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Article published In:
APTIF 9 - Reality vs. Illusion: From Morse code to machine translation
Edited by Frans De Laet, In-kyoung Ahn and Joong-chol Kwak
[Babel 66:4/5] 2020
► pp. 719–732

Intertitle translation of Chinese silent films

| Communication University of China
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.
Keywords: Chinese films, intertitle, translation, translator
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
Published online: 2 October 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.00183.jin
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