Translating the Other: On the Re-circulations of the Tale Sayonâs Bell
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Employing the term âtranslationâ as problematics of aboriginal representations in colonial Taiwan, this paper examines how primitivity or exotica of the colonized (the Atayal people) is rendered in Shimizu Hiroshiâs film âSayonâs Bellâ (1943) and other retellings of Sayon Hayunâs story. To highlight the asymmetrical power relations embedded in colonial exchange through translation, this paper first examines Japanese colonizers â construction of savagery and civility, analyzing the transfiguring process in which Taiwanâs aborigines are transformed from the savage other to martyred imperial subjects. It then draws on Venutiâs notions of âdomesticationâ and âforeignizationâ, regarding the dissemination of Japanese colonial discourse as the former whereas the capture of Taiwanese aboriginesâ ethnic/racial particularity the latter. Rather than reading the film as an exemplary national-policy film, this paper argues Shimizuâs meditative role as a cultural translator actually creates a space of slippage within colonial discourse as the film contains both domesticating and foreignizing translation tactics. Accordingly, Shimizuâs cinematic techniques and Li Xianglanâs transnational identity suggest more contradictions and ambiguities within imperialization discourse than a clear-cut reinforcement of it.