Theory, Practice, Activism

7 Transgenderism in Japanese Manga as Radical Translation The Journey to the West Goes to Japan Leo Tak-Hung Chan The subversive nature of manga is a fact widely acknowledged. Using "an expressive format that combines stylized and simplistic imagery with a laconic text," it can "lampoon, satirize, romanticize [and] reimagine the world in which people live" ( Allison 1996 : 56-57). But what if the targetof the parody is a text from another culture? A case in point involves the parodic manga versions of the Chinese classic The Journey to the West (Xiyouji; hereafter The Journey), representing a shift from a verbal to a visual medium and from a Chinese to a Japanese context. Not surprisingly, when such manga is translated back into Chinese, readers in China are offended to see their own cherished literary work tampered with, leading in 2007 to a critical attack on Japanese manga versions of a parodic nature ( Lin and Zhang 2008 : 168); official statements were issued concerning the need to curb the translation of such works in order to protect the health of Chinese culture. Much venom was directed not just at manga derived from The Journey, but on Japanese parodies in general. An article in the national newspaper Huanqiu shibao was subtitled "Why Does Japan Parodythe Classics of Other Countries?" Among the commentators (e.g., Zhu 2007 ; Lin and Zhang 2008 ), the point was stressed that a culture of egao, or 'malicious meddling,' originated in a Japanese concept that had spread to Mainland China via Taiwan and Hong Kong. There were also strongly worded articles, such as "Malicious Meddling: When Does Cultural SacrilegeEnd?" and "Why Does Japan Meddle Maliciously with the Classics of Other Countries?" The most contentious issue appearing in the spate of criticism directed against these versions of The Journey revolves around transgenderism, understood in its broader sense as referring to both gender and sex change, with transgendered individuals understood to include transsexuals, cross-dressers, and those who deviate from accepted social norms for males and females ( Phillips 2006 : 7-14). The most significant aspect of the Japanese"malicious meddling" is evident in the treatment of the central characterTripitaka (Chinese: Xuanzang; Japanese: Sanzo), who goes to India in search of the Buddhist scriptures; he is turned into a woman in the Japanese versions. Such transgendering has also occurred, though less frequently, with Transgenderism in Japanese Manga the three companions who join the historical-mythical quest for the Buddhistscriptures in India—the trickster Monkey (Chinese: Sun Wukong; Japanese: Son Gokū), the part-human, part-beast Pigsy (Chinese: Zhu Bajie; Japanese: Cho Hakkai), and the water-demon Sandy (Chinese: Sha Wujing; Japanese: Sha Gojō). 1 In a way, the gender-bending found in Japanese manga based on The Journey is unique because the female or feminized monk does not appear in any East Asian (i.e., Korean) version (see Song 2011 ). Scholarship on this curious phenomenon has been rather divided and, following a feminist approach, one could highlight the attempt on the part of female manga artiststo empower women and subvert traditional patriarchy, attaching much significance to the subversive potential of mass culture. But moving beyond such an approach, queer theory could offer a new perspective, since transgenderism, grounded on the knowledge that gender is mobile and not fixed, works effectively to deconstruct the essentialist male-female binarism itself. In this connection, we will be using the definition of "queer" offered by David M. Halperin in his biography of Michel Foucault, as "whatever is at odds with the normal, the legitimate, the dominant" (1995: 62). Diane Richardson's idea that queer theory is "a fluid, mobile, non-specific zone of enquiry that is resistant to being 'fixed'" (2006: 20) also demarcates it from much of traditional feminist theory. What is of greatest interest in the manga versions of The Journey is that queerness is dealt with in the parodic mode, evidenced by instances of what both Reuben Brower (1974) and Andrew Riemer (2010: 43) have called "radical translation." Both scholars have sought to theorize the relationship between translation and parody, and what they have said can be appropriatelyapplied to the present case study. Brower notes that, although parodies work with the style or thought of the original, invariably the act involves playing in a constructive (showingadmiration) or destructive (embodying rivalry) manner. Examples are "translations" of the Classics (The Iliad, Ovid, Lucan, and Vigil) by Dryden, Shakespeare, and Chapman. But for him, while both the parodist and the translator can have impure motives, "no translator sets out to parody (in the critical sense) the author he has chosen to translate, in a work publicly offered as a translation" (1974: 5). One strives for freedom; the other strives for fidelity. Parody, in other words, is