Cover not available
Article published In:
FORUM
Vol. 21:1 (2023) ► pp.96–114

Chinese audiovisual translation

Strategies and solutions applied in multilingual films

| University of Szeged
| University of Szeged
The increasing use of multilingualism in audiovisual products, especially feature films, has attracted attention from audiovisual translation (AVT) scholars; however, such research is missing in the Chinese AVT context. This paper strived to fill this niche by exploring the common methods of the rendition of a third language (L3) in Chinese dubbing, subtitling, and fansubbing. The corpus of the study comprised six English-speaking feature films alongside their fan and professional-created Chinese subtitles and dubs available online, and its contents was mainly selected based on two criteria: (i) the L3s used, for example, French, Indian, Swahili, Xhosa, and Russian, and (ii) the availability of fan and pro-produced Chinese subtitles and dubs. For dubbing, the analysis of the corpus revealed that the Chinese professional dubbing team marked the L3s in a few cases but applied translational patterns inconsistently. the comparison of the pro- and fansubs demonstrated that both did not mark the L3s in their translations and that professional subtitlers performed better than the fansubbers in the rendition of multilingualism in terms of graphic codes and the original films’ storytelling.
Keywords: multilingualism, Chinese, dubbing, subtitling, fansubbing
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Multilingualism and AVT
  • 3.Methods
  • 4.Results and discussion
    • 4.1Taxonomy of methods in official dubbing
      • 4.1.1Neutralization (L3TT=L2)
      • 4.1.2Adaptation
      • 4.1.3No translation
      • 4.1.4Translation by subtitling
    • 4.2Rendition of L3 in prosub and fansubs
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 6 July 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/forum.00028.meh
References (71)
References
Aloseviciene, Egle. 2020. ”Peculiarities of Multilingual Films in the Context of Audio Visual Translation”. Respectus Philologicus 37 (42): 147–59. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Babayi, Ivankosi, Tessa Dowling, and Rethabile Possa-Mogoera. 2020. “The Language of Wakanda: An Analysis of the Use of IsiXhosa in the Hollywood Science-Fiction Film Black Panther.” South African Journal of African Languages 40 (3): 249–56. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Badstübner-Kizik, Camilla. 2017. “Multilingualism in the Movies. Languages in Films Revisited.” In Audiovisual Translation: Research and Use, edited by Mikołaj Deckert, 233–254. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang GmbH.Google Scholar
Baldo, Michela. 2009. “Dubbing Multilingual Films: La Terra del Ritorno and the Italian Canadian Diaspora.” InTRAlinea. Online translation Journal.Google Scholar
Bartoll, Eduard. 2006. “Subtitling Multilingual Films.” MuTra 2006 – Audiovisual Translation Scenarios: Conference Proceedings, 1–6.Google Scholar
Berger, Verena, and Miya Komori. 2010. Polyglot Cinema: Migration and Transcultural Narration in France, Italy, Portugal and Spain. Vol. 21. Münster, Germany: LIT Verlag.Google Scholar
Beseghi, Micol. n.d. “WTF! Taboo Language in TV Series: An Analysis of Professional and Amateur Translation.” Altre Modernità 151: 215–31.
Bleichenbacher, Lukas. 2008. Multilingualism in the Movies: Hollywood Characters and Their Language Choices. Tübingen: Francke.Google Scholar
Braun, Sabine, and Pilar Orero. 2010. “Audio Description with Audio Subtitling – an Emergent Modality of Audiovisual Localisation.” Perspectives 18 (3): 173–88. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bréan, Samuel, and Jean-François Cornu. 2012. “The Translation and Reception of Multilingual Films.” InMedia, no. 2. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chaume, Frederic. 2004. “Film Studies and Translation Studies: Two Disciplines at Stake in Audiovisual Translation.” Meta: Journal Des Traducteurs/Meta: Translators’ Journal 491: 12–24. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2012. Audiovisual Translation: Dubbing. Manchester, England: Jerome, St Publishing.Google Scholar
Clark, Paul. 1987. Chinese cinema: Culture and politics since 1949. Cambriegde, England: Cambriedge Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Corrius, Montse. 2008. “Translating Multilingual Audiovisual Texts: Priorities, Restrictions, Theoretical Implications.” Unpublished PhD dissertation, Autonomous University of Barcelona.Google Scholar
Corrius, Montse, and Patrick Zabalbeascoa. 2011. “Language Variation in Source Texts and Their Translations.” Target 23 (1): 113–130. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cuarón, Alfonso, dir. Roma. 2018. Mexico and United States: Espectáculos Fílmicos El and Netflix.Google Scholar
