Audible Pasts: History, Sound and Human Experience in Southeast Asia

Although historians of traditional Southeast Asian cultures rely primarily onwritten sources, the societies they study were intensely oral and aural. Research on soundin Southeast Asia has focused on music and musicology, but historians are now consideringthe wide variety of noises to which people were exposed, and how the interpretations andunderstanding of these sounds shaped human experience. This article uses an 1899 courtcase in Singapore concerning a noisy neighbour as a departure point to consider some ofthe ways in which “noise” was heard in traditional Southeast Asian societies. Focusingon Singapore, it shows that European attitudes influenced the attitudes of the colonialadministration towards loud noise, especially in the streets. By the late 19th century, theview that sleep was necessary for good health, and that noise interfered with sleep, waswell established. The changing soundscape of Singapore in the early 20th century led toincreasing middle class demands for government action to limit urban noise, althoughthese were largely ineffective. The regulations and public campaigns introduced over thelast 60 years still face the problem of intrusive noise, both in the public and private domain.The richness of the Singapore material, only some of which has been consulted for this paper, suggests that the Southeast Asian region has the potential to make a significantcontribution to the field of sensory history.