Sick man of transl-Asia: Bruce Lee and Rey Chow's queer cultural translation

Abstract

This article examines the status of Bruce Lee films when they are approached as cultural translations; “translations”, however, that have no simple original. It does so in terms of Rey Chow's proposed approach to cultural translation as set out in Primitive passions; firstly by indicating the constructed character of the simultaneously-produced Cantonese-language and English-language versions of the same films, and then by exploring some of the implications of the linguistic inconsistencies and semiotic play that is made apparent across the different audio and subtitling options made available by the DVD versions. As Chow has argued, various forms, sites and scenes of linguistic and cultural translation are often tense situations, in which the ethical and political stakes are high. So this article focuses on the treatment of linguistic, institutional and geographical “translation” within several Bruce Lee films themselves, as exemplified by the treatment of the regular stock figure of the treacherous/perverse translator. In so doing, the article argues for a relation between cultural translation and the “perverting” of established arrangements and values.