De Higes-Andino, Irene., Ana Maria Prats-Rodríguez, Juan José Martínez-Sierra and Frederic Chaume. 2013. “Subtitling Language Diversity in Spanish Immigration Films.” Meta 581 (1): 134–145. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Delabastita, Dirk. 2009. “Fictional Representations.” In Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, edited by Mona Baker and Gabriela Saldanha, 109–112. London, England: Routledge.Google Scholar
Díaz-Cintas, Jorge. 2011. “Dealing with Multilingual Films in Audiovisual Translation.” In Translation Sprachvariation Mehrsprachigkeit, edited by Wolfgang Pöckl, Ingeborg Ohnheiser, and Peter Sandrini, 215–233. New York: Peter Lang GmbH.Google Scholar
DisneyMusicVEVO. 2019. “Various Artists – Hakuna Matata (In 28 Languages) (From ‘The Lion King’).” 2019. [URL]
Dore, Margherita. 2019. “Multilingual Humour in Audiovisual Translation. Modern Family Dubbed in Italian.” European Journal of Humour Research 7 (1): 52–70. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Du, Weijia. 2018. “Exchanging Faces, Matching Voices: Dubbing Foreign Films in China.” Journal of Chinese Cinemas 12 (3): 285–99. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dwyer, Tessa. 2005. “Universally Speaking: Lost in Translation and Polyglot Cinema.” New Series–Themes in Translation Studies 41: 295–310.Google Scholar
Ebrahimzadeh Poustchi, Mahtab, and Zahra Amirian. 2019. “Strategies Used in Dubbing Multilingual Movies into Persian.” Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, December, 1–14. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Favreau, Jon., dir. The Lion King. 2019. United States: Walt Disney Studios and Motion Pictures.Google Scholar
Hanes, William Travis, and Frank Sanello. 2002. The Opium Wars: The Addiction of One Empire and the Corruption of Another. Naperville: Sourcebooks, Inc.Google Scholar
Heiss, Christine. 2021. “Dubbing Multilingual Films : A New Challenge ? Dubbing Multilingual Films : A New Challenge ? Christine Heiss.”Google Scholar
De Higes Andino, Irene. 2014. “The Translation of Multilingual Films: Modes, Strategies, Constraints and Manipulation in the Spanish Translations of It’s a Free World ….” Linguistica Antverpiensia, New Series – Themes in Translation Studies 131: 211–231. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Khoshsaligheh, Masood, Saeed Ameri, and Milad Mehdizadkhani. 2018. “A Socio-Cultural Study of Taboo Rendition in Persian Fansubbing: An Issue of Resistance.” Language and Intercultural Communication 18 (6): 663–80. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Khoshsaligheh, Masood, Saeed Ameri, Farzaneh Shokoohmand, and Milad Mehdizadkhani. 2020. “Subtitling in the Iranian Mediascape: Towards a Culture-Specific Typology.” International Journal of Society, Culture & Language 8 (2): 55–74. [URL]
Khoshsaligheh, Masood, Azadeh Eriss, Milad Mehdizadkhani and Elnaz Pakar. (2022). “Translation of Multilingual Films in Iran in Persian Dubbing.” International Journal of Multilingualism. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lee, Ang., dir. Life of Pi. 2012. United States: 20th Century Fox.Google Scholar
Li, Dang. 2018. “Chinese-Dialect Film and Its Translation: A Case Study of The World (2004).” Journal of Chinese Cinemas 12 (3): 267–84. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lippi-Green, Rosina. 2012. English with an Accent: Language, Ideology, and Discrimination in the United States. New York: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Liu, Jin. 2006. “The Rhetoric of Local Languages as the Marginal: Chinese Underground and Independent Films by Jia Zhangke and Others.” Modern Chinese Literature and Culture 18 (2): 163–205.Google Scholar
Lu, Hsiao-peng Sheldon., and Emilie Yueh-yu Yeh, (eds.). 2005. Chinese-Language Film: Historiography, Poetics, Politics. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Massidda, Serenella. 2015. Audiovisual Translation in the Digital Age: The Italian Fansubbing Phenomenon. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2020. “Fansubbing: Latest Trends and Future Prospects.” In The Palgrave Handbook of Audiovisual Translation and Media Accessibility, edited by Łukasz Bogucki and Mikołaj Deckert, 189–208. Cham, Germany: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mangold, James., dir. Logan. 2017. United States: 20th Century Fox.Google Scholar
Mehdizadkhani, Milad, and Masood Khoshsaligheh. 2017. “Translation of Graphic Codes: The Case Study of Two Official Persian Dubbed Versions.” Language and Translation Studies (JLTS) 50 (3): 49–69. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2021. “Insertion or Voice-off in Rendition of Graphic Codes: An Experiment in Persian Dubbing.” Visual Communication 20 (1): 81–99. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Minkoff, Rob., dir. The Forbidden Kingdom. 2008. United States and China: Lionsgate and The Weinstein Company.Google Scholar
