Manga as Cross-cultural Literature: The Effects of Translation on Cultural Perceptions

Abstract

In recent years, manga, anime and other elements of Japanese pop culture have gained increasing popularity in the United States. This has led to a wider awareness of Japanese culture through the appropriation of these pop culture materials as a source of cultural information. Manga, in particular, provides visual as well as linguistic examples of Japanese culture, and thus has the potential to be an excellent source of cultural knowledge, perhaps even suitable for classroom use. However, as with any cross-cultural text, manga's ability to serve as an example of Japanese culture depends heavily on how it is translated. Currently, most manga is translated for the purpose of entertainment, not scholarly discussion. Consequently, there is considerable push from publishing companies to gloss translations with Western ideas and cultural norms, on the assumption that the stories will then be more accessible to readers and have higher sales. Unfortunately, with growing awareness of the Japanese origins of manga, rewriting can instead lead to widespread misunderstanding of Japanese culture as being very similar to Western culture, especially when the series pointedly retain their Japanese setting. This loss of cultural context and the misconceptions it encourages on the international stage are here exemplified through a case study of the English translation of the sports manga, The Prince of Tennis.