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unintelligible even to a Shanxi audience outside Fenyang, not to mention
a potential national audience (fig. 2) 8 ; his monologue thus becomes more
a registering of expletives than a vehicle of communication. The creative
space opened up by the underground filmmaking mode allows for such
unrestrained dialogue, which does not have to adhere to the social or
educational obligations of the mainstream public media in China. Freed
from the national language regulations 9 and official censorship, Jia’s
films use language that might be heard only in informal, uncensored
conversations.
Private Space versus Public Space in Xiao Wu
Perhaps the most influential Chinese independent fiction film, Xiao Wu
provides an excellent text to further examine the function of local language
in relation to soundtrack and narrative structure. As Wang Zhuoyi (2005)
8
Both the Shanxi Fenyang and the
Henan Anyang dialects belong to the
Jin language (Jin yu), which is arguably
different from Mandarin. But because it
is still an unsettled issue, this study treats
Jin yu as one subtype of Mandarin. Some
linguists point out that the dialects in Jin
yu are often mutually incomprehensible.
For a discussion of these differences,
see http://www.pkucn.com/viewthread.
php?tid=157344.
9
Effective from January 1, 2001, the
Law of the People’s Republic of China
on the Use of Chinese Languages and
Chinese Characters prescribes Putonghua
Mandarin as the principal language
in movies and broadcast radio and
television. The State Administration of
Radio, Film, and Television (SARFT) then
promulgated regulations that explicitly
discourage the use of local languages in
mass media.
Figure 2: Jia Zhangke playing one of Xiao Shan’s Henan townsmen in Xiao Shan Going
Home (1995)
Modern Chinese Literature and Culture • 169
MCLC 18.2.indd 169
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