Cover not available
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
References
Brownlow, Kevin
1992 Behind the mask of innocence: Sex, violence, prejudice, crime: Films of social conscience in the Silent era. Berkeley (CA): University of California Press.Google Scholar
Chan, Kenneth
2009 Remade in Hollywood: The global Chinese presence in transnational cinemas. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.Google Scholar
Chaume, Frederic
2014 Audiovisual translation: Dubbing. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Chen, Mo; and Zhiwei Xiao
2004 “The great wall over the ocean: The initial study of the Great Wall Film Company”. Contemporary cinema 31: 36–44.Google Scholar
Chen, Tian
1928 “Preliminary film studies”. Film monthly 41: 4.Google Scholar
Cheng, Bugao
1983 Reminiscences of film circle. Beijing: China Film Press.Google Scholar
Cheng, Jihua
1981 The history of the development of Chinese cinema (Volume 11), Beijing: China Film Press.Google Scholar
1995 “Hong Shen and Chinese film”. Contemporary cinema 21: 83–90.Google Scholar
Cheng, Shuren
1927 China film yearbook. New York (NY): The Film Daily.Google Scholar
Ding, Yaping
2016 General history of Chinese films. Beijing: China Film Press.Google Scholar
Fei, Chengkang
1991 History of foreign settlements in China. Shanghai: Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Press.Google Scholar
Film Politician
1935 “On the retention or abolition of English intertitles in Chinese silent films”. Yiying 1 (1): 13.Google Scholar
Gunning, Tom
2014 “Encounters in darkened rooms: Alternative programming of the Dutch Filmliga, 1927–1931.” In The emergence of film culture: Knowledge production, institution building, and the fate of the avant-garde in Europe, 1919–1945, ed. by Malte Hagener, 72–117. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books.Google Scholar
Huang, Leilei
2014 Shanghai filmmaking: Crossing borders, connecting to the globe, 1922–1938. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Jianyun
1922 “Thoughts on shadow play (3)”. Shenbao. March 15.Google Scholar
Kuo, Marie-Claire
2018 “Translation and distribution of Chinese films in France: A personal account.” Journal of Chinese cinemas 12 (3): 237–249. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ma, Zhengqi
2005 Introduction to film dubbing. Beijing: Communication University of China Press.Google Scholar
Pan, Chuitong
1927 “The explanation for using Way Down West as the English film title for Xixiang ji”, In Way Down West special issue, ed. by China Sun. Shanghai: China Sun Motion Picture Co. Ltd.Google Scholar
Qian, Shaochang
2004 “The present status of screen translation in China”. Meta 49 (1): 52–58. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shi, Meiding
2001 History of foreign settlements in Shanghai. Shanghai: Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Press.Google Scholar
Sun, Yu
1987 Sailing in the silver sea: Reminiscences of my life. Shanghai: Shanghai Wenyi Press.Google Scholar
Tan, Hui
2014 Dubbed film. Beijing: China Film Press.Google Scholar
The Film Examination Comittee
1934 Report of China Education Film Association.Google Scholar
The United Photoplay Service Company
1935 Yearbook of the United Photoplay Service Company.Google Scholar
Xiao, Zhiwei
2005 “Hollywood in China, 1897–1950: A preliminary survey.” Chinese historical review 12 (1): 71–96. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Xu, Wenming
2018 “Chinese stories and images of the time: The dissemination of early Chinese films in North America”. Journal of communication university of Zhejiang 25 (6): 95–101.Google Scholar
Yao, Ying
1933 “Under screen”. Shenbao. March 15.Google Scholar
Yu, Haikuo
2015 “Film translation in China”. Babel 61 (4): 493–510. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yuan, Long
2016 The subtitling of sexual taboo from English to Chinese. PhD thesis, London: Imperial College London.Google Scholar
Zhang, Zhen
2005 An amorous history of the silver screen: Shanghai cinema, 1896–1937. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar