MAPPING THE OTHER. THE CASE OF ASIAN THEATRE IN FINLAND. Sirkku Aaltonen

PRIMERA REVISTA DIGITAL DE TEATRO EN VENEZUELA

MAPPING THE OTHER. THE CASE OF ASIAN THEATRE IN FINLAND.
Sirkku Aaltonen

Literature, theatre, and the media are some of the mediators between us and the world we live in. They construct and explain much of our reality. Our immediate access to other cultures is very limited, but through mediators we have acquired at least a working knowledge of a vast geographical area with a number of very different cultures and people. Moreover, this imagined community is rapidly growing. Mediation, however, is not unproblematic as it must, by its nature, be selective and confined to stereotypes. The imagined community thus created frequently echoes cultural asymmetries and power hierarchies. Through mediation the access we gain to cultures that would otherwise remain beyond our reach has its price.

Theatre is as guilty as other mediators in providing us with only a partial view of other cultures. In what follows, I propose to analyse the way Finnish theatre translation maps Asia and Asian spoken drama. I am interested in the stereotypes the chosen theatre texts construct as well as the metonymic world atlas outlined through them. I argue that this atlas differs considerably from a geopolitical atlas, and would never be accepted in any school syllabus.

Stereotyping and metonymy.

The two theoretical concepts which are useful for the analysis of mediation through theatre translation are stereotyping and metonymy. Stereotyping is a feature of production, and involves a process of selection, magnification and reduction. It explains how complex entities are constructed by selecting one perceived attribute of the entity, blowing that attribute up until it obscures all others, and then reducing it until it comes to stand for that entity. It summarizes its object in a kind of cultural shorthand (Medhurst 1998: 284). Although stereotyping is most often used in a negative sense, it is an inevitable part of all mediation. In my analysis, the term does not involve a value judgement, and the stereotypes of Asian theatre on Finnish stages are not considered 'good' or 'bad'. Instead, I am interested in how the stereotypes have been constructed through the number and typification of translated theatre texts, and suggest that the 'perceived attributes' comply with patterns familiar from other contexts.

Theatre praxis, like all cultural activity, abounds in stereotypes. Stereotyping may become visible in the selection of new texts for translation, in the ways the repertoires are assembled, in the form and content of chosen texts, and finally in the language they employ. Human beings are not very receptive to new stories (Tymozcko 1999:48), and in contemporary Western theatre, they are seldom economically feasible either. The choice of texts is limited to stories and themes we recognize, those we can relate to, or which can be rewritten to that end. These texts are then given the task of representing an entire foreign tradition and culture. One example of this would be Peter Brook's Mahabharata , which was rewritten from the ancient Sanskrit epic to read like a familar Western narrative.

Stereotyping inevitably reduces a complex textual, generic, and cultural entity into a part of the whole. Moreover, it often involves cultural hybridization. Spivak (1999: 400) has described hybridization as the 'betrayal of the democratic ideal into the law of the strongest', and criticized the way the literature of the Third World gets turned into a sort of translationese. A woman in Palestine begins to resemble a man in Taiwan . Similarly, European avant-garde directors, Artaud in particular, have been accused of having created their own imaginary East, making the distinctive characteristics of varied and complex arts such as kabuki, noh, wayang kulit, baris, kathakali and chhau interchangeable. Other directors such as Richard Schechner have been deemed equally guilty of 'misrepresentation' by not acknowledging the distortion of the original rituals in the service of American standards and expectations . (Bharucha 1993: 15).

While stereotyping is a feature of production, the importance of metonymy lies at the receiving end and in the way stereotypes, the selected attributes or texts, are taken to represent complex entities of entire traditions and cultures. In metonymy a part stands for the whole: texts evoke other similar texts, entire genres, and ultimately cultures.(Tymozcko 1999: 42) The texts which have been chosen conjure, if necessary, their own background up for us. The one Indian play may easily become all Indian drama if the access to Indian theatre is restricted.

