A Descriptive Study Of The Subtitling Strategies Of Chinese Documentaries From The Perspective Of Translation Variation Theory

As we step into the Internet Era,the film and television industries therefore have new channels to present colorful works to audiences and thus develops rapidly.Documentaries,which used to be marginalized,have gained currency again.Besides,excellent documentaries have been continuously introduced to the public.In addition,the development of new media has also provided new platforms for further cultural exchanges among countries.Documentaries,as an important medium to display diverse cultures,have received attention.Therefore,dramatic increase has been registered in the number of documentaries with bilingual subtitles.The First Time in Life is one of excellent bilingual subtitled documentaries.From the perspective of Translation Variation Theory,this thesis conducts a descriptive study of the translation variation in English subtitles of The Firsts in Life,analyzes the effects of variational translation methods and explores,via email interviews with the fansubbers,the underlying motivations behind the translator decisions.It is found that variational translation methods,such as addition,deletion,edition and rewriting are employed,with prominence of edition and rewriting and less conspicuous presence of addition,and such preference accords with the constrained nature of audiovisual translation.The adoption of these methods,as the finding suggests,serves to abide by tempo-spatial constraints and enhances the communicative effectiveness of the audiovisual product,and fansubbers’ considerations of technical constraints of the subtitles,differences between cultures and the dissemination of content have given rise to the translation variation in the English subtitles.The research is expected to shed light on the practice and research of Chinese documentary subtitling so as to promote the cultural exchanges between China and the rest of the world.