Sound Texture and Sound Network: The Audio Memory of China's Anti-Japanese War Films (1979–2025)

Abstract

The year 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of China's victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan and also the 120th anniversary of the birth of Chinese cinema. As an artistic medium that integrates audio and visual elements, film serves not only as a vivid reflection of history but also as a crucial vessel for preserving memories of wartime trauma. However, the cinematic "soundscapes" —a key component of historical memory related to the war—have long been overlooked by researchers. By reviewing the development of sound representation in Chinese anti-Japanese war films since the reform and opening-up era, analyzing the underlying logic between cinematic sound and wartime memory as well as ideology, and summarizing the evolutionary patterns of sound narration across different historical periods, we can provide a historical reference framework for the modernization transformation of contemporary Chinese cinema and ensure that the collective echoes of the Chinese people's shared experiences during the war are not drowned out by the tide of forgetting.