ABSTRACT
In December 2005, a film by Singapore director, Eric Khoo, called Be With Me, was disqualified from entering the Best Foreign Language Film category at the next Academy Awards on grounds that it contained ‘too much English’. An Academy spokesperson attempted to explain this decision with what was apparently obvious, that ‘English is not a foreign language’.
In an age where issues of cultural migration, hybridity, diaspora and globalisation are de rigueur, this intractable declaration seems almost comic. However, it indicates a continued ambivalence in the role of the English language in the making of a cultural identity: the perennial post-colonial conundrum that shows no sign of going away. Singapore’s post-independence decision to keep English as the first language of the country means that the use of English, albeit with local variations, is a quotidian reality.
I would like to use this incident to reflect, not so much on the politics of Oscar selection, as perhaps more importantly, on the implications it presents for the internationalisation, and thus the ownership, of English, as well as its role as a marker for both local and global subjectivities — especially when the irony of the situation is compounded by the fact that Khoo’s film is, in effect, mostly silent.
KEYWORDS: Eric Khoo, Singapore film, Academy Awards, Oscars, foreign language, English language
Author’s Biography
Felicia Chan is a Research Associate at the Centre for Media Research, University of Ulster. Her research interests lie mainly in the cultural translatability and comparative paradigms of transnational cinemas, as well as film festival cultures. She has published A Primer in Film Cultures and Narratives (Critical, Cultural and Communications Press 2005), as well as articles in Chinese Films in Focus: 25 New Takes (Chris Berry ed., BFI 2003), Scope: An Online Journal of Film Studies, Refractory: Journal of Entertainment Media, EnterText, and Critical Studies in Television.
Contact address: Centre for Media Research, University of Ulster, Cromore Road, Coleraine BT52 1SA, U.K. |
