Prince of the Himalayas: A Reconstruction of Tibetan Cultural Identities through the Meeting of Tibet, Shakespeare, and China

Abstract

Engaging in intercultural practice tests our assumptions about cultural identity. From the crossing of borders to the association of differences, does the result come across as mutual communication via cultural exchange or rather as an imperialist act of cultural assimilation? Beneath the aesthetic dimension of amalgamation, there also lies a negotiation between political and economic influences that operate behind cross-cultural productions. This paper seeks to address these questions by examining how Chinese director Sherwood Hu's 2006 film Prince of the Himalayas, adapted from Shakespeare's Hamlet, introduces new complexities and creates new possibilities for the understanding of Tibetan cultural identities and for the recognition and construction of a more heterogeneous Chinese national cinema. Apart from discussing the intercultural discourse on an intertextual level, this paper also approaches the adaptation from a more contextual point of view. This second part investigates Prince of the Himalayas's practice of interculturalism as a significant example of the complexity of defining Chinese national cinema and of constructing cultural images. This paper argues that the film's use of Shakespeare's Hamlet leads to its divergence from recent trends of Chinese minority nationalities films and New Chinese Cinema in its attempt to promote a ”Tibetan” answer to a question that goes beyond limitations of culture specificity. Lastly, this paper examines how the use of film as medium also affects the representation and reconstruction of Tibetan cultural identities. In the meeting of Tibet, Shakespeare and China on screen, Hu's adaptation becomes a heteroglossic product layered with multiple voices, offering new possibilities and challenges to prospects of intercultural practices and communication.