Translations and rewritings of Hamlet in China

Abstract

Certain Western classics have become increasingly popular in China, such as two film versions of Hamlet in 2006 alone. This article looks at translations and adaptations of Hamlet in China, several early translations by Tian Han, Shao Ting, and Liang Shiqiu, and then more contemporary adaptations in film and theater, including versions by Lin Zhaohua, Li Guoxiu, Xiong Yuanwei, and Feng Xiaogang. Here, one can see the fruition of Susan Bassnett and André Lefevere’s ideas about translation and rewriting at work, how readers or viewers are more likely to have read or seen adaptations and/or rewritings than the original, and how rewriters and directors insert their own ideas and references to the receiving cultures’ myths and belief systems. Indeed, new definitions of translation and rewriting are needed for the twenty-first century, those that include ideas of reinvention, transformation, and transcreation.