Cathy's Asian Antigone

As a Vietnamese person, I've been brought up in an Asian environment and taught/experienced many traditional cultures.

So for my Asian Antigone, the changes I would make are in the areas of:

• Personality
• Speech
• Appearance

Asian culture has always been of a male-dominance rather than female. Although I am aware that this norm applies to western culture in the earlier years (WWI from the book Regeneration) though in my opinion, Asia is more extreme. Domestic abuse was usual and it wasn't considered to be wrong because of the generic thought that if the man is the person who provides for the family then he has the right to do anything he wants.

Even till now, in most western countries, female have over-powered and made great impacts due to their rights but in some asian countries, there is no such thing.

Hence, if the asian Antigone acted the way the Greek one did, she surely would recieve more than what she earned.

So for my asian Antigone, firstly, I would make her to be more secretive rather than having her meet her sister in the city where they're surrounded by many people. Perhaps, a more-asian approach is to have them meet in her bedroom with no guards or maids waiting outside. In Asia, if you were a princess, then you would have guards/maids follows you everywhere you go so meeting someone outside the palace is out of place.

Also, my asian version of Antigone wouldn't be able to do the burial herself as her strength is no match to carry her brother who's theoretically much larger than she is. And hoping not to be so stereotypical, asian women are known to have a much smaller frame than western woman due to our nutrition, climate, exercises, genes etc. So in order to move the body, the asian Antigone must have some help, perhaps from her trusted servant.

Moreover, the Antigone portrayed in the Greek version sounds very fearful and courageous which are two things that are rarely found in an asian princess as they are raised to be subtle and intricate. If she had a problem, she would find a way to get around it rather than straight to the point which is what the Greek Antigone does. This subtle-ness then reflects on her speech for example, if the asian Antigone were to talk to her sister, she would not be allowed to call her a coward or anything to that effect, she would find a nicer way to say it but still try to emphasise the point she wants to make.

So in general, I would have my asian Antigone be more subtle in her speech and action, but intricate in her attitude and mind as well as small in size to create an irony that someone so little can be so complex and brave.