{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/132459"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/132459","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"That hideous noise: Chinese sounds and the transnational making of race and modernity in China and the U.S., 1850-1940","abstract":"This dissertation investigates the sonic friction created by interactions among colonial elites, Chinese intellectuals, and marginalized Chinese laborers between the 1850s and the 1940s. Specifically, it explores how the sounds of Chinese people—early Chinese immigrants setting off firecrackers in the United States., the chanting of Shanghai dock laborers, and Beijing night watchmen’s singing—were racialized as barbarous yet simultaneously reclaimed as sounds of awakening in China. This dissertation contends that these sonic frictions constituted critical sites in which abstract categories such as race, modernity, and national identity were negotiated and contested. By tuning in to the noisescape and foregrounding the visceral qualities of sound, it models an analytical framework can create room for the elusive experiences of marginalized groups to become recognizable, asserting that their sonic presence was both visceral and powerful. It challenges historians’ preoccupation with searching for ideal oppressed subjects who “have voice” and reflects on the pervasive trope of marginalized groups as voiceless. It calls upon historians to expand their methodological apparatus so that we might better hear the visceral immediacy of marginalized groups’ singing, chanting, and groaning.","abstract_html":"This dissertation investigates the sonic friction created by interactions among colonial elites, Chinese intellectuals, and marginalized Chinese laborers between the 1850s and the 1940s. Specifically, it explores how the sounds of Chinese people—early Chinese immigrants setting off firecrackers in the United States., the chanting of Shanghai dock laborers, and Beijing night watchmen’s singing—were racialized as barbarous yet simultaneously reclaimed as sounds of awakening in China. This dissertation contends that these sonic frictions constituted critical sites in which abstract categories such as race, modernity, and national identity were negotiated and contested. By tuning in to the noisescape and foregrounding the visceral qualities of sound, it models an analytical framework can create room for the elusive experiences of marginalized groups to become recognizable, asserting that their sonic presence was both visceral and powerful. It challenges historians’ preoccupation with searching for ideal oppressed subjects who “have voice” and reflects on the pervasive trope of marginalized groups as voiceless. It calls upon historians to expand their methodological apparatus so that we might better hear the visceral immediacy of marginalized groups’ singing, chanting, and groaning.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Liu, Lingyan"],"institution":"University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"History","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Goldman, Andrea S.","Symes, Carol","Burton, Antoinette","Asaka, Ikuko","Barnes, Nicole Elizabeth"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2025,"date_issued":"2025-12","date_published":"2025-12","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:07Z","subjects":["Noise","Race","Modernity."],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright 2025 Lingyan Liu"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/2142/132459","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Goldman, Andrea S.","Symes, Carol","Burton, Antoinette","Asaka, Ikuko","Barnes, Nicole Elizabeth"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Liu, Lingyan"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2025-12","2025-08-29"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text","Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["History"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Noise","Race","Modernity."]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2025 Lingyan Liu"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/132459"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["This dissertation investigates the sonic friction created by interactions among colonial elites, Chinese intellectuals, and marginalized Chinese laborers between the 1850s and the 1940s. Specifically, it explores how the sounds of Chinese people—early Chinese immigrants setting off firecrackers in the United States., the chanting of Shanghai dock laborers, and Beijing night watchmen’s singing—were racialized as barbarous yet simultaneously reclaimed as sounds of awakening in China. This dissertation contends that these sonic frictions constituted critical sites in which abstract categories such as race, modernity, and national identity were negotiated and contested. By tuning in to the noisescape and foregrounding the visceral qualities of sound, it models an analytical framework can create room for the elusive experiences of marginalized groups to become recognizable, asserting that their sonic presence was both visceral and powerful. It challenges historians’ preoccupation with searching for ideal oppressed subjects who “have voice” and reflects on the pervasive trope of marginalized groups as voiceless. It calls upon historians to expand their methodological apparatus so that we might better hear the visceral immediacy of marginalized groups’ singing, chanting, and groaning.","Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2026-02-19 without embargo terms","The student, Lingyan Liu, accepted the attached license on 2025-08-26 at 21:55.","The student, Lingyan Liu, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2025-08-26 at 21:55.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2025-08-29 at 09:17.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #22782 on 2026-02-19 at 18:24:13"]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["That hideous noise: Chinese sounds and the transnational making of race and modernity in China and the U.S., 1850-1940"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Goldman, Andrea S.","Symes, Carol","Burton, Antoinette","Asaka, Ikuko","Barnes, Nicole Elizabeth"],"dc:creator":["Liu, Lingyan"],"dc:date":["2025-12","2025-08-29"],"dc:description":["This dissertation investigates the sonic friction created by interactions among colonial elites, Chinese intellectuals, and marginalized Chinese laborers between the 1850s and the 1940s. Specifically, it explores how the sounds of Chinese people—early Chinese immigrants setting off firecrackers in the United States., the chanting of Shanghai dock laborers, and Beijing night watchmen’s singing—were racialized as barbarous yet simultaneously reclaimed as sounds of awakening in China. This dissertation contends that these sonic frictions constituted critical sites in which abstract categories such as race, modernity, and national identity were negotiated and contested. By tuning in to the noisescape and foregrounding the visceral qualities of sound, it models an analytical framework can create room for the elusive experiences of marginalized groups to become recognizable, asserting that their sonic presence was both visceral and powerful. It challenges historians’ preoccupation with searching for ideal oppressed subjects who “have voice” and reflects on the pervasive trope of marginalized groups as voiceless. It calls upon historians to expand their methodological apparatus so that we might better hear the visceral immediacy of marginalized groups’ singing, chanting, and groaning.","Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. 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