Prince of the Himalayas: A Reconstruction of Tibetan Cultural Identities Throufh the Meeting of Tibet, Shakespeare, and China

Prince of the Himalayas: A Reconstruction of Tibetan Cultural Identities Throufh the Meeting of Tibet, Shakespeare, and China

跨文化創作中，文化身份的定義與認同常面臨考驗。在跨境的交流中，跨文化創作是否能真正促進雙向溝通亦或只是淪為帝國主義下不平等得文化同化呢？在藝術層面的背後，政治與經濟等環境因素的運作與協商也同樣對成品的創作、行銷、以及觀眾接受度佔有舉足輕重的影響力。本文針對中國導演胡雪樺二○○六年的電影《喜馬拉雅王子》進行討論，分析該片如何藉由改編英國劇作家莎士比亞的《哈姆雷特》已呈現出西藏的文化身份以及中國民族電影在認同與定義上的異質性和多元化。本文先就《喜馬拉雅王子》與《哈姆雷特》在跨文本方面的改編進行比較和分析，接著再將討論擴展及語境層面的探究，並指出該片不同於近來中國少數民族電影以及新中國電影之處，即在其欲對一個超越文化限制框架的議題提出一個「西藏式」的答案。本文最後針對「電影」如何成就文化表現、建構、與交流提出相關討論。在西藏、莎士比亞、中國的誇文化交會中，《喜馬拉雅王子》並非單一文化的發聲地，而是如同巴赫汀所提出的「眾（異）聲喧嘩」般，引領出誇文化交流在未來更多的可能性以及需面對的挑戰。

Engaging in intercultural practice tests our assumptions about cultural identity. From the crossing of borders to the association of differences, does the result come across as mutual communication via cultural exchange or rather as an imperialist act of cultural assimilation? Beneath the aesthetic dimension of amalgamation, there also lies a negotiation between political and economic influences that operate behind cross-cultural productions. This paper seeks to address these questions by examining how Chinese director Sherwood Hu's 2006 film Prince of the Himalayas, adaped from Shakespeare's Hamlet, introduces new complexities and creates new possibilities for the understanding of Tibetan cultural identities and for the recognition and construction of a more heterogeneous Chinese national cinema. Apart from discussing the intercultural discourse on an intertextual level, this paper also approaches the adaptation from a more contextual point of view. This second part investigates Prince of the Himalayas's practice of interculturalism as a significant example of the complexity of defining Chinese national cinema and of constructing cultural images. This paper argues that the film's use of Shakespeare's Hamlet leads to its divergence from recent trends of Chinese minority nationalities films and New Chinese Chinema in its attempt to promote a 'Tibetan' answer to a question that goes beyond limitatins of culture specificity. Lastly, this paper examines how the use of film as medium also affects the representation and reconstruction of Tibetan cultural identities. In the meeting of Tibet, Shakespeare and China on screen, Hu's adaptation becomes a heteroglossic product layered with multiple voices, offering new possibilities and challenges to prospects of intercultural practices and communication.