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Figure 8: Sanming converses with his cousin Cui Mingliang in Platform (2000) 182 • The Rhetoric of Local Languages MCLC 18.2.indd 182 12/20/06 2:01:38 PM
native Taiyuan Mandarin even though she plays an entertainment demistar, Qiao Qiao, who is a native of Datong (fig. 9). Yet the use of local language takes a new twist in this film, which distinguishes the language of the female and male protagonists. The two male leads, Wu Qiong (playing Xiao Ji) and Zhao Weiwei (playing Bin Bin), speak Putonghua rather than dialect throughout the film (fig. 10). The difference in the male and female protagonists’ language depicts a stratification among disaffected and disillusioned Chinese youth, a feature many critics have yet to discuss. Although broadcast-standard Putonghua Mandarin continues to be used in this film as the mainstream media language largely for its ideological connotation, the film seems to ironically confirm its elevated position in the hierarchy of linguistic practices. One of Bourdieu’s main theses (1991) is that the educational system as an institution plays a decisive role in the standardization, legitimization, and imposition of an official language; the dialectical relation between the education system and the labor market conspires to devalue local dialects, which are often dismissed as uneducated and coarse. The Putonghua spoken by the high school–educated Xiao Ji and Bin Bin in this movie is therefore endowed with certain cultural Figure 9: Qiao Qiao (played by Zhao Tao) in Unknown Pleasures (2002) Modern Chinese Literature and Culture • 183 MCLC 18.2.indd 183 12/20/06 2:01:38 PM
Page 1 and 2: The Rhetoric of Local Languages as
Page 3 and 4: languages provide unexpected, unpre
Page 5 and 6: living in small towns. Integral to
Page 7 and 8: unintelligible even to a Shanxi aud
Page 9 and 10: According to Wang, “the microphon
Page 11 and 12: Figure 5: Xiao Wu (played by Wang H
Page 13 and 14: with the diegetic silence of the pr
Page 15 and 16: Figure 7: The pair Zhang Jun (playe
Page 17 and 18: If linguistic unity can be achieved
Page 19: that the protagonists’ hybridized
Page 23 and 24: Figure 11: Xiao Ji watches news cov
Page 25 and 26: Figure 13: Qiao Qiao demonstrates t
Page 27 and 28: Figure 14: The closing scene in Pla
Page 29 and 30: Here, subaltern theory may be helpf
Page 31 and 32: to professional formulas. Zhu Wen,
Page 33 and 34: script suggest that the story is se
Page 35 and 36: Wang Guangli’s Heng shu heng (Go
Page 37 and 38: Haixian 海鲜 (Seafood). Dir. Zhu
Page 39 and 40: Dai, Jinhua. 2002. “A Scene in th
Page 41 and 42: Lee, Kevin. 2003. “Jia Zhangke.
Page 43 and 44: 指南 (Filmmaking guide for under
Page 45 and 46: MCLC 18.2.indd 207 12/20/06 2:01:42

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