Cinema as Cultural Translation: The Production of Vietnam in Trẩn Anh Hùùng's Cyclo

Abstract

This article examines Trẩn Anh Hùng's Cyclo (1995) as a work of cinematic autoethnography, that is, as a record of Vietnamese culture reflected not in the "objective" detailing of behavior but in a creative assemblage, or montage, of cultural codes. After addressing the question of fiction and ethnography, I examine the film's formal translation of the verbal and nonverbal signs that traditional ethnographic approaches would conserve in written form. By encouraging confusion and ongoing creative recombination, Trẩn Anh Hùùng's film questions not only the possibility of a faithful rendering of one's culture, but the very existence of an original to be rendered.