Dr. Darryl Sterk

Date: 13 July 2018Time: 1:00 PM

Finishes: 13 July 2018Time: 2:30 PM

Venue: Russell Square: College Buildings Room: DLT

Type of Event: Summer School

This is part of SOAS Centre of Taiwan Studies Summer School Programme. To register to attend please click HERE.

Abstract

Although the original language of the screenplay for the epic feature film Seediq Bale (dir. Wei Te-sheng, 2011) was Mandarin Chinese, there is not a single line of Mandarin in the film: the screenplay was translated into Japanese and Seediq in 2009 during pre-production. In this presentation, I discuss the translation into Seediq by a team of Seediq translators led by Dakis Pawan (Kuo Ming-cheng), who served as on-set native language consultant. I will give a brief introduction to the Seediq language and the translation process for the film, then discuss examples of intentional translation shifts, where a translation shift is a departure from literal translation. I will argue that these shifts were motivated by an interpretation of the Wushe Incident, which in turn were founded on an understanding of Seediq culture. My emphasis on understanding is a small but significant contribution to the study of translation into endangered languages in terms of “cultural translation.”

 On-set language consultant Dakis Pawan

Speaker Bio

Dr. Darryl Sterk is Assistant Professor of Translation at Lingnan University, Hong Kong. In addition to teaching translation, he also translates Mandarin language literature, mostly from Taiwan, into English. Finally, he is also a scholar of translation, specifically of the role of translation in indigenous language revitalization.

Organiser: SOAS Centre of Taiwan Studies

Contact email: ch45@soas.ac.uk

Sponsor: Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines