Dubbing Ideologies: The Politics of Language and Acoustic Aesthetics in Taiwan’s Mandarin-Voiceover Production
- Chen, Spencer Chao-Long
- Advisor(s): Kroskrity, Paul V
Abstract
This dissertation examines the ideological motivations behind language manipulation and cultural (mis)representation in audiovisual entertainment media by focusing on the “peiyin (dubbing, voiceover)” industry in Taiwan. Against the backdrop of geopolitical tension and market volatility between Taiwan and China, it investigates how peiyin professionals utilize language to claim creative agency as they navigate the sociolinguistic boundaries, cultural frameworks, as well as market and political imperatives within and beyond the Sinophone world. Based on longitudinal ethnographic fieldwork in Taipei, Taiwan (2016-2021), this project offers linguistic and cultural anthropological insights into the decision-making processes that shape Taiwan’s Mandarin-dubbing industry. Contrary to previous studies, my ethnographic evidence shows that dubbing is a collaborative creative production that goes beyond the straightforward inter-/intra-lingual transfer and audio-pictorial reappropriation. Proposing “a linguistic anthropology of audiovisual creativity,” this dissertation identifies three domains of audiovisuality (viz. ideology, aesthetics, and commerce) to examine dubbing as a complex sound-image mode of creative politics. This audiovisual creative model integrates and bridges the micro/macro divide in studying mediated linguistic expressions by interrogating (a) interdiscursive frameworks involving multiple language ideologies through which contesting cultural imaginaries are negotiated, (b) genres of ventriloquial creativity as types of social action embodying cultural conceptions and values, and (c) cultural models of how sound-image can and/or should be packaged and marketized in the age of media glocalization. Ultimately, through a critical examination of language ideologies, interlingual transfer, creative labor, and the mediatory effects of audiovisuality, this dissertation delineates how a linguistic microculture (re)produces larger political-economic patterns against a background of intense cultural contestation and media glocalization.