Metonymy has important implications for understanding the reception of foreign theatre texts. It explains how a Japanese no play in the repertoire will evoke for the audience all other plays by the same writer, the entire no tradition, and ultimately the whole Japanese drama and theatre. It may even be taken to represent the entire Japanese culture. If only a few texts are on offer from a particular culture, their representational function becomes even more important.

The scarcity of texts does not only narrow down the view of the source culture and its theatre to a few (or one) text(s). The fewer the texts, the more marginal they suggest the source culture is. This has important political implications, as scarcity hardly ever depends on any inherent properties of the texts or a culture's ability to generate them.

My analysis of stereotyping through text selection in constructing Asia follows the mapping process adopted in Finnish mainstream theatres, and looks for explanations in general theatre praxis. It should be noted that literary drama constructs a different atlas from the theatrical one, and texts are usually chosen and rewritten for publication in printed form on different grounds. However, the discussion of drama as literature falls beyond the scope of my article.

To be mapped: Asian theatre.

The title of this section as well as that of the entire paper already involve a linguistic stereotype in the way they use the terms 'Asia' or 'Asian theatre'. This is understandable, as the totality would be far too complex to cover in any other way. The area is enormous and includes four major geographic and cultural regions. South Asia consists of Bangladesh , India , Nepal , Pakistan and Sri Lanka ; East Asia includes China , Hong Kong , Taiwan , Japan , and Korea ; Southeast Asia comprises the rich traditions of Burma , Cambodia , Indonesia , Laos , Malaysia , The Philippines, Singapore , Thailand and Vietnam , while Oceania covers some twenty Pacific island nations in the subregions of Melanesia , Micronesia and Polynesia . It comprises well over two billion people and forty nation states, 25 000 theatre troupes performing traditional and modern plays, and theatrical arts which have evolved into as many as seven or eight hundred distinct forms or genres. (Brandon 1999: 1-2). In the face of this magnitude and variety, the stereotyping we encounter in the theatre may become more excusable.

The map: selection, magnification and reduction.

Historically Western theatre practitioners have only shown occasional bursts of interest in Asian theatre, and in many cases it has been confined to a small elite of theatre enthusiasts. Their interest has similarities to the tendency for strong literatures to select foreign texts to fill a temporary vacuum with new ideas.

The avant-garde movement in Europe in the first half of the 20th century gave up text-centred theatre to use other scenic elements. It turned to Asian theatre as a source of inspiration, and wanted to take distance from the Western obsession with language. Theatre practitioners such as Craig, Artaud, and Tairov were concerned with re-animating European theatre, and searched for new theatre aesthetics in in foreign theatre traditions. (Fischer-Lichte 1996: 30-31) Craig spoke for the use of mask as used in African and Asian theatres, and like Meyerhold, Tairov, and Artaud, he based the idea of a non-literary theatre on Japanese, Chinese and Balinese theatres. Yeats and Brecht turned towards the Japanese no in proposing a new kind of dramaturgy. Their interest in Asian theatre was aimed against the Western literary, psychological realistic theatre of illusion. (Fischer-Lichte 1990: 12-13)

The second burst of interest is more recent. Rustom Bharucha (1993: 240) claims that interculturalism has become something of a trend among certain circles in the Euro-American theatre, when Western theatre practitioners have followed in the footsteps of the avant-garde movement of the beginning of the century in search for new theatrical expression. Susan Bennett (1997: 166) claims that the fascination with issues of ethnicity and race has in recent years shifted into an obsession when audiences have confronted their Others in the theatre.

Fascination, if not obsession, has always been selective, and the choice of texts has been motivated by the interest in oneself rather that in the other. In the case of Finland , only touring theatre troupes have been able to widen the view of Asian theatre for theatre entusiasts in the capital Helsinki . Mainstream theatres have confined their choice of texts to drama whose stories and narrative structure have not been too exotic for its audiences.

A brief history of Finnish theatre.

Finnish mainstream theatre represents typical Western theatre in that it relies almost entirely on spoken drama and written theatre texts. It is unlike British or American theatre in that it has always depended for its existence on foreign theatre texts. Throughout its relatively short history (the Finnish National Theatre was only established in 1872), approximately half of its repertoire has been of a foreign origin. Finnish culture is also atypical in that it equates drama with theatre texts. In Finland very few play texts are published in printed form. They are seldom available for reading, and audiences go to 'see' them rather than read them.

