Speaker: Dr. Jennifer Hsieh
Noise
control may sound like a very scientific and technical issue, but Jennifer, as
an anthropologist, is interested in the process of how the measurement and perception
of ‘noise’ have grown and formed from the transitioning
Taiwanese society.
Discourse
of noise
“Noise”
is much more than a subject of scientific interest. As early as in the Japanese
colonial period, it is put in a discourse relating to politics, medicine and
environment. A newspaper clipping from 1932 describes some Japanese students’
response to the sounds of bells coming from tofu vendors early in the morning.
It shows a difference in the perception of noise between the Japanese and the Taiwanese
people. In 1935, Dr. Fuji is the first to start measuring sound level on the
street with modern device, making Taipei the third city in Japan territory to
have noise measured scientifically. Under KMT ruling, noise in Taiwan is seen
as a national embarrassment. A commentator 何凡 wrote on 聯合報 that Taiwan’s noise problem is
harming the progress of civilization, and regulation is needed as a solution.
Noise is also correlated with enjoyment of freedom--too much freedom causes too
much noise--as a result people can hit the horn whenever they want. Dr. 王老得, a specialist in children’s hearing
development, looks at noise from a public health perspective. He takes a survey
of 23,000 pupils, and finds that the peak age of hearing loss is at middle
school for reason that students of that age have the heaviest workload and
stress at school. He does not see the illness problem coming from the noise of
the environment generally.
Noise
and the state-building project
Keeping
up with global trend, the Taiwan government commits to responding to people’s needs, and the
result is the unique complaint system. Responding to noise becomes part of a
state-building project after the death of Chiang Kai-shek, when the Taiwanese
society begins to experience incremental democratization under the ruling of
Chiang Ching-kuo. According to one Gallup’s polling, noise becomes the no. 1
annoyance for the Taiwanese, and this marks the starting point for the KMT
government to regulate the noise to meet people’s need. Democracy is seen as
the new global trend, and to value the feeling of the people is one step to
align with it. “Listen to the people,” as it literally suggests, is to listen
to and then regulate the noises. The government launches systematic noise
measurement both in areas like Taipei central train station and Shi-men-ting,
establishing noise threshold of 75 decibel, and begins education programs to
reduce noise in a top-down manner.
Noise
control and Taiwan’s democratic transition
The
complaint system to respond to noise becomes a unique Taiwanese social life.
The system is based on urban planning which designates different noise
limitations to each of the four zones, i.e. residential area versus commercial
area. One the one hand, noise problem is seen as a technical problem that is
measured against decibels. On the other, the enforcement of the noise zoning
relies upon a complaint system initiated by ordinary citizens. Once you notice
a noise annoyance, you can file an anonymous complaint and have EPA officers to
come into your home for inspection. About 90% of the complaints fail to go
through, but the complaint system brings people to engage in the regulation
system in a democratic way. Compared with the U.S. model in which the
government intervenes private noise design preemptively from the construction
phase, the Taiwanese adopt a case-by-case solution that builds upon individual
complaints and responses based on residents’ needs.
The
complaint system becomes a unique political institution and social experiences
for the Taiwanese people. It also reflects how city residents rely upon
anonymous mechanisms to avoid retaliation, and their idea of privacy, when they
allow government officers to walk into their bedrooms for measurement and play
the third party to solve the problem.
Summary: Yichen Lo
