ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates how sound and music were evoked by and transmitted through sonic media such as the phonograph and radio in 1920s and 1930s Chinese silent and partial sound films. Taking Two Stars in the Milky Way (Shi Dongshan, 1931) as a case study, it argues that the technological belatedness of Chinese cinema produced its distinctive style and audiovisual culture, which permeated Shanghai’s urban space and popular consciousness. The chapter suggests some ways we might excavate and reconstruct this historical experience of partially mediated acoustic perception and, in doing so, reconsiders the problem of sound and transmedial culture.
