Staging Politics in Taiwan: An Analysis of Three Adaptations by Performance Workshop in the 1990s

• Main Authors: Chen, Szu-Ying, 陳思穎
• Other Authors: Lai, Tzu-Yun
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2017
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/a4424b

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 翻譯研究所 === 105 === Since founded in mid-1980s, Performance Workshop presented at least one translated drama every year to early 2000s. Those translated dramatic texts were seldom published, and some of Performance Workshop’s productions became the only source people in Taiwan have for certain plays. It has been noted that while translating the plays, Performance Workshop often localized its content, intending to produce similar effects for audience in the target culture. These manipulations, however, not only erase cultural differences, but also express political views that are a far cry from those in the originals. This study analyzes the translation strategies used and manipulations made in three adaptations produced by Performance Workshop throughout the 1990s, including Hospitalization is a Must (1990), Accidental Death of an Anarchist (1995), and We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay! (1998). Hospitalization is a Must, translated from a half-an-hour television play A Separate Peace, added in a new story line about a gangster and reinforced the conflicts between individual and society, emphasizing the need to escape from the world. The two other plays were both translated from well-known comedies by Nobel laureate Dario Fo. In Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Performance Workshop undermined the political messages in the original play and revised certain lines to convey an attitude that rejects politics in general. In We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!, the purpose of the autoriduzione movement was switched from asking for a fair price to fighting against a villain based on then-mayor-of-Taipei Chen Shui-bian. Performance Workshop rewrote these plays in response to drastic changes in Taiwan political environment. Lee Teng-hui became president in the late 1980s; since then, the KMT got into a fierce infight for several years, while the opposition party became stronger. Moreover, issues related to Taiwan independence and ethnic tension remained a heated debate among the public during the 1990s. As the politics in Taiwan changed, the general attitude of Performance Workshop towards politics gradually shifted overtime. While Performance Workshop indeed introduced widely-acclaimed western works into Taiwan, they also adjusted certain plots according to their own political views, showing a conflicted national identity of the second generation of Mainlanders.