Subtitle Translation Strategies as a Reflection of Technical Limitations : a Case Study of Ang Lee ’ s Films

Subtitling, unlike traditional forms of translation, is subject to the limitations imposed by different subtitling apparatuses, for example, not more than two lines on one screen. In order not to breach these limitations, subtitlers adopt different strategies in their attempts to convey film plots or content to target language audiences, thereby creating an interface between culture and technology in the context of translation. This paper mainly looks at the interface which occurs in the process of translating film dialogue from Mandarin Chinese into English. Using as a case study films by Ang Lee, a prominent Chinese film director in global film circles, we shall focus on the investigation of translation strategies adopted in subtitling, and work out the possible interface between culture and technology in operation there. In addition, we may find an answer to the question whether technology is changing the face of translation. The film Wo Hu Cang Long [Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon] is the main case study considered and six of its English subtitle versions from China (including Hong Kong and Taiwan), America and the Great Britain respectively will be compared and discussed.


Introduction
With the rapid developments in high technology, both in software and hardware, in recent years, more and more information has been presented in or transferred to audio-visual formats, such as films in DVD formats, and that has increased the interface between technologies, language and culture.Amongst these media, subtitling is a key technique for facilitating communication with viewers and has recently been widely discussed, especially in comparison with dubbing which is, at present, another mainstream method.
Subtitling, according to Dries (1995), can be initially divided into two main categories, "inter-lingual subtitling" and "intra-lingual subtitling"; inter-lingual subtitling encompasses the communication "from one language into another language" and "from spoken dialogue into a written, condensed translation which appears on the screen" (pp.26).This corresponds to what De Linde and Kay (1999) have to say in their book, that "the amount of dialogue has to be reduced to meet the technical conditions of the medium and the reading capacities of non-native language users" in its attempts to "achieve something approaching translation equivalence when conducting subtitling" (pp.1-2).Accordingly, we assume that the information in the source language may be different from that of the target language with inter-lingual subtitling, and this kind of translation process from oral to written language may have more to do with technical factors, as compared with traditional text translation, such as literary translation, and these considerations call for further discussion.
In order to explore the process of inter-lingual subtitling, to work out the possible interface between technologies, language and culture in its operation, and to explore whether technology is changing the face of translation, the film, Wo Hu Cang Long [Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon], has been chosen as the case study here and the translation strategies adopted in the subtitling process will form the basis of the main investigation.In addition, six of its English subtitle versions from China (including Hong Kong and Taiwan), America and the Great Britain respectively will be compared and discussed.

Different technical constraints
Subtitle translation, unlike literary translation, is a process from verbal language into written text, and highly dependent on subtitling equipment to present or transfer information to its viewers.
Take the appearance of translated subtitles for example.Subtitling companies may choose particular typefaces to present translated texts in conformity with their demand for the greatest clarity (Ivarsson & Carroll, 1998, pp.39, 42-43).In addition to that, they may tackle the issue of layout to position translated texts for optimal legibility, such as "at the bottom of the screen" (Ivarsson & Carroll, 1998, pp.50).The number of lines on one screen is another issue and translated subtitles generally occupy "a maximum of two lines" (Gottlieb, 1998, pp.245), containing no more than "forty English letters and spaces" (Luyken et al., 1991, pp.43) or "thirteen Chinese characters" (Qin, 1997, p.27) per line, on one screen to avoid being crowded out of it.This maximum number of English characters is only for "34mm films" and will vary with different media, film gauges and their target viewers (Luyken et al., 1991, p.43).Finally, they may take account of timing, punctuation and other conventions.All of these are crucial factors in the whole subtitling process and may be written down in manuals or memoranda for future reference.Subtitle translators, therefore, need to bear these regulations or technical limitations in mind when producing subtitles.They usually adopt different strategies to avoid breaching these constraints and to meet the requirements of their clients.

Jan Ivarsson
Jan Ivarsson is one of the few media translation scholars to have proposed corresponding subtitle translation strategies in Europe.His book Subtitling for the Media: A Handbook of an Art (1992) provides guidance for individuals involved or interested in subtitle translation and its practice.Six years later, he finished another book Subtitling (1998) with the scholar Mary Carroll in an attempt to offer up-to-date information about subtitling and its recent innovations to readers.In these books, nice strategies are mentioