US election: Trump-Biden debate bewilders interpreters, viewers in Japan, Taiwan and Vietnam
- A Taiwanese news anchor commenting on the live debate in Mandarin said it was ‘hard to make out anyone’s viewpoint’ while Japanese translators had to speak over each other
- The session was seen as ‘symbolic of how polarised American politics has become’, while opinions on who fared better seemed to diverge according to personal beliefs
The first US presidential debate of 2020 between President Donald Trump and challenger Joe Biden was so chaotic that Taiwan’s Yahoo News anchor Catherine Lu thought there was a technical bug with her earpiece.
“I have not often come across this kind of situation!” she exclaimed live on air while presenting in Mandarin. “Trump keeps interrupting Biden, and Biden also interrupts Trump. So [they and the moderator] are speaking simultaneously. It is hard to make out what anyone‘s viewpoint is.”
09:59
Interruptions and insults dominate first Trump-Biden US presidential debate
Speaking to This Week in Asia, she said that for a few seconds she “couldn’t recognise words, just voices all intertwined together”.
“I really wanted Biden to finish the whole sentences! I don’t have strong political preferences, but I wished this could be at least somewhat presidential.”
However, Lu considers Trump’s interruptions to have been part of his campaign’s game plan. “He successfully demolished Biden’s game plan, [by taking] the game down with him.”
In Asian countries where the debate was shown live with simultaneous translation, audiences and interpreters alike were left astonished, bewildered and stressed.
