MEP 11 中国文化世界化 (英语)

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If China’s is starting to export its own technology and home made products, we cannot say its culture meet the same success. If the language barrier is in fact an issue, South Korean and Japanese films and music have certainly managed to overcome the issue and go global. So what are the recent successes and pitfalls of the attempts of China’s culture going abroad? This episode was recorded during a panel at the WISE Festival 2019, held in Beijing at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art.

中国在出口国内技术和消费品方面取得了成功。然而，其文化出口并没有取得同样的成功。语言障碍可能是一个问题，但韩国和日本的电影和音乐已经克服了这一障碍，并在出口诸如电子游戏、动画和电影等文化产品方面取得了成功。是什么带来了这样的差别呢？在the Middle Earth的本期播客中，嘉宾们探讨了中国文化走出国门的成功与失败。本期节目是在2019年北京尤伦斯当代艺术中心WISE艺术节的一个小组中录制的。

Featuring:

Emily Xueni Jin: Science-Fiction translator | 科幻翻译人

Tom Simpson: Senior Director of the China-Britain Business Council | 主人英中贸易协会

George van Wetering: Composer & Event organizer | 作曲家与活动经理

Three main takeaways from this week’s episode:    

从这期访谈中，我们总结出三个主要观点：

2) There are still Orientalism and a lack of general knowledge about China in the West

西方仍然存在东方主义，对中国缺乏普遍的了解。

As the science-fiction writer Emily Xueni Jin pointed out, when you need a translation of a Chinese concept or mythical beast into English, should you borrow its western equivalent or write it in Pinyin and describe it? The trick is to balance a pure “Chinese style” to show your differences or play more a “westernization/orientalism” approach that could bring more eyeball as they already know what you are talking about. That is a really tough choice to make, often impacted by the reality of the market.

正如科幻小说家艾米莉·薛尼·金指出的那样，当你要把一个中国概念或一个神话中的野兽翻译成英语时，你应该借用它对应的西方概念，还是用拼音来描述它？通常要做出一个艰难的选择：是平衡“中式风格”来突出你的风格差异，还是用一种可以被理解为西方化或东方式的方法来吸引更多的受众。

3) China still manages to export three type of cultural product.

中国成功地出口了三种类型的文化产品。

It seems that when you look at the kind of cultural product China sells abroad only three types seems to stand out. First the classical painting, calligraphy and Tai Chi classes of the Confucius institute; but if even the youth in China think those are not sexy topics how could you expect foreign audience to think it is interesting? The second are science-fiction works that surprisingly work really well abroad, maybe because the questions about the future of our planet and how we should embrace technology can be understood everywhere. The last, and less know, one is the fact that a few years ago some companies decided to invest into foreign films. That's why the Academy Award for Best Picture for the film Green Book (2018) had a backing by Alibaba Pictures. Maybe after investing and learning for several years Chinese companies will know how to do a global hit.

当你看到中国在海外销售的文化产品，只有三种类型真正脱颖而出。首先是古典国画和书法。鉴于中国本地年轻人对这些缺乏兴趣，这引发了一个问题——它们在国外可能取得多大的成功。第二种是科幻小说，令人惊讶的是，它们在国外非常畅销。也许这是因为关于我们星球未来的问题，以及我们应该如何拥抱科技，是普罗大众都能理解的。最后(也是最不为人知的)是外国电影。几年前，一些公司决定对它们进行投资。获得奥斯卡最佳影片奖的电影《绿皮书》得到了阿里巴巴影业的支持。也许经过几年的投资和学习，中国公司会知道如何制作一部全球大片。