Lost Translation

by+Feng+Yinjie

In late November 2014， Shen Sheng announced on his microblog that his 15-year-old subtitle-sharing website， Shooter， would close. Like dominos， all the other major Chinese subtitle translation groups including YYeTs shut down one after another. Such groups had become immensely popular with Chinese netizens. Members of the groups voluntarily devoted countless hours of labor translating dialogue from foreign movies and television programs， contributing tremendously to bridging cultural gaps， even providing further explanation for particularly confusing references. Their shutdown expectedly provoked fierce debate from Chinese netizens.

Young Crew

Shooter and YYeTs were major Chinese distribution platforms for translated subtitles. The former specialized in distribution while the latter concentrated on subtitle production， compression and syncing. Both had subsidiaries.

Lin Yue is a devoted fan of BBCs Sherlock Holmes. She was introduced to the program by the Chinese video site Youku in January 2014 when its third season was broadcast simultaneously worldwide. Lin waited and waited for the entire show to arrive legally online. However， she still ultimately chose to download a pirated version from the subtitle translation group because the authorized versions “translation was too bad.”

Luo Luo from the translation group explained the reason. “Youku received the official version from BBC without any subtitles. It had to contract a captioning company to translate it all by ear. YYeTs used BBCs transcription， which even included captioning for various sounds and effects. Anyway， each version came from a different source.”

Members of subtitle translation groups were usually peers of Lin Yue， mostly born in the 1980s. They shared similar educational backgrounds as well as values， sensibilities and ways of life， which fueled the motivation to contribute to the community.

Surprisingly， few contributors were employed in translation. They worked jobs such as primary school teacher and even police officer and were found in all parts of the country. Students accounted for the majority of translators， however， and most resided abroad.

Raccoon studied in Canada for three years. After an email exchange， he was hired by a TED Talk affiliated with YYeTs. As a candidate， he was asked to answer the following questions：？ Why do you want to join TED？？ How would you produce subtitles from scratch for a new TED video？？ How long does it take to finish a translation？ How many different translations can you work on at the same time？？ How to optimize translation proficiency？？ What do you think of TED Chinese subtitle translation groups today？ What problems do they have？ Where do you see room for improvement？

After answering these questions， Raccoon felt he better understood the job.

Carius formerly worked with FRS and specialized in American TV. “We were so poor，” he recalls. “We were not paid. The company didnt diversify.” In 2010， he joined the team because he fell in love with House， M.D. “I still remember what a ‘senior co-worker told me： ‘Welcome aboard our charity！ Now that youre here， forget about fame and fortune.”

Ideal vs. Reality

To some extent， Shen Sheng shared the lofty dreams of his young co-workers.

Now in his late 40s， Shen was a programmer who enjoyed reading and watching films. In 2000， he established Shooter， which was originally intended to be for book reviews but eventually became a platform for subtitle translation. “I did it to feed the needs of the netizens，” he explains.“What made us different was we insisted on neutrality： We refused to be exclusive. That was a big reason we won many clients.”

Shen Sheng pondered on how to survive even in the heydays of his business. Huang Yimeng， his friend and investor and founder of VeryCD， was challenged by the cold， hard reality ahead.

On January 23， 2011， the download service of VeryCD shut down. His business had already been doomed since late 2009 when Chinas State Administration of Radio， Film and Television promulgated a series of policies regarding reorganization of online audio and video.

“Theres a chance VeryCD could transform into a new Youku，” Huang grins. “Or I could just shut it down completely. Its hard to tell which is right.”

Both Huang and Shen， who was in Shenzhen at the time， were calm the night Shooter was shut down. They talked on the phone， mostly about the testing and promotion of their new business. Shen had already assumed the post of CEO at Pinidea Co.， Ltd.， and Huang Yimeng was a partner.

Many years ago， Shen talked with the media about his worries about Shooters operating mode. “Priority should be placed on following the rules. Its always right to follow the rules； dont be evil.”

Definition of Infringement

Since they were established， the sword of “piracy” has always hovered over subtitle translation groups.

Liu Ruigang， partner of Blue Whale Media and editor-in-chief of Blue Whales TMT， explained the relationship： Subtitle translation websites hide their commercial aims in the name of free services and take advantage of copyrighted content. Huxiu.com， a popular technology blog， compared their infringement to the actual wording of Copyright Law of the Peoples Republic of China.

Xin Haiguang， deputy editor-in-chief of CCIDnet.com， was surprised to see the resignation of Shooter， which only provided subtitle download services， whereas YYeTs directly pirated movies and TV.

He pointed out that no subtitle websites were mentioned in the report on global piracy released by the Motion Picture Association of America except for YYeTs and Thunder.

Online piracy of films and TV programs used to prevail in China under the context of relatively loose copyright enforcement. The copyright issue in terms of subtitle translation seemed minor in comparison with the content itself. However， the shutdown of Shooter shows that the countrys approach to copyright protection has reached unprecedented heights.

A Tencents QQ chat group based on a subtitle translation team including a netizen with the screen name “Beishui Huaixin” is on the verge of dissolution. “What we are doing will fade away in favor of an official edition which wont grab viewers attention， just as Dietmar Wunder， who dubbed James Bond， once remarked，” illustrates Beishui Huaixin.