A scene from Women Generals In Yang's Family. Photo: Courtesy of Wang Jie

By Hu Bei

The West has known of traditional Chinese opera since the 12th century - but has had difficulty understanding the works. Now a few determined Chinese experts are trying to change that by offering English subtitles for some of the major traditional opera productions.

But it is not an easy task. This year, of the 12 Peking Opera productions to be performed at the Shanghai Grand Theater, only a few will have English subtitles.

Really difficult

Wang Jie is one of the organizers for this year's national Peking Opera season. She said: "We are trying to add English subtitles for every production. Shanghai is the Chinese mainland city with the largest foreign population. We hope to win more and more foreign audiences for traditional Chinese operas but, it is really difficult to get professional English subtitle translations."

Miao Yunyun has been translating the English subtitles for Peking Opera at the Shanghai Peking Opera House for three years.

Since she began at the Shanghai Peking Opera House Miao has translated four operas: An Auspicious Imperial Marriage, The Fourth Brother Yang Visits His Mother, Ne Zha's Triumph Over Dragon King and Premier Xiao And General Han.

Miao was well-acquainted with Peking Opera because some of her family are performers and she graduated as an English major. She said she constantly struggles with the difficulties and challenges of the job.

"The libretto and recitatives for Peking Opera performances are long and emphatic with different rhythms for every passage. But the English subtitle screens are limited and can only show 20 letters a line," Miao said.

She told the Global Times that she approaches her work adopting a liberal non-literal translation approach, sometimes using one English adjective to translate complex-connected Chinese idioms, or using English words with similar sounds to replace Chinese homonyms. "Chinese idioms and pun appear frequently in Peking Opera."

Changed name

"In my first work, An Auspicious Imperial Marriage, there is a general called 'Jia Hua' who tells a lie. A lie is 'Jia Hua' in Chinese, which sounds the same as the name of the character. But you cannot express everything with English subtitles, so I changed the general's name," Miao said.

She told the Global Times that before she begins translating, she has to be familiar with the story and related historical events. "When I get a chance, I ask the actors to explain the original script for me or watch their performances before translating."

The Shanghai Peking Opera House at present offers 25 Peking Operas with English subtitles, but Miao said only a few were popular with foreigners - The Revenge Of Prince Zidan, Tale Of The White Snake and Women Generals In Yang's Family."

"Foreigners like these because they are familiar with the story (The Revenge Of Prince Zidan is adapted from Hamlet), or the story is easy to understand or there are lots of action on stage."

While the English subtitles help foreigners understand the general story lines, the symbolism and references of these traditional operas are very difficult to express.

Another translator, Li Huahui, is a Ph.D. in psychology but she is very good at English so she was invited to translate the English subtitles for the modern Peking Opera, Zheng He's Voyage Down The Western Seas, which tells the story of Zheng He, a diplomat in the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) who led seven major explorations. Li told the Global Times she was constantly concerned about the correctness of her translation even though she checked every detail.

The other two traditional opera houses in Shanghai, the Shanghai Yueju Opera House and the Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe, also add English subtitles for classic works, like the Yueju Opera, A Dream of Red Mansions. It was translated by a university professor because the opera company does not have professional staff to undertake this work.

Wang Yuzhen, the general manager of the Beijing Peking Opera House said: "It is important to build a professional team for this work. These translators not only have to have a high level of English, but also must have deep understanding of Chinese culture. Everyone, especially the government and the universities, should make an effort to help this work.

"The first thing we must do is to expand the traditional Chinese operas' market, especially the overseas markets, which will make translations in demand."

"The Mah-Jong Song" excerpted from Zheng He's Voyage Down The Western Seas:

麻将处处藏玄妙

Mah-jong is fantastic in all aspects.

吃碰杠å'Œæœ‰ç•¥éŸ¬

Every move of it needs strategy.

这边是大饼一桶桶

Here's "Bing" like piles of pies,

伙夫们沿é€"船上烙

baked by cooks on the ship,

伙夫们沿é€"船上烙

baked by cooks on the ship.

这边是鱼儿一条条

Here's "Tiao" in a shape of fish,

兵士们沿é€"海上捞

caught by soldiers from the sea,

兵士们沿é€"海上捞

caught by soldiers from the sea,

那边是é"¶é'±

There are silver coins,

一万两万几万吊

stringed together into thousands of bunches.

Scripts translated by the Tianjin Municipal Youth Peking Opera Troupe