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UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title The Cultural Translation of U.S. Television Programs and Movies: Subtitle Groups as Cultural Brokers in China Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9qt39009 Author Hsiao, Chi-hua Publication Date 2014 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles The Cultural Translation of U.S. Television Programs and Movies: Subtitle Groups as Cultural Brokers in China A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Applied Linguistics by Chi-hua Hsiao 2014 © Copyright by Chi-hua Hsiao 2014 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION The Cultural Translation of U.S. Television Programs and Movies: Subtitle Groups as Cultural Brokers in China by Chi-hua Hsiao Doctor of Philosophy in Applied Linguistics University of California, Los Angeles, 2014 Professor Elinor Ochs, Chair This dissertation examines the phenomenon of cultural translation in the context of an underground network of Internet-based amateur translators in China. Informal volunteer subtitle groups emerged in the late-1990s and began catering to the younger generation’s thirst for U.S. media popular culture. This study documents the translation of U.S. TV programs and movies by Chinese youth and young adults participating in subtitle groups, and examines how these translations are shaped by cultural and social conditions in contemporary China. Based on 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, and Taipei, this dissertation examines how subtitlers’ translating practices relate to the globalization of sociocultural ideologies, and how Chinese audiences respond to subtitlers’ translations in online discussion forums. I explore how subtitlers and audiences co-construct the humor in U.S. television situation ii comedies. Their language of evaluation used to judge controversial Chinese subtitles reveals the different cultural identities that audience members present for positioning themselves as moral Chinese who are familiar with the cultural, social, and political dimensions of what constitutes a laughable element. I also examine why subtitlers add annotations that are not linguistically encoded in the original English dialogues. By creating annotations, subtitlers provide background knowledge that they believe will help audiences better understand U.S. TV programs and movies, reveal their feelings about the subtitled programs to audiences, and create a sense of involvement by sharing their opinions of U.S. media programs with a community of like-minded individuals. Moreover, I analyze how subtitlers moralize their unauthorized use of U.S. TV programs and movies based on the conviction that Chinese youth and young adults want more instant access to foreign media programs. Subtitlers turn volunteer cultural translation into a moral site, where Chinese versions of intellectual property are tested, contested, and affirmed. This study has implications for how the intersection of the ideologies of culture, translation, and media technology and the ways in which their changing relations to one another shape translating practices. Subtitle groups provide Chinese youth and young adults with a medium for articulating, acting on, and practicing their own unofficial cultural translation that they may otherwise have difficulty carrying out. iii The dissertation of Chi-hua Hsiao is approved. Marjorie Harness Goodwin Hongyin Tao Yunxiang Yan Elinor Ochs, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2014 iv This dissertation is dedicated to the Chinese subtitlers, who have showed me a world of passion, and to Tsung-ching, who has been the source of love. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract of the Dissertation .......................................................................................... ii List of Figures............................................................................................................ viii List of Tables .................................................................................................................x Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................xi Vita……………………………………………………………………………………xv Chapter One: Introduction 1.1 Overview............................................................................................................1 1.2 Theoretical and Empirical Frameworks of Cultural Translation.......................9 1.3 Writing Trajectory ...........................................................................................16 Chapter Two: The Ethnographic Setting 2.1 China’s Reforms in 1978.................................................................................21 2.2 China’s Openness on Media and the Popularity of U.S. Media Programs in the Chinese Market......................................................................25 2.3 The Rapid Development of the Internet in China............................................31 2.4 The Emergence of Subtitle Groups and Their Activities.................................34 2.4.1 Becoming a Subtitler: Recruitment and Entrance Examination............38 2.4.2 Internship and Training Process ............................................................41 2.5 Research Methods............................................................................................44 2.5.1 Sites of Data Collection..........................................................................50 2.5.2 Recruitment of Ethnographic Participants..............................................52 2.5.3 Focal Participants: Subtitlers and Audiences .........................................54 2.5.4 Ethnographic Roles and Positionalities ..................................................62 Chapter Three: Translating U.S. Sitcom Humor: The Language of Evaluation and “Translation Sovereignty” 3.1 Introduction......................................................................................................65 3.2 Translating Humor and the Social Properties of Humor .................................68 3.3 Defining Humor...............................................................................................72 3.4 How Humor is Translated by Subtitle Groups ................................................73 3.5 The Media Contexts.........................................................................................79 3.6 Weaving Language and Politics Together.......................................................82 3.7 Multiple Voices in the Language of Evaluation............................................100 3.8 Conclusion .....................................................................................................102 Chapter Four: Annotations in Chinese-Subtitled U.S. Television Programs: “Meta-thinking” and Authenticity in Subtitlers’ Translating Practices 4.1 Chinese Subtitles with Annotations...............................................................105 4.2 Two Types of Annotations ............................................................................108 4.3 Annotations as Part of the Translation Narrative ..........................................111 4.4 Authenticity and Translation .........................................................................113 vi 4.5 A Cry for Annotation.....................................................................................116 4.6 Responses to Different Types of Annotations...............................................119 4.7 The Dialectic of Objectivity and Authenticity...............................................133 4.8 Authenticity Issues in Chinese Society..........................................................137 4.9 Conclusion .....................................................................................................141 Chapter Five: Intellectual Property and Chinese-Subtitled U.S. Media Programs: Perspectives on Moralities from Subtitle Groups in China 5.1 Introduction....................................................................................................143 5.2 Interdisciplinary Inquiry into Intellectual Property .......................................147 5.3 Intellectual Property in China, Past and Present............................................150 5.4 The Rampant Shanzhai Culture and the Can-Do Spirit.................................153 5.5 What Deserves Intellectual Property Protection............................................157 5.6 Gaining Legitimacy through Their Subtitling Practice .................................163 5.7 Conclusion .....................................................................................................170 Chapter Six: Conclusion............................................................................................173 References..................................................................................................................186 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1 Page from Sina Weibo, April 26, 2013..........................................................................7 Figure 2.1 A street vendor cart selling pirated DVDs, Beijing.....................................................30 Figure 2.2 A DVD store in a shopping mall stairway that sells both copyrighted and pirated DVDs, Beijing .................................................................................................30 Figure 2.3 The Central Perk Café in downtown Beijing. The owner