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Hokkien: Difference between revisions
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As compared with [[1971|the year ''The Mind of Evil'' aired]], Hokkien is now more associated with [[Taiwan]] than mainland [[China]]. Though not impossible for a Hokkien speaker to be representing the People's Republic, it does seem a bit odd to [[21st century]] ears, given the still white-hot antipathy between the two Chinas. That said, Hokkien is prominent among Chinese abroad in Southeast Asia, and so there is some logic, even viewed with an early [[1970s]] sensibility, to a diplomat being chosen from the Hokkien cultural group. | As compared with [[1971|the year ''The Mind of Evil'' aired]], Hokkien is now more associated with [[Taiwan]] than mainland [[China]]. Though not impossible for a Hokkien speaker to be representing the People's Republic, it does seem a bit odd to [[21st century]] ears, given the still white-hot antipathy between the two Chinas. That said, Hokkien is prominent among Chinese abroad in Southeast Asia, and so there is some logic, even viewed with an early [[1970s]] sensibility, to a diplomat being chosen from the Hokkien cultural group. | ||
The reason that Hokkien was chosen was because writer [[Don Houghton]] had written the scenes entirely in [[English language|English]], and expected that the production crew would find translations by the day of recording. This effectively left translation up to his wife, [[Pik Sen Lim]], who only spoke Hokkien. Leaving things so late disadvantaged [[Jon Pertwee]], for whom the Hokkien had to be very much simplified. | The reason that Hokkien was chosen was because writer [[Don Houghton]] had written the scenes entirely in [[English language|English]], and expected that the production crew would find translations by the day of recording. This effectively left translation up to his wife, [[Pik Sen Lim]], who only spoke Hokkien. Leaving things so late disadvantaged [[Jon Pertwee]], for whom the Hokkien had to be very much simplified. Even so, Pik said she can't completely understand what Pertwee was saying in his Hokkien-speaking scenes. ([[DOC]]: ''[[The Military Mind]]'') | ||
However, the "Hokkien mystery" went even further. | However, the "Hokkien mystery" went even further. The original actor chosen for [[Fu Peng]] was fired by [[director]] [[Timothy Combe]] after [[location filming]] but before these studio scenes. For the original actor, the Hokkien made some sense, but not for his replacement, who, according to [[Pik Sen Lim]], spoke [[Cantonese]]. So neither [[Kristopher Kum]] nor Jon Pertwee spoke a language they actually knew. ([[DCOM]]: ''[[The Mind of Evil (TV story)|The Mind of Evil]]'') The even deeper irony was that the firing meant that the two ethnically Chinese actors ended up having to learn lines in ''each other{{'}}s'' native dialect — presumably because switching between Hokkien and Cantonese would have confused Pertwee a bit too much at that late stage. | ||
Oddly, the Doctor seems to imply that he spoke Hokkien with [[Mao Tse-Tung]], which may suggest a difference between the [[DWU|''Doctor Who'' universe]] and the real world. In the real world, Chairman Mao was in no way a Hokkien speaker, but instead had a pronounced and quite obvious {{w|Xiang Chinese|Xiang}} accent, since he came from rural {{w|Hunan Province}}. | Oddly, the Doctor seems to imply that he spoke Hokkien with [[Mao Tse-Tung]], which may suggest a difference between the [[DWU|''Doctor Who'' universe]] and the real world. In the real world, Chairman Mao was in no way a Hokkien speaker, but instead had a pronounced and quite obvious {{w|Xiang Chinese|Xiang}} accent, since he came from rural {{w|Hunan Province}}. | ||
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Hokkien is one of the few real world languages to be subtitled in televised ''[[Doctor Who]]'', since it is generally assumed that [[the TARDIS]] [[translation circuit]]s are naturally giving everyone in any given scene mutual intelligibility. The fact that [[the Brig]] obviously does not understand Hokkien in this instance can be read so as to imply that he hasn't been given what the [[Fourth Doctor]] called the "gift of the TARDIS" ([[TV]]: ''[[The Masque of Mandragora (TV story)|The Masque of Mandragora]]'') and is therefore not truly a [[companion]]. | Hokkien is one of the few real world languages to be subtitled in televised ''[[Doctor Who]]'', since it is generally assumed that [[the TARDIS]] [[translation circuit]]s are naturally giving everyone in any given scene mutual intelligibility. The fact that [[the Brig]] obviously does not understand Hokkien in this instance can be read so as to imply that he hasn't been given what the [[Fourth Doctor]] called the "gift of the TARDIS" ([[TV]]: ''[[The Masque of Mandragora (TV story)|The Masque of Mandragora]]'') and is therefore not truly a [[companion]]. | ||
{{wikipediainfo}} | {{wikipediainfo}} | ||
[[Category:Chinese dialects]] | [[Category:Chinese dialects]] | ||
