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> The Cultural Revolution scenes at the beginning, however, were powerful and left a deep impression I guess they're put at the beginning in the English transl
by vorg 10y ago
> The Cultural Revolution scenes at the beginning, however, were powerful and left a deep impression
I guess they're put at the beginning in the English translation to achieve that "Here's a foreign culture" effect. The Chinese language edition orders the chapters differently, so that those first 3 chapters on the Cultural revolution come in the middle of chapter 9 when Wang Miao talks to the astrophysicist. The Chinese edition more clearly unfolds the events as they're found out by certain main characters.
The Jackie Chan movie "Who am I?" film was similarly butchered for Western audiences. The Asian edition has his character waking up with amnesia in Africa, and we spend the movie identifying with him as he finds out how he got there, via memories returning and clues. The American edition, however, begins by showing all the forgotten memories, taking away the mystery for the viewer.
- hackuser 10y agoVery interesting. > I guess they're put at the beginning in the English translation to achieve that "Here's a foreign culture" effect. I wouldn't assume the motive, however. Perhaps they thought English-speaking audiences are much less familiar with the abuses of the Cultural Revolution and needed more context. Perhaps they thought the scenes wouldn't pass Chinese censors or would attract too much negative attention if those scenes were featured so prominently. Perhaps ...