This paper presents a digitization driven approach to preserving and disseminating Cantonese opera by translating its libretti and making them accessible on a bilingual online platform. Despite Cantonese opera’s recognition by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage, its libretti remain hardly accessible by wider audiences because they blend classical Chinese (wenyanwen 文言文) and colloquial Cantonese, and most scholarship is available only in Chinese—which has created an issue yet to solve. The project aims to build an online repository of Cantonese opera libretti paired with relatively modern English translations, to enrich these texts with explanatory notes on culturally-embedded elements, and to propose a bilingual platform that invites interaction from students, academics, practitioners, and general audiences. Focusing on scripts rather than full multisensory performance, the method involves digitizing libretti, producing English paraphrases that prioritize comprehension while retaining key cultural and poetic features, and adding hyperlinked annotations that guide readers between original text, context and subtext. Preliminary findings from use in university courses suggest that this digital corpus levels the linguistic barrier down to Cantonese opera, increases students’ proficiency with archaic language, and deepens their understanding of cultural nuances. Users report greater inclination to engage with full performances after working through the digitized, annotated libretti. The findings will be shared on a bilingual online platform that will be open to comments from stakeholders. This demonstrates how digital humanities methods can transform translation into a participatory space of dialogue, enhancing cultural knowledge and making Cantonese opera more comprehensible and globally visible.

Authors:
Kelly Kar Yue Chan, Hong Kong Metropolitan University, Hong Kong

About the Presenter(s)
Dr Kar Yue Chan is a University Associate Professor/Senior Lecturer at Hong Kong Metropolitan University in Hong Kong

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