Finland has depended on translated drama for its emerging cultural identity. The Finns lived under the Swedish crown for nearly seven hundred years from 1155 to 1809, and were then annexed to Russia for another hundred years until 1917. The first Finnish book to appear in print was an ABC-book from around the mid-sixteenth century, a few years before the translation into Finnish of the New Testament. Finnish has mostly been in the shadow of the Swedish language. During the Swedish period, only 174 books were printed in the Finnish language, and even in the eighteenth century only 20% of the books were in Finnish, while Swedish and Latin accounted for 40% each. Novels, short stories and drama were not published in Finnish. Even as late as the mid-nineteenth century, Swedish works outnumbered Finnish ones; in the 1870s they were level, and by 1905, Swedish titles had gone down to 30%. (Laitinen: 1981:105)

When Finland got her National Theatre foreign drama was translated to integrate works by foreign masters into the repertoire of the new theatre . Translation work was part of the effort to increase cultural capital in the indigenous system through works deemed to originate from prestigious (European) cultures. Knowledge of the languages of theatre practitioners was important and, for example, in the early years of the Finnish theatre most foreign drama came from Germany . French too enjoyed high status in Finnish cultural life. After the Second World War, the Finnish theatre became attuned to the winners. English and French drama were popular, and English has remained the predominant source language of translated drama ever since the 1950s. In the theatrical season 1997-1998, the five most popular source cultures of foreign theatre texts were (by nationality of author) English (52 plays), American (13), French (18), Swedish (22), and Russian (19), whereas mainstream Finnish audiences saw only a single Brazilian, Bulgarian, Spanish, Icelandic, Japanese, Canadian or Danish play during that period. (Teatteritilastot 1998)

The world atlas drawn by Finnish theatre practitioners in the theatrical season 1997-1998 is curious. England is enormous and also the United States , France , Sweden and Russia cover large areas. Asia has been reduced to one Japanese play, and many cultures have disappeared entirely. The pattern has been repeated since the 1950's and is likely to continue far in future.

Asia on Finnish mainstream stages

A look at Finnish mainstream theatre repertoires, suggest that Asian plays are destined to remain occasional curiosities. India is represented by one single Sanskrit play, Sakuntala, by Kalidasa produced as late as 1987. In the same season, 46% of all performances were of Finnish origin, and English and American drama accounted for 18% of the repertoires. Apart from Sakuntala , the wealth of Asian drama was reduced to a Chinese folktale 'the yellow crane' . The two plays thus turned Asia to a hardly visible spec on the Finnish theatrical map.

If Sakuntala has stereotyped all Indian texts for Finnish audiences, theatre practitioners have not been more interested in Chinese drama either. Over the years they have chosen for production only four Chinese plays whose narratives have been similar to those of familiar folktales. For example, the most popular, 'the magic flower' by Zenj De-Jao, is a story of two sisters whose fate is determined by their attitude to what they want from life. The magic flower, a gift from a young man proposing to marry the one who does not care for wealth, symbolizes happiness disguised as poverty. Greed is punished and the moral of the play is made explicit in one of the closing lines: you cannot steal someone else's happiness. Happiness brings more happiness, whereas hatred only breeds more hatred. The story evokes other narratives which exist in many different versions in story books and films. The names of the playwrights of the four Chinese plays are not recognized in theatre histories.

Perhaps because of the advocacy of Yeats and Brecht, Japanese drama has been the most popular (or rather, least unpopular) Asian drama on Finnish stages. It is represented by eleven plays by six different playwrights. Unlike the Chinese playwrights, their Japanese counterparts are well known for their literary achievement and include the Nobel-prize-winner Yukio Mishima, a post- shingeki playwright Minoru Betsuyaku with his minimalist plays, and the post-war avant gardist Kobo Abe.

