Intertitle translation of Chinese silent films
There is a misconception that film translation did not exist in China before 1949. The paper argues that the translation
of Chinese silent films was vibrant in the 1920s and the early 1930s. Most of the extant copies of Chinese films from that period have
bilingual intertitles. Chinese film companies have two purposes in translating their productions: the potential profit obtained from
international audiences, and the desire to change the negative image of Chinese people portrayed in Hollywood films and project a positive
image of China. Driven by these two objectives, Chinese film companies placed considerable emphasis on translation quality and hired both
Chinese translators and foreign translators to translate their productions.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Early Chinese film translation practices
- 2.1Impact of Western films
- 2.2Potential international audience and international market
- 3.Translators
- 4.The intertitle translation of Labourer’s Love
- 5.Conclusion
-
References
References (30)
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Cited by (1)
Cited by one other publication
Li, Jie & Huan Mei
2024.
Chinese films abroad: distribution and translation.
Asian Journal of Communication 34:6
► pp. 658 ff.

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