O’Sullivan, Carol. 2011. Translating Popular Films. Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pérez-González, Luis. 2012. “Co-Creational Subtitling in the Digital Media: Transformative and Authorial Practices.” International Journal of Cultural Studies 16 (1): 3–21. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2014. Audiovisual Translation: Theories, Methods and Issues. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pollack, Sydney. 2005. The Interpreter. United Kingdom and United states: United International Pictures.Google Scholar
Russo, Anthony, and Joe Russo, dirs. Captain America: Civil War. 2016. United States: Walt Disney Studios and Motion Pictures.Google Scholar
Sasamoto, Ryoko. 2014. “Impact Caption as a Highlighting Device: Attempts at Viewer Manipulation on TV.” Discourse, Context & Media 61: 1–10. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sepielak, Katarzyna. 2014. “Translation Techniques in Voiced-over Multilingual Feature Movies.” Linguistica Antverpiensia, New Series. Themes in Translation Studies, 131: 251–72.Google Scholar
Şerban, Adriana. 2012. “Translation as alchemy: The aesthetics of multilingualism in film” MonTI.Monografías de Traducción e Interpretación 41: 39–63. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sofia Coppola, dir. Lost in Translation. 2005. United States: Focus Features.Google Scholar
Sun, Hongkai, Hu, Zengyi, and Huang, Xing, (eds.). 2007. The Languages of China. Beijing, China: The Commercial Press.Google Scholar
Stahelski, Chad., dir. John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. 2019. United States: Lionsgate.Google Scholar
Szarkowska, Agnieszka, and Julianna Boczkowska. 2020. “Colour Coding Subtitles in Multilingual Films – a Reception Study.” Perspectives 0 (0): 1–17. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Szarkowska, Agnieszka, Jagoda Żbikowska, and Izabela Krejtz. 2014. “Strategies for Rendering Multilingualism in Subtitling for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.” Linguistica Antverpiensia, New Series. Themes in Translation Studies 131: 273–91.Google Scholar
Szarkowska, Agnieszka, Jagoda Zbikowska, and Izabela Krejtz. 2013. “Subtitling for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Multilingual Films.” International Journal of Multilingualism 10 (3): 292–312. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Taylor, C. 2000. “The subtitling of film: reaching another community.” In Discourse and Community; Doing Functional Linguistics, edited by Eija Ventola, 309–330, Tübingen, Germany: Gunter Narr Verlag.Google Scholar
Toury, Gideon. 2012 (1st edtion: 1995). Descriptive Translation Studies and beyond: Revised Edition. Amsterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins Publishing. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wahl, Chris. 2005. “Discovering a Genre: The Polyglot Film.” Cinemascope-Independent Film Journal 1 (10): 1–8.Google Scholar
Waley, Arthur. 2005. The Analects of Confucius. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Wang, Dingkun. 2017. “Fansubbing in China – With Reference to the Fansubbing Group Yyets.” Jostrans: The Journal of Specialised Translation 281: 165–90.Google Scholar
Wang, Dingkun, and Xiaochun Zhang. 2017. “Fansubbing in China: Technology-Facilitated Activism in Translation.” Target. International Journal of Translation Studies 29 (2): 301–18. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yves, Gambier, and Haina Jin. 2018. “Audiovisual Translation in China: A Dialogue Between Yves Gambier and Haina Jin”. Journal of Audiovisual Translation 1 (1):26–39. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zabalbeascoa, Patrick. 2010. “Translation in Constrained Communication and Entertainment.” In New Insights into Audiovisual Translation and Media Accessibility: Media for All 2 1, edited by Jorge Díaz Cintas, Anna Matamala and Josélia Neves, 153–175. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Rodopi. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2018. “Solution-Types for Representing Dubbed Film and TV Multilingual Humour.” In Linguistic and Cultural Representation in Audiovisual Translation, edited by Irene Ranzato and Serenella Zanotti, 165–83. New York: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2019. “‘That’s Just What We Need, a Fourth Language’. Multilingual Humour in Film and Television Translation.” Multilingualism in Film, 15–34.Google Scholar
Zabalbeascoa, Patrick, and Elena Voellmer. 2014. “Accounting for Multilingual Films in Translation Studies. Intratextual Translation in Dubbing.” Media and Translation. An Interdisciplinary Approach, no. July: 288.Google Scholar
Zhang, Xiaochun. 2015. “Cinematic Multilingualism in China and Its Subtitling.” Quaderns, Revista de Traducció 221: 385–398.Google Scholar
Zhang, Yingjin. 1997. “From “Minority Film” to “Minority Discourse”: Questions of Nationhood and Ethnicity in Chinese Cinema.” In Transnational Chinese Cinemas, edited by Sheldon Hsiao-peng Lu, 81–104. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.Google Scholar
Zhou, Qingsheng. 2020. Ethnic Minority Languages in China. Boston: De Gruyter Academic Publishing. DOI logoGoogle Scholar