The most popular Japanese plays have been those by Mishima and Betsuyaku. In the 1960s, Finnish theatre practitioners did not only perform Mishima's Hanjo at home but also took it to festivals abroad. His Madame de Sade has been seen on Finnish stages once in each decade from the 1960's. Betsuyaku's plays represent more recent interest in Japanese drama. As can be expected on the basis of their inclusion in the repertoires of mainstream theatres, their narratives are not exotic but familiar from other contexts. Madame de Sade is a continuation of the Marquis de Sade, thus written in the Western setting of the eighteenth century France, and although the title ties Hanjo to Chinese history and to a particular lady, Hanjo, in the royal court, its story is not too far removed from other, Western, plays. Like her predecessor, the central character of the play has exchanged fans with a young man as a promise of a reunion. Her life evolves rounds her anticipation of meeting her lover again, but when the young man finally returns, the girl refuses to recognize him. She has grown so fond of her dreams that she does not want to give them up for reality. Betsuyaku's plays bring to mind both Beckett's absurdity and Brecht's Verfremdung. The characters in the plays do not have names and the absurdity of the stories, giving directions to a non-existent public lavatory and plans to make erasers of the tenticles of an octopus follow the pattern established in many Western plays.

Although Asian theatre represents 'exotic' languages, the mediation of a third language has only occasionally been necessary. In two cases the intermediary language has been English, in another Russian. All others have been translated by either recognized literary translators (some specializing in Japanese and Chinese literature and poetry) or theatre practitioners from their original language.

The few plays among the total of four to five hundred plays in the repertoire in any theatrical season have reduced Asian drama to a marginal position in the Finnish theatre. They have diminished Asia on the theatrical map to a hardly visible island whose stories resemble ours. The difference has been written off and the other rewritten on our terms.

'Exoticism' cannot explain the rejection of Asian drama as there are also a number of nearby cultures, Dutch, Portuguese or Latvian, for example, which have not gained access to the Finnish stage. The reasons must be looked for elsewhere in the general theatre praxis and its obsession with compatibilities.

The selection of plays for production is based on a complex of factors all of which focus on the compatibilities of the foreign text with those of the receiving theatre and society. Translation is by nature egotistical and never motivated primarily by the interest in the Foreign. In what follows I propose to look for explanations for idiosyncracies and distortions in the Finnish theatrical atlas in the complex practice of the theatre.

Theatre praxis.

I argue that the choice of plays for production is based on the assessment of various compabilities. The foreign text is viewed in terms of its compability with the theatrical and dramatic conventions of the receiving culture. The story it tells is compared with the social discourses of the receiving society. The text is assessed in terms of the cultural capital it can offer to the receiver on the basis of the source culture's position in the perceived cultural hierarchy. Finally, its suitability is estimated in relation to different social milieux nourishing theatre forms.

Compatible dramatic and theatrical conventions.

Dramatic conventions are those which control the composition of drama. They are related to general cultural, behavioural or ideological conventions which make our behaviour understandable to our fellow human beings and help us to understand them. When the anthropologist Laura Bohannan tried to tell the story of Hamlet to West African tribal chiefs, her audience had great difficulties in accepting some turns of the story. For example, they found it unacceptable that Hamlet should investigate the king's death when that should have been the responsibility of his brother. Ophelia's father behaved foolishly in trying to protect her daughter from Hamlet, as royal favours would eventually have made up for Ophelia's dowry many times over. It was also important to know whether the fathers of Claudius and Hamlet were real brothers and not only half-brothers. Moreover, insanity could be brought about by male witchcraft. (Tymoczko 1990: 47-48).

Drama is, however, not life but art, and plays are not documentaries. Authenticating conventions are those selected and sorted to convey the speech, manners and styles of life, and their function is to authenticate the world of the play. They represent agreements that exist between people in ordinary life, and as such, they imitate the conventions that enable people to interact in the real world. The spectators must be able to recognize the language and behaviour as belonging to a familiar social milieu, something they know on the basis of their own social reality or from their knowledge of history and literature as well as their previous experience of theatrical occasions. It is only through these conventions that it is possible to achieve a conception of what is happening on the stage.

