In Hong Kong there are one or two translated Shakespeare produce by the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre Company in every year? But the problem of translations of Shakespeare into Cantonese is, the words can be translated, but it’s very hard to translate the cultural behind the language itself. Translators often misunderstand the meaning of the text or miss out the double meaning of the words (quote form Pizza Lee) Even though the British ruled Hong Kong for over150 years, the tradition of Britain didn’t get wildly spread in Hong Kong nor the language itself. And it doesn’t only affecting the text in a production. Because of the accuracy of the translation is vary, the actor often miss understood of the meaning of the play. Not even mansion the musical rhythm of the poetry. Actors always commenting on “why am I reading a poet out of the content?” (actor. 2013 interview).
Then how about subtitle? According to the questionnaire, this is how most of the Cantonese-speaking audience rely on to follow the plot of the play. It works on films, but for theatre and live performance, very often the subtitle can only be appeared either by the side or at the top of