culural conversations and clashes. in china

                                                                      BEIJING , CHINA . 2012

''It is unusual working in a culture that's 5000 years old where everything is done by tradition and there's not a lot of interpretation,''   

Richard Jeziorny's line stands out.  It replays and reinforces the  the stereotypes of  stuck Traditions  and societies that do not 'Modernise' or even' interpret'.  

It is scary to think  that  desperately needed  intercultural conversations are being  conducted by  people like him .  People who still believe in asserting the cultural hegemony of the ways of the west over societies stuck who are '5000 years old' and have ,supposedly, never changed. Never questioned  or "interpreted" their culltures. 

IT WAS probably inevitable that the Australian and Chinese performers of Cho Cho, a confronting adaption of Madame Butterfly, would experience a clash of cultures before they took the stage.

Themes about colliding ideas of love, commitment and integrity have been deliberately amplified in a production that has been negotiated, directed and performed simultaneously in English and Chinese.

But they didn't expect to be lost in translation quite so quickly: from the moment the Chinese actors saw their costume and make-up designs.

They refused to wear the gaudy, exaggerated interpretations of 1930s Shanghai.

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Actor Du He says she was surprised to find herself in a great fur coat, which was meant to signify extravagant luxury, but which she thought made her look like a Mongolian herdsman.

There were tears and protests on both sides.

''It is unusual working in a culture that's 5000 years old where everything is done by tradition and there's not a lot of interpretation,'' says designer Richard Jeziorny

'The Chinese actors said, 'That's what you think Chinese look like: you think we're all comical and you're normal,' '' she says. ''I had to force a change, I really was a bully.'

Keene was intrigued to find that what he had conceived as an act of furious, tragic revenge was viewed with more complexity and ambiguity by some of the Chinese actors.

''The Chinese saw a vision of hope because of the whole idea of reincarnation,'' says Keene.

''In a way her love and love for her child is preserved because she's taken away everything,'' he says.

''It's incredible. I find it intriguing.''

The production process, as much as the show itself, is designed to highlight and investigate the cultural collisions that occur as Australia and China grow ever more intertwined.

''There are so many broken marriages, new businesses that immediately fail, countries that turn around and have war with each other simply because they don't understand each other's language.''

http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/lost-in-cultural-translation-but-its-a-bilateral-happy-end-20130120-2d1cg.html