The stories of Asian plays describe familiar emotional or ethical realism that audiences would recognize from other contexts. Love, suffering, lost youth, hope, and dream are only some of the themes in the chosen plays but as such a sufficient indicator of their potential interest for Finnish audiences. The absurdity of much human life is related to many familiar stories seen on the Finnish stage. Thus the composition of Asian plays cannot explain their almost total exclusion from the Finnish stage.

Theatrical conventions refer to the way the stories are told on stage and relate to the use of theatrical elements for this purpose. They are codes governing the use of speech, gestures, movements, dance, mime, lighting, sounds, scenery and props, costumes, masks etc. in the production. The knowledge of theatrical conventions enables the audience to understand and relate to the play as an art form.

There are many similarities but also differences between the conventions of Eastern and Western theatre. Although some of the basic assumptions underlying dramatic performance in general tend to be the same in different cultures (the events shown are fictional rather than real; people who are killed are not really dead; the actors' personalities are not identical to those of the characters), specific and varied conventions govern different varieties, genres, and subgenres (Esslin 1994: 144).

Perhaps the most profound difference between the two geographical traditions can be found in the way they use different theatrical elements. Most Asian theatre is 'total theatre' where the different elements are fused into a single form. whereas the history of Western performing arts are characterized by ever-increasing specialization. In Asian theatre the nature of each form is largely dependent upon the particular balance among its many components and constituent parts. Some elements are emphasized, while others are subordinated. The arts in Western theatre have been separated from each other and form separate performance genres such as music, dance, and mime drama. (Brandon 1999: 7).

Another difference lies in the emphasis the traditions place on the spoken word. In the West, drama is usually seen as literature, and the theatre is often confined to the written text. Western logocentrism emphasizes meanings and the untouchability or universality of the word. Words are seen as more important than, for example, non-verbal gestures, movements and paralinguistic features, which are regarded as confined to the individual actor and thus less important.

In Eastern theatre, theatrical conventions reinforce the centrality of the genre, as opposed to the Western centrality of the individual piece performed. The performers are the source of creation and Eastern theatre is thus 'acting theatre'. (Brandon 1999: 8) As opposed to this, the centrality of the verbal element in Western theatre sees the writer as a creator. The play is an expression of the writer, and the actor is a vehicle for the writer. (Brown 1995: 62)

The difference between Eastern fusion and the Western separation of theatrical elements as well as between the emphasis on spoken or non-verbal elements might go some way to explain the absence of Asian drama on Finnish stages. Indeed this has occcasionally been offered as an explanation of the scanty interest in the West. For example, Gissenwehrer (1990: 152) sees as a possible reason for the lack of interest in Chinese drama the different conception of the function of the theatre text in a performance.

It must, however, be recognised that the differences are not decisive, as the traditions are not homogeneous entities. Western theatre has not always and everywhere been dominated by scripted drama, nor has Eastern theatre relied exclusively and everywhere on other theatrical elements. All through Western theatrical history there have been genres which have either not used the spoken element at all, or not based the performances on scripted texts. Similarly, text-centred theatre has flourished for a variety of reasons in some societies and some genres in the East. (see Aaltonen 2000: 18) As the selection of Asian theatre texts on Finnish stages show, theatre practitioners have been able to turn to familiar forms of doing theatre. Given a choice between an 'exotic' other and a familiar one, they have been cautious and left more experimental productions to foreign theatre troupes and their devoted audiences.

Compatibility of social discourses.

Foreign works selected for translation are those whose discursive strategies are in harmony with codes governing what is thinkable, sayable, and writable within the target society (Brisset 1996: 158). Thus one of the conditions of the acceptance of a foreign text for translation is that its discourse must be in line with, or be flexible enough to be brought into line with, that of the receiving theatrical system and society at large.

The compatibility of the texts is assessed on the basis of the extent to which they can be seen to speak for issues deemed important in the receiving society, and foreign playtexts are chosen for translation at least partly on this basis. The selection has similarities to that used for assessing news in terms of its cultural proximity and consonance. Proximity refers to geographical distance, whereas consonance describes meaning production in relation to cultural familliarity. The event must be meaningful and and have relevance to the receivers. (Galtung and Ruge in Palmer 1998: 378).

