The PRC’s Go-Global Cultural Policy and Theater Surtitling: The Case of the Italian Tour of Meng Jinghui’s Rhinoceros in Love

This chapter focuses on the question of theatre surtitling for Chinese theatre performances touring abroad and for Chinese/international theatre performances staged at international festivals in the PRC. In the first part I introduce the general questions related to theatre surtitling and AVT studies research. Then I describe the numerous issues about the theatre surtitling connected both to the PRC cultural go-global policy and to the recent flourishing of International Theatre festivals in China. Taking the Italian tour in October 2014 of the play Rhinoceros in Love as a case study, the central part of this chapter focuses on the analysis of the Italian surtitles prepared for this tour. The purpose of this analysis is to prove that, although the time-space constraints, surtitling play a role in the esthetic fruition of the performance, far beyond the basic standard of guiding the audience in understanding the general plot. My conclusion is that we should move from the idea of surtitling as a mere communicative tool towards the idea of surtitling as part of the mise en scène, as fluid text to be reshaped on the basis of the local spatial constraints and of the supposed audience.