Rhetoricising and poeticising gender performativity in English translations of Cantonese opera

Cantonese opera, as an item on the Intangible Cultural Heritage list, gained widespread popularity in Hong Kong from the 1930s to the 1980s. However, the limited translation of Cantonese opera into English from this period onwards has been rather fragmented. The small number of translators working in this area encounter challenges in managing huge differences in language, rhetoric, and culture. Literary and performance rhetoric should be examined in a gendered context while considering the intimate relationship between on-stage translation (i.e., surtitles) and the translation of printed opera libretti. Gender also plays an important role in translation strategies aimed at capturing various gendered rhetorical elements that convey vivid operatic effects. Following this principle, the renowned ‘gender performativity’ theory should be applied to any analysis of the rhetorical grids of the scripts. Translators of Cantonese opera into English should be particularly attentive to literary formats that resemble classical Chinese poetry, gender metaphors and performativity in the theatrical context, and the cultural elements that subtly penetrate the lines. The rhetoric in a libretto can be categorised into ‘literary’ and ‘performance’ concepts, and thus insights can be drawn from an analysis of how such gendered features should be rhetoricised and poeticised in translation, especially in terms of the classical Chinese poetic features and cultural elements within the text. Appropriate translation strategies must also be selected to accurately represent cultural nuances and capture the subtle differences in gendered representations. © The Author(s) 2025.