Although geographical proximity is not as important in the theatre as it is in the news media, cultural consonance can be decisive. Few stages in contemporary theatre select texts only for the sake of the art, and even they are expected to have 'something to say' to the audience. A typical example of cultural consonance would be Kitani Shigeo's anti-war play The Sound of Night , performed in two Finnish theatres in 1969-70 and 1972-73. Its discourse fell in line with the social discourse of pacifism of the time.

Theatre texts have at times been an important channel of struggle for emerging national cultures by helping to define new identities. In contemporary Western theatre, examples of this can be found in places like Quebec and Scotland where the language, among other elements, has been an important identity-forming agent. (Aaltonen 2000: 69-70, 74)

The discourses of texts in familiar cultures usually share similar views of 'reality'. However, not all theatre is based on that empiricist realist illusion which Brecht, for example, wanted to take distance from. It is sometimes easier to talk about important social issues through foreign works, as has been the case with the numerous Shakespeare rewritings throughout history in societies in the East. Shigeo's play would be an example of this too, although Asian drama has still to find its way to Western stages to speak for issues deemed important here. So far their discourses have not been found suitable for the purpose.

Cultural hierarchies and their asymmetries.

The choice of theatre texts is determined by perceived cultural hierarchies, where the symbolic value of some cultures as a source of prestigious cultural capital may be linked with a variety of other factors, ranging from a country's - or maybe an individual theatre's - political past and preferences to general trade relations and the knowledge of foreign languages.

Texts from prestigious cultures, held in esteem and respected, are more likely to be chosen for translation than those from other cultures. European classical playwrights, such as Shakespeare, have often been used to measure the sophistication of the indigenous linguistic and theatrical system. This happened in the early days of the Finnish National Theatre and it has happened in contemporary Afrikaans theatre in South Africa (Aaltonen 2000: 66-67). Translations have been used in increasing the cultural capital in the indigenous system, as this, among other qualities, determines the position which a culture holds in the hierarchy of cultures. Asian drama has not been regarded as desirable cultural goods by the contemporary Finnish mainstream theatre, and the prestigious source cultures have for both political and economic reasons been found in Euro-American theatre.

Social milieux nourishing theatre forms.

Theatre performance is a social activity which is accepted and kept alive by a community of theatre goers. Without this community, theatre would cease to exist. In the West, social milieux fostering interest in different forms of theatre may be divided up into various categories, for example, on the basis of their interest, educational level, income level, reasons for going to the theatre, and knowledge of theatre praxis. In Finland , some four categories can be distinguished between theatre forms kept alive by differing social milieux. The stages have different economies, artistic ambitions, as well as the type and size of the audiences visiting performances. All use mainly spoken drama with or without other theatrical elements of music, song, and dance.

First, mainstream theatres represent large audiences. They have salaried employees, directors, actors, dramaturges, designers and technicians, who get their contracts for different lengths of time. Although the theatres are, to some extent, sponsored by the state, they have to be economically profitable. Their overhead costs, including those due to expensive theatre buildings, limit the freedom they have in their repertoires, which has, in many cases, led to a choice of texts which repeat the well-tried popular formats of doing theatre. There are differences of status between the mainstream stages, and the ones in the capital Helsinki tend to be regarded as the most prestigious of all.

As was noticed above, Asian theatre has seldom gained access to Finnish mainstream stages, which try to attract large heterogeneous numbers of people whose reasons for theatre visits may vary from a genuine interest in the production to a company's free ticket followed by a Christmas party. Asian drama on mainstream stages has usually been produced in small town theatres, not in the capital.

Fringe theatres are theatre groups with much more modest expenses and incomes. They have usually only a few, if any, salaried employees, and the buildings can vary from anything between a warehouse and an old community hall. Most groups are based in the capital. Some go on tours and perform in a range of locations, bringing theatre to audiences who would otherwise not have access to it. Fringe theatres may get some state sponsoring but still rely mostly on their practitioners' love of the art. They can engage in experiments whch are beyond the reach of the mainstream stages, and in recent years fringe groups have launched new Finnish drama. For practical reasons, their repertoires usually include plays with minimalist settings and small casts.

