Ying Xiao | University of Florida (original) (raw)

Books by Ying Xiao

Representing Translation, 2019

In an increasingly global and multilingual society, translators have transitioned from unobtrusiv... more In an increasingly global and multilingual society, translators have transitioned from unobtrusive stagehands to key intercultural mediators-a development that is reflected in contemporary media. From Coppola's Lost in Translation to television's House M.D., and from live performance to social media, translation is rendered as not only utilitarian, but also performative and communicative.

In examining translation as a captivating theme in film, television, commercials, and online content, this multinational collection engages with the problems and limitations faced by translators, as well as the ethical and philosophical aspects of translation and Translation Studies. Contributors examine the role of the translator (as protagonist, agent, negotiator, and double-agent), translation in global communication, the presentation of visual texts, multilingualism in contemporary media, and the role of foreign languages in advertisements. Translation and translators are shown as inseparable parts of a contemporary life that is increasingly multilingual, multiethnic, multinational and socially diverse.

University Press of Mississippi, 2017

A study of sound in Chinese film and media, especially its music and multilingual soundtrack, tha... more A study of sound in Chinese film and media, especially its music and multilingual soundtrack, that amplifies a vibrantly changing national power and global order

Scarce attention has been paid to the dimension of sound and its essential role in constructing image, culture, and identity in Chinese film and media. China in the Mix fills a critical void with the first book on the sound, languages, scenery, media, and culture in post-Socialist China. In this study, Ying Xiao explores fascinating topics, including appropriations of popular folklore in the Chinese new wave of the 1980s; Chinese rock 'n' roll and youth cinema in fin de siècle China; the political-economic impact of free market imperatives and Hollywood pictures on Chinese film industry and filmmaking in the late twentieth century; the reception and adaptation of hip hop; and the emerging role of Internet popular culture and social media in the early twenty-first century. Xiao examines the articulations and representations of mass culture and everyday life, concentrating on their aural/oral manifestations in contemporary Chinese cinema and in a wide spectrum of media and cultural productions.

China in the Mix offers the first comprehensive investigation of Chinese film, expressions, and culture from a unique, cohesive acoustic angle and through the prism of global media-cultural exchange. It shows how the complex, evolving uses of sound (popular music, voice-over, silence, noise, and audio mixing) in film and media reflect and engage the important cultural and socio-historical shifts in contemporary China and in the increasingly networked world. Xiao offers an innovative new conception of Chinese film and media and their audiovisual registers in the historiographical frame of China amid the global landscape.

Papers by Ying Xiao

Journal of Popular Film and Television, 2018

In Representing Translation: Languages, Translation, and Translators in Contemporary Media, edited by Dror Abend-David., 2019

For the Chinese, Hamlet is identified and has been widely associated with a peculiar voice and na... more For the Chinese, Hamlet is identified and has been widely associated with a peculiar voice and name: Sun Daolin who interpreted, dubbed, and recreated the celebrated character with subtlety, depth, and personal charisma. When Laurence Olivier’s masterpiece, Hamlet (1948), was imported and translated in China in 1958, it became instantly a big hit across the nation and an unparalleled apotheosis of translation of and into Chinese accomplished through Bian Zhilin’s masterful translation, Chen Shuyi’s seasoned directing, and Sun Daolin’s virtuoso dubbing and performance. The three of them were prominent artists, scholars, stars, celebrities, and cultural officials in mid-late twentieth century China. My article explores and traces the reception, reinterpretation, and recontextualization of Hamlet in China across different epochs from its huge success in early PRC (People’s Republic of China), through the censure of the work during the Cultural Revolution, to its resurrection and even a broader appeal during the post-socialist, reform era.

Central to this historiography is my attention to the critical, (pro)active, and fluid roles the translators, performers, and creative personnel have played in the process. By highlighting the dynamic, multifaceted screen-sound-public personae these cultural agents have built and their complex negotiations between the variety of texts, cultures, languages, and sociopolitical settings, I show that the search for a Chinese Hamlet is not only a translation, but also a meta-translation (translation-in-translation), an intro-translation (self-reflection) of the very position and dilemma of intellectuals and individual subjectivities in socialist China, and an inter-translation between literature, theater, film, popular culture, and social life. Moreover, the translation and the translated provide another vibrant angle to investigate Chinese film and cultural production as well as a comparative frame key to understanding China’s sociopolitical change and international relations during the second half of the twentieth century.

Asian Cinema , 2017

The very presence of Shanghai in Hollywood film is fundamental and no accident. Not only was Shan... more The very presence of Shanghai in Hollywood film is fundamental and no accident. Not only was Shanghai an exotic, erotic geographic domain that accommodates and embodies the orientalist fantasies in juxtaposition and contrast with the western realities but also it was stylistically and symbolically crafted, transfigured and woven into the Hollywood 'dream' to suggest a range of complex meanings. My article examines the very image and image-making of Shanghai in classical Hollywood cinema of the 1930s and the 1940s. The orientalist strategy that identifies Shanghai as the seductive, threatening and static other is not the only way to understanding the Shanghai of Hollywood's recreation. I depart from the conventional stereotype of a polarized Shanghai to show the complexity, ambiguity, tension and moreover dynamism in depicting Shanghai vis-à-vis the western self-representation. The very volatile, ambivalent depiction of Shanghai or the East is quite often linked to the projection of the western self, underscored by the dialectic of travelling and captivity, and materialized through the metaphorical lens of the exiled, ostracized and fallen yet challenging woman in the new modern world. Through my close analysis of the Hollywood productions such as Shanghai Express (von Sternberg, 1932), The Shanghai Gesture (von Sternberg, 1941) and The Lady from Shanghai (Welles,1947) and how the first film was consequently received and perceived in Republican Shanghai, I show how the construction of such a distinct space is intricately intersected
with race, gender and nationality at a critical juncture and is moreover mediated through various forms of film noir and camp stylization. It furthermore sheds new light on a nuanced understanding of the Sino-Hollywood relationship during the Great Depression and the Republican era.

In The Oxford Handbook of New Audiovisual Aesthetics, edited by Claudia Gorbman, John Richardson, and Carol Vernallis, 2013

In Neoliberalism and Global Cinema: Capital, Culture, and Marxist Critique, edited by Jyotsna Kapur and Keith B. Wagner, 2011

Special issue of Three Asias: Japan, S. Korea, China. Paradoxa: Studies in World Literary Genres , 2010

Book Reviews by Ying Xiao

China Review International , 2015

of Hawai'i Press chose alternative models' breadth and depth in welfare coverage. These changes w... more of Hawai'i Press chose alternative models' breadth and depth in welfare coverage. These changes were also driven by the development of the PRC economy, with abundance and shortage affecting the welfare policies of the state. The changing availability of resources fed directly into preferential incorporation, as existing welfare beneficiaries moderated their enthusiasm or hostility for expanding the welfare state through their own perceptions of the economic situation.

China Review International , 2014

Syllabi by Ying Xiao

The course explores key intersections between Buddhism and film. In addition to critically examin... more The course explores key intersections between Buddhism and film. In addition to critically examining the ways contemporary movies portray Buddhists and their religion, students will also have opportunities to learn about how specific films can be analyzed by means of conceptual lenses and esthetic sensibilities derived from Buddhism. The course adopts a global perspective, incorporating pictures, themes, and concerns that unfold on three continents: Asia, Europe, and North America. It also provide opportunities for reflection on a host of contemporary issues, such as cross-cultural representation, gender inequity, political repression, search for value and meaning, and construction of personal and communal identities.