On Translation Of Humor In Feng Xiaogang’s Comedy Films-Equivalent Effect Theory Perspective

In the exchange between different cultures in modern society, films, as a means of mass media, play a much more important role than ever before. The subtitle translation, with the help of which foreign audience can better understand Chinese films and know more about China, deserve our special attention.On the basis of the former research on subtitle translation and humor translation, the author intends to explore whether humor effect in Chinese subtitles can be successfully transferred into English ones through translation. Under the direction of equivalent effect theory, the author provides a detailed analysis of subtitles with humor effect selected from8Feng Xiaogang’s comedy films. After the analysis, the author finds that equivalent effect theory can be applied to humorous subtitle translation for the following reasons:human beings as a whole share basically the same thinking modes and feelings, and languages have something in common. However, after all, there exists the difference in education, value, and thinking mode for the specific audience from a different cultural background, so it is difficult to ensure that the target language audience can always have the same response as the source language audience. In light of this, the equivalent effect theory has its limitation.