks standard Putonghua, and none are depicted
in the heroic light typically found in mainstream films. To a large degree,
the local language in Jia’s films is associated with the marginal—those not
(well) absorbed into mainstream society.
The Tension Between Diegesis and Mimesis in Platform
Popular music continues to play an important role in Jia’s next film, Platform,
which follows the lives of four performers in a local Fenyang troupe from
the late 1970s to the early 1990s. As Kermode (1995: 9) argues, “more than
any other art form, pop music is a disposable, transient product which
reflects, mimics, and occasionally shapes the zeitgeist. As such, pop music
can serve as a film’s memory, instantaneously linking it with its audience,
tapping into a nostalgic past, or fixing the film firmly in the present.” In
many interviews, Jia has recalled the enormous role of popular music in
the lives of his contemporaries as they came of age (e.g., M. Berry 2003:
61–62); this is abundantly evidenced in Platform. The numerous “classic”
pop songs—whether the revolutionary song “Huoche xiangzhe Shaoshan
Modern Chinese Literature and Culture • 175
MCLC 18.2.indd 175
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