Asian theatre has not been popular on Finnish fringe stages either, although, for example, Minoru Betsuyaku's minimalist plays would have been ideal for them.

Amateur theatre groups such as the student theatres usually operate on a voluntary basis and engage staff who have very little, if any, formal training. The groups vary in size and competence and range from modest starters to ambitious practitioners with established traditions and considerable skill. Their repertoires are constrained by the skills of the actors as well as the involvement they are able to offer their group.

Finally, there are a number of summer theatres, which are temporary groups cooperating for a particular production in the open air during the summer months. The repertoires can range from a newly written piece which has local interest to large spectacles involving many villagers and their families. The actors may be professionals who want to take part in a particular production during their summer holiday from the mainstream theatre, or amateur enthusiasts from the neighbouring countryside. Summer theatres have not shown interest in Asian drama.

The audiences of the above groups are very different and have different reasons for going to see a play, and they represent different educational and economic backgrounds. Their expectations are different, and so is their tolerance of new forms and stories. In general, experiments with novelties are restricted to fringe groups and amateur groups whose audiences are fairly homogeneous enthusiasts (homogeneity is partly explained by their relatively small size). Contrary to expectation, only mainstream theatres have included Asian drama into their repertoires, although the two most prominent theatres in the capital have not shown much interest in it. In only few cases has Asian drama found its way on smaller stages,and their fringe productions.

A Global village?

Intercultural mixing of theatres is occurring at a much faster rate than before. Asian and Oceanic artists regularly tour abroad and attend international symposia and conferences. Pacific governments are proud to host international and regional theatre festivals. (Brandon 1999: 10) Tourism is expanding rapidly, and international television has increased our awareness of other cultures and their people.

The interest of theatre practitioners and audiences has not, however, increased in proportion to accessibility. Nor can the lack of it be explained by differences between the traditions or conventions of doing theatre. Responsibility for the exclusion of a large slice of Asian theatre on Finnish stages appears to hinge on the old power hierarchies determining the sources of desirable cultural goods. These are supported by the educational system, which contributes to the establishment of asymmetries. The power hierarchies are complicated monolithic structures which can only change over long periods of time.

The selection of theatre texts appears to be biased by cultural asymmetries even on fringe and amateur stages, but this would not necessarily have to be the case.

Contemporary Finnish theatre has hardly managed to set up any stereotypes of Asian drama. The plays are so scarce that only a very blurred pattern is visible. Chinese drama is typified for Finnish audiences by stories evoking folktales, Japanese drama evokes mostly minimalist Western drama, while Sakuntala evokes romantic fiction and escapist narratives. The Finnish theatrical atlas looks strange and is in urgent need of revision.

Works cited

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Tymoczko, M. (1990) Translation in Oral Tradition as a Touchstone for Translation Theory and Practice.In Bassnett, S and A. Lefevere (eds) Translation, History and Culture . Pinter Publishers, London ja New York . pp. 46-55.

For the discussion of the relationship between drama and theatre see Aaltonen 2000: 33-38.

This hypothesis is put forward by the translation theorist Itamar Even-Zohar in his outline of the polysystem theory (1999: 194)

Titles with lower-case letters and in quotation marks refer to my translations of Finnish titles.

The term originates from Elisabeth Burns. See also the discussion in Aaltonen 1996: 66-68.

Partly, as the social discourse is only one of the discourses of the text. In addition, there are the dramatic and theatrical codes discussed in the previous section.

In the last third of the eighteenth century in Germany , Goethe set out to create a Weltliteratur which would include the most significant plays in world literature. He began to develop an international repertoire for his own small provincial theatre in Weimar , and wanted it to include the most important dramas in European theatre history as well as advanced contemporary plays. However, the Weimar theatre was made up exclusively of European dramas, as although Goethe recognized the value, for example, of Indian drama, he believed that it would not be appreciated by a Western audience. (Fischer-Lichte 1996: 29)

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