Cinema as Cultural Translation: The Production of Vietnam in Trân Anh Hùng's Cyclo

This article examines Tr?n Anh H�ng's�Cyclo�(1995) as a work of cinematic autoethnography, that is, as a record of Vietnamese culture reflected not in the objective detailing of behavior but in a creative assemblage, or montage, of cultural codes. After addressing the question of fiction and ethnography, I examine the film's formal translation of the verbal and nonverbal signs that traditional ethnographic approaches would conserve in written form. By encouraging confusion and ongoing creative recombination, Tr?n Anh H�ng's film questions not only the possibility of a faithful rendering of one's culture, but the very existence of an original to be rendered.