Computer-aided Translation Technology To Fansubbing

With the rapid development of internet technology and cultural globalization,an increasing number of overseas films and TV programs have been introduced to China and enjoyed great popularity among Chinese netizens.However,the majority of netizens are unable to understand overseas TV programs in the original language.And it often takes years for official channels to present a popular foreign show with Chinese subtitles and more often than not,even Chinese dubbing which quite ruined the original exotic flavors.Under such circumstances,a voluntary online organization called fansub group came into being.Over the past decade,online fansub groups in China have flourished and enjoyed a great reputation among netizens for subtitling foreign shows purely out of interest and love without any material returns.The fansubbing phenomenon has attracted increasingly attention from the academic community over the past decade.However,previous researches on fansub groups have focused on describing the operation mechanism of fansub groups,criticizing the quality of fansubs and discussing the legality of fansub groups.Unlike researches in the past,this study approaches online fansub groups from the perspective of modern technology and translation and analyzes in a detailed way the great significance of CAT technology for online fansub groups.The author first gives a detailed account of how CAT technology can be applied to fansubbing based on the case study of the fansubbing process of Desperate Housewives Season 8 Episode 20 aided by Jeemaa.com.Then the author conducts a comparative study by subtitling Desperate Housewives Season 8 Episode 21 in the traditional process of fansubbing to serve as a contrast to fansubbing aided with modern CAT technology so as to present more objectively the great significance of CAT technology to online fansub groups.The results of this study show that CAT technology is of great use throughout the subtitling process and can significantly increase the work efficiency of fansubbers while enhancing their translation quality at the same time.Traditionally,the subtitle translation of a 40-minute long episode of American TV series needs 8 to 10 fansubbers to work four hours.However,aided with modern CAT technology,the amount of time it takes to translate and revise the original subtitles of a 40-minute long episode of American TV series can be reduced to 1 hour or so,which means that fansub groups will be able to launch the subtitled resources three hours earlier,a great breakthrough for any fansub group.And given that CAT technology will automatically detect any simple mistakes and inconsistencies in the translations,the quality of fansubs can also be improved by a large extent,so does the watching experience of audiences.