East. West. Capitalist. Communist. Familiar divisions. But ones that have all become blurred, faded. Less apparent. Classification a very human activity, a tool to simplify, to give structure, meaning. I’d chanced on one that seemed to be much more resilient, clear cut. Giving shape to the world. Subtitles and dubbing.
It’s not perfect of course. These things never are. But simple to apply. Turn on the TV, hunt for the local foreign film channel. And wait. It can only go one of two ways. And be quite cruel. I’d the TV on in the background. For company you understand. Nice little French film. Sophie Marceau. A picture of loveliness. But forget Chinese water torture. They’d dubbed it. Into Mandarin. I mean. In China? Unforgiveable. I’d turned the sound off. Attempted to lip read. But my schoolboy French not really up to the job.
