Anne Xu:
Seeing this incredible performance actually inspired my final paper for my class “Translating East Asia.” I really enjoyed taking a deeper dive into the true story of Miller coming to Beijing to direct Death of a Salesman because it is such a fascinating cross-cultural interaction. I was fascinated with thinking about how the ideas of the play—capitalism and the American dream being the most prominent—could translate into a very different society in China. I looked at the Chinese translation of Salesman and analyzed the way that the translator used certain words/phrases to highlight parts of Miller’s play that would resonate with the Chinese.
The Chinese translation of Daos used in the 1983 staging was done by Ying Ruocheng, the scholar who had managed to invite Miller to direct the play in Beijing. He also played the part of Willy, who’s certain attributes resonated deeply with the Chinese audience. In a 1983 interview with the Washington Post, Miller remarks, “Willy is as Chinese as you can get. He’s a papa.” Similarly, actress Zhu Lin, “who plays Willy’s wife Linda in the Peking production, was quoted in the state-controlled press as saying, ‘Haven’t we heard enough of how parents pin their hopes on their children and when the children fail, say, in college entrance exams, they maltreat their own flesh and blood?…That is why we can understand the feelings in the play.” Indeed, the extreme emphasis placed on filial piety in Chinese society and the stereotypical “tiger parent” mentality manifested themselves in the Loman’s household in Beijing. Tiang also notes this, and in “Salesman 之死” there is a scene where Shen explains to Miller what the Chinese idiom “望子成龙” (Literally, to watch your son become a dragon) means. Willy’s high hopes for Biff come through in the Chinese staging especially clearly, as it reflects the hopes that Chinese parents have for their children—to watch them grow into metaphoric dragons. With “Salesman 之死”Tiang demonstrates how, in translation, different aspects of the same play are highlighted because the actors and audience understand the characters differently.
Lastly, the association between language and identity could not come through more clearly in Tiang’s play, and as a bilingual member of the audience, it was an unforgettable experience to witness the intersection of two countries and cultures in the theater.