Adaptive Selection In Chinese Subtitle Translation

The Chinese motion picture industry has developed quickly in recent years, and Chinese films have become increasingly popular in foreign countries. As a popular means of mass media, films have played an important role in promoting the Chinese culture. It is obvious that successful subtitle translation is crucial. Western countries have made great achievement in the field of subtitle translation, and there are not only specialized agencies studying subtitle translation, but also some universities offering specialized courses to cultivate translation talents. Compared with western countries, Chinese subtitle translation is also developing fast during recent years. The Chinese film The Love under the Hawthorn Tree mainly introduces a love story which happened during the Cultural Revolution(1966-1976) in China, and the film has been so well received by the foreign audience. As one representative work of Chinese modern movies, its language is of representative significance, so it is of great importance to study the subtitle translation of the film. This thesis attempts to discuss the adaptive selection in the Chinese subtitle translation in Zhang Yimou's blockbuster film The Love under the Hawthorn Tree from the perspective of Eco-translatology.Eco-translatology, developed by Hu Gengshen in 2001, has been regarded as an ecological approach to translation studies or as an approach to translation studies from an ecological perspective. Besides, it emphasizes the relationship between the translator and the eco-environment, the translator-centeredness, as well as the adaption and selection that the translator has made according to the translational eco-environment during the process of translation. Translators not only need to adapt to the translational eco-environment(selective adaption), but also to make selections and transformations during the process of translation(adaptive selection). During the translation process of audiovisual subtitles, the translator needs to complete the adaptive selection and transformation in what Hu refers to as the three-dimensional selection and transformation, i.e. linguistic, cultural and communicative dimensions, so as to make the target audience well understand the connotation of the film by overcoming the barriers in the language and culture. In this way, the target audience can enjoy the film as well as the original-language audience do.Under the guidance of Eco-translatology, this thesis mainly discusses the adaptive selection in the subtitle translation of the film The Love under the Hawthorn Tree. In addition, the subtitle translation of this film is mainly analyzed by several strategies of subtitle translation under the guidance of the three-dimensional transformations. On the basis of Eco-translatology, this thesis finds that during the process of the subtitle translation, addition and omission are the main methods used to finish the translation well at the level of adaptive selection in linguistic dimension; while at the level of adaptive selection in cultural dimension, domestication and foreignization are the first two choices of translation methods; and at the level of adaptive selection in communicative dimension, literal and free translation are the priorities. All in all, it is concluded that the theory of Eco-translatology could be used to guide the future Chinese subtitle translation; in addition, adaptive selection in the subtitle translation could be made by using some corresponding translation methods, so as to transfer the connotation of the original subtitles.It is hoped that on the basis of the Eco-translatology theory, this research could shed some light on future studies of subtitle translation in China, especially on selecting proper translation methods used to finish the subtitle translation.