Doctoral Dissertation Research: Subtitle Groups as Cultural Translators in China

University Of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

University of California-Los Angeles doctoral student Chi-hua Hsiao, under the guidance of Dr. Elinor Ochs, will investigate the phenomenon of cultural translation in the context of an underground network of internet-based amateur translators in China. Since the post-economic reform period in the early 1990s, the growth of the internet in urban areas in China has afforded residents opportunities to circumvent the state-party monopoly of information. Informal volunteer subtitling groups emerged in the mid-1990s and began catering to the younger generation's thirst for U.S. popular culture by adding and distributing Chinese-language subtitles to TV programs, which they then posted online. Chinese audiences have embraced this unofficial outlet as an alternative source of foreign popular culture. Centered in Beijing, this research adopts a variety of ethnographic methods for documenting the linguistic and cultural translation processes through which subtitlers communicate culturally specific concepts in ways that fit the sociocultural understandings of the younger generation of Chinese audiences. Focusing on the theme of cultural translation, this linguistic anthropological study will explore how Chinese volunteer translators' subtitles relate to the globalization of sociocultural ideologies. This study will contribute to the understanding of globalization and to the understanding of socially coordinated uses of information technology by offering insights into how collaborative Chinese subtitling groups act as cultural brokers and represent a new paradigm of sacrifice and morality among Chinese youth and young adults within the virtual community. In addition, this research will demonstrate how such initiatives influence the younger Chinese generation's perceptions of foreign popular culture as part of the larger globalized flow of information. Funding this research also strengthens international scholarly collaborations with China and supports the education of a graduate student.