practically impossible in translation proper. It is often seen, however, in the extremely free forms of translation we are looking at here. (See also St. André's chapter in this volume.) Because of the room allowed for manipulation, amplification, and recreation, the parodic is an available mode, as is obvious in many Japanese radical translationsof The Journey. Riemer (2010: 4.3) also discusses parodic translations,a practice prevalent in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and exemplified by the English example of Samuel Johnson's free re-renderings of Greek and Latin originals. While alterations to the original text can be made to conform to cultural assumptions of the target audience, for Riemer, Leo Tak-Hung Chan there is another possibility: changes can be made where the translator sees certain hidden potentials in the text that can be explored or exploited. The Japanese manga artists, in rewriting The Journey, can be viewed as creative manipulators, or radical translators. The Female/Feminized Monk and the Three Disciples Before exploring the incidents of transgenderism, let me provide a brief synopsisof the sixteenth-century Chinese folk novel. The Journey opens with the stories of the origin of the four main characters: Tripitaka, Monkey, Pigsy, and Sandy. After a description of the past history of the rebellious Monkey, we are told that Tripitaka is approached by the bodhisattva Guanyin, who entrusts him with the mission of retrieving the Buddhist scriptures from India so that the Chinese people may be enlightened. He then recruits the other three pilgrims in the first part of the story, and, as he does so, the reader also learns of the lackluster pasts of the lazy and lascivious Pigsy and the careless and indecisive Sandy. During the journey itself, the four pilgrims encounter a total of 81 "catastrophes" when demons abduct Tripitaka so they can devour his flesh, said to confer immortality on those who partakeof it. While Monkey is able to fend off some of the demons, in many cases it is the intervention of Guanyin and other deities (like Red Boy) that saves the day. Their adventures are depicted in some famous episodes like those involving the Ox-Demon King, the Iron-Fan Princess, the White-Bone Spirit, and so on. The sequence of events is somehow presented as having taken place in actual geographical locations in Turkestan, Afghanistan, and Kyrgyzstan, but these are no more than fantasy recreations of places along the Silk Road. At the end, the pilgrims reach their destination, accomplish their mission of obtaining the scriptures, and are welcomed into the Buddha'spalace. All these plot elements, themes, and characters are rewritten to varying degrees at the hands of the Japanese manga artists. The following works are among contemporary manga published since the 1990s that feature various aspects of transgenderism: 1 Terada Katsuya's The Marvelous Adventures of Monkey King [Saiyūkiden daien'ō] (1995/1998-2010). In this story, the female monk is sadistically treated by Monkey, whom she accompanies on the journey west with the goal of killing Gautama Buddha. 2 Kamishiro Yū's Demonic Journey to the West [Yōma Saiyūki] (1994). This is in essence a girls' (shōjo) love story with the plot propelled by the demons fighting over the possession of the precious Magical Ball in the human world, while a love affair develops between the three-eyed superhuman hero and the heroine, Sanzō Noriko, whose name recalls Tripitaka's. 3 Yamamoto Atsuji's The Maiden Team [Saiyū shōjotai] (1989/1995). This is a boys' (sbōnen) manga about three girls who help Tripitaka secure new Buddhist sutras from India in order to establish a Department of Buddhology at a so-called Tang Culture University. 4 Matsubara Chinami's Sai-yū-ki [Sai-yū-ki] (1997) . Here Monkey is refiguredas the daring heroine, Kusano Misora, a high-flyer at school who becomes transformed into Monkey whenever she lets down her long hair and removes her spectacles. 5 Tanaka Kanako's Three Beast-Men [Sanjūshi] (2000). In this boys' manga, Tripitaka is a big-bosomed woman whom it is the duty of the three Beast-men to protect. She is repeatedly desired and harassed by the demons she comes across, including once by her disciple Pigsy, 6 Maya Mineo's Patariro Journey to the West [Patariro Saiyūki] (2000). This version is suffused with same-sex romance and fantasy elements. It is not confirmed equivocally at first whether Tripitaka, with his head of wavy, blond hair, is male or female ( Figure 7.1 ), but it is precisely such androgyny that is key to this radically queered text. Several preliminary observations can be made with respect to these transgenderedversions of The Journey. First, transgendering involves Tripitaka in most cases: she turns into a female monk in (1) and (5), and becomes an androgyne in (6). Androgyny, as we shall see, is a much more subversiveelement than simple male-to-female sex change.

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