Zhenxing Jiang

I offer a critical interpretation of the Chinese dance drama The Eternal Radio Waves, drawing on post-Marxist discourse theory and the concept of modal affordance. My analysis focuses on the segment, Song of the Fishermen, which diverges from the performance’s overtly political narrative. Lacking clear storytelling or ideological messaging, this segment has been dismissed by some audiences as ‘meaningless, useless, and abrupt’. Yet paradoxically, it has emerged as the most popular part of the production. I examine how modes and their affordances contribute to the making, anchoring, and reassurance of this perceived ‘meaninglessness’. I argue that Fishermen operates as a heterogeneous element – both detached from and articulated with the performance’s dominant political identity – rendering it simultaneously an ‘inside’ and apparent ‘outside’ of that identity. I conclude that Fishermen’s ‘meaninglessness’ is afforded by its extensive use of dance, while its latent political undertones are anchored through nodal points shaped by emotionally charged, antagonistic storytelling. Ultimately, Fishermen reassures its ‘meaninglessness’ by spiritualizing the political, invoking a quasi-religious affect to generate consent without articulating concrete shared meanings.