Mapping Current Research and Practice of Audiovisual Translation in China: Introduction to the Special Issue

Xiaochun ZHANG

University of Bristol

Audiovisual translation (AVT) focuses on “the transfer of multimodal and multimedia speech (dialogue, monologue, comments, etc.) into another language/culture” (Gambier, 2013, p. 45). The current transfer methods include subtitling, dubbing, voice-over, narration, free commentary, simultaneous interpreting, subtitling for the hard of hearing, respeaking, and audio description (Pérez-González, 2014, p. 12). AVT has been one of the fastest-expanding strands of Translation Studies over the last three decades, becoming a key theme and research domain. However, the scholarly discussions in this field primarily focus on the European context contributed primarily by scholars and professionals based in Europe. Issues in AVT research and practice are equally significant in China, as communication with the world has become more audiovisual than ever before. Having access to multimedia contents across languages and cultures is fundamental to today’s society. Nevertheless, AVT is still relatively young in the scholarly debates in Translation Studies in China and most of the publications are in the Chinese language. It is the aim of this special issue to encourage scholars and professionals to report AVT research and practice in the Chinese context in English.

This selective collection consists of an interview, seven articles, and two book reviews, authored by both established scholars and young researchers. The interview with Yves Gambier conducted by Ping Deng opens the special issue by reflecting upon the development of audiovisual translation in Europe, followed by a discussion of the challenges imposed by technology on the current research and practice, and an outlook on the future development of AVT as a discipline. Gambier also gives suggestions on the translation and international distribution of Chinese films, which are further addressed by Jing Han, the Chief Subtitler and Head of the Subtitling Department at SBS TV in Australia. In her article, Jing Han explains the technical constraints as well as cultural and linguistic challenges in subtitling Chinese films into English for the global audience from both a practitioner’s viewpoint and an educator’s perspective. Based on her extensive professional experience, Jing Han provides valuable guidance on subtitling and subtitler training with plentiful examples. With the same aim of providing references for researchers and practitioners in the field, Wenhao Yao, also a Chinese to English subtitler, explores the mechanism of identity construction of professionals in the audiovisual translation industry by conducting critical discourse analysis. Based on a self-reflective case study of the subtitling of Central China TV-Channel 4 (CCTV-4) programs, he proposes five principles in the establishment and maintenance of professionalism in the industry.

After the discussion on the practice of professional subtitlers in the first two articles, the following two articles focus on the linguistic features of subtitling audiovisual materials from English into Chinese. Siwen Lu looks at the translation of swearing in films by conducting a case study onCriminal, an American action film. Based on the result of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL)-informed multimodal analysis, she detects a strong tendency of toning down swearing in the translation and discusses the reasons behind. Considering that the functions of swearing are not only constructed by the film dialogues but also through the co-deployment of many other elements, such as mise-en-scène, cinematography and sound, she argues that translation techniques of omission and de-swearing are not solely detrimental to the understanding of characters’ emotions and personalities. Consequently, from the perspective of research methodology, she suggests that the analysis of subtitles translation should emphasise not only the linguistic transfer of verbal elements but also non-verbal elements in the film, which provide mitigation for the toning-down of swearing in subtitles, particularly through their interaction with verbal elements. Chester Cheng explores the pattern of omission in English to Chinese subtitling of the subject “I” by utilizing a parallel bilingual corpus, built up from fansub translations of audiovisual works. His study indicates that collocates have a significant influence on whether “I” is omitted in the Chinese translation.

Moving from micro-level textual analysis to macro-level contextual analysis, the next article in this issue adopts a sociological approach in studying the phenomenon of fansubbing. Sijing Lu draws upon Bourdieu’s analytical conceptfield(1985, 2010) and Levina and Arriaga’s (2014) digital sociology in investigating the construction and activities ofShinY, one of the well-known fansubbing groups in China. Her study shows that fansubbing can be viewed as a sub-field of the offline subtitling field, which is defined by subtitling capital. Meanwhile, the online component of fansubbing is positioned in the sub-field of the online field and secured by the accumulation of attention capital. She suggests that different roles and positions of fansubbers are constructed on the volume and types of capital acquisition. She concludes that online non-professional subtitlers enjoy the freedom to a certain degree in the production of translation due to their self-governed forums and workflows. Nevertheless, no social activity is absolutely free from the heteronomous principles derived from the power field.

The last two articles address audiovisual translation in Hong Kong SAR, China. Based on the data of imported films between the period 1990 and 2017, Kit Yu Wong’s analysis shows that there is a shift in audience preference from subtitling to dubbing in Hong Kong. She then examines the possible factors that influence the audience preference between the two audiovisual translation modes, such as economy, ideology, authenticity, and personal preference. Dawning Leung addresses audio description (AD), a timely topic in AVT, particularly in the Chinese context. Audio description (AD) often refers to the services of translating the key visual elements in media and live productions into verbal depiction, thus making media materials accessible to visually impaired users. It has become a major area of interest in the field of audiovisual translation studies in recent years in the West. However, the research and practice of AD in the Chinese context is under-developed and under-reported. As both a researcher and a practitioner of AD, Dawning Leung compares AD provision across various Western and Asian countries and presents the recent development and practice of AD in Hong Kong.

The special issue ends with the reviews of two recently published books on the research of audiovisual translation:Reception Studies and Audiovisual Translation, edited by Elena Di Giovanni and Yves Gambier (2018), is reviewed by Luis Damián Moreno García, and the review ofThe Routledge Handbook of Audiovisual Translation, edited by Luis Pérez-González (2018), is contributed by Fan Yang. These two books are must-read literature for both researchers and practitioners who are interested in AVT.

This compilation of 10 contributions offers a vision of some of the ways in which AVT can be approached from an academic and professional perspective in the Chinese context. However, the range of topics is rather small. Four out of the seven articles focus on subtitling, interlingual subtitling between English and Chinese in particular. Topics such as intralingual subtitling and subtitling minority languages in China are not represented. In addition, issues in dubbing, the other widely used translation modes in AVT in China, is not addressed. Media accessibility is another area that requires urgent attention. Dawning Leung’s article on AD practice is a good starting point. Whilst topics such as AD, subtitling for the hard of hearing, and respeaking have been drawing a bulk of research publications in the West, hardly any study has been reported in the context of China. The scope and scale of the AVT research in China requires further expansion. It is hoped that this special issue will serve as a step towards the continuous development of this flourishing discipline in China.