Author: Song Ge
Source: Perspectives: Studies in Translation Theory and Practice
Link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0907676X.2025.2509029
Abstract
This research explores the relationship between cyberpunk aesthetics and translation in the context of Kowloon City, Hong Kong. Kowloon City, with its grid-like street layout, historical tenant buildings, vibrant shop signs, and (once) low-flying airplanes, becomes a significant region for observing cyberpunk aesthetics in relation to translation. Using historical data and theoretical analysis, this study examines Kowloon City within Hong Kong’s broader context as a site of cultural and linguistic translation.
It investigates how the cyberpunk aesthetics of Kowloon City emerge and evolve through the daily practices and uses of space by local communities, particularly focusing on the role of everyday resistance in shaping the liminal and third spaces of the city. It argues that the formation of cyberpunk aesthetics in this context can be understood as a form of cultural translation that adapts and reinterprets global cultural flows in local contexts, mediating and negotiating the tensions between different cultural, temporal, and spatial orders. Ultimately, the research develops a ‘cyberpunk translation’ notion applicable to global cities with the emergence and evolution of cyberpunk aesthetics in urban contexts.