On Application Of Domestication And Foreignization In Translating English Film Subtitles Into Chinese

Translating a text usually requires a choice to be made among many translation strategies, especially between domestication and foreignization. Especially in a film translation project, the initial decision between domesticating and foreignizing strategies affects the whole translation process. This paper just tries to explore the possibility of combining the two translation strategies in translating the English film subtitles into Chinese.This paper contains six parts.The first part serves as the introduction. It is about the importance of foreign movies in Chinese people's life and the importance of improving translating film subtitles. With the opening-up policy being carried out in China, a large number of foreign movies have been introduced into China, greatly flourishing and enriching the people's cultural and spiritual life. There is no denying that in our country most moviegoers are ordinary people without professional linguistic competence, especially for a foreign language. Therefore, for the target audience's convenience to better understand a foreign film, a film translator must make full use of the proper translation strategy.The second part is a careful analysis of the nature and characteristics of film language and audiovisual translation especially the translation of English film subtitles into Chinese. Audiovisual translation is one of the major activities in the translation world. It emphasizes the dimensions of the communicative mode. There are in fact two main types of audiovisual translation: dubbing and subtitling. Dubbing is the replacement of the dialogue and narration in a foreign language into the language of the viewing audience, the target language. Subtitling is the written translation of the spoken language of a television program or film into the language of the viewing audience; the translated text usually appears in two lines at the foot of the screen simultaneously with the dialogue or narration going on in the source language.The third part deals with the literature review of audiovisual translation in China and abroad and the theoretical basis of this thesis. In China, the research into audiovisual translation has barely begun. Empirical suggestions were published while theoretical and systematic study in this field remains to be done. The research of audiovisual translation is centered in Europe and the amount of audiovisual translation is huge in Europe: European scholars have also done a lot of research. As for the theoretical basis, this paper takes translation equivalence approach.The fourth part introduces the two translation strategies: domestication and foreignization. Domestication refers to the translation strategy in which a transparent and fluent style is adopted in order to minimize the strangeness of the foreign text for target language readers. An influential representative of domestication is Dr. Eugene Nida. Foreignization designates the type of translation in which a target text "deliberately breaks target conventions by retaining something of the foreignness of the original". A well-known representative of Foreignization is Lawrence Venuti.The fifth part relates to domestication and foreignization in audiovisual translation, especially in the translation of English film subtitling into Chinese. Translation of English film subtitling into Chinese contains many points such as religious expressions, expressions and ideas with regional characteristics, proverbs and fixed expressions, etc.The sixth part is the conclusion. In film translation practice, there is no domestication without some degree of foreignization; by the same token, there is no foreignization without some degree of domestication. The two translation strategies co-exist and complement each other in the translation of English films into Chinese: on the level of language and words, domestication is preferred while it comes to cultural level, foreignization is better.