A Comparative Study On Translation Of American Film Title Between Taiwan And Mainland China-From A Sociological Perspective

Thousands of American films have swarmed into the market of Chinese market since The Fugitive was on show in 1994 as the first imported incomer-sharing film. Films have already become the important channel for cultural output and input, and closely connected to the society for its unique artistry and commerciality. Therefore, the selection of film title is not only the translation practice but also a social activity. Although both the Mainland of China and Taiwan use Chinese as the formal language, the film titles on the screen vary greatly for different reasons. That does not only shows the difference of language but also highlights the impact on translation by the social factors, including ideology, politics, culture and film market. Thus, study on this phenomenon can be of significance for the further study of translation practice from the sociological perspectives.This paper makes a contrastive analysis of the different titles of the same American film after translation by virtue of sociological research technique and the concepts brought by Bourdieu, including “field”, “capital” and “habitus”. And in this paper, the study starts from the analysis of linguistic features and different functions of film title; the influence on the translation by the capital and habitus of the translators from both the Mainland of China and Taiwan and the factors shaping the capital and habitus of translators; the field of American film title translation; and the force affecting the film title translation by the film market.By contrast, it can be concluded that the titles on the screen from both the Mainland of China and Taiwan should not be evaluated as “favorable” or “terrible”, and the factors influencing the translation should be put more attention; living in the different social environment, translators from both the Mainland of China and Taiwan bring different cultural capital and habitus into the translation field, and exerts an impact on the translation of film titles; the participants of the film markets influences the translation of film title by their positions and capitals in the translation field, and then influences the habitus of translators; the combination of sociology and translation can be applied to the study and probe into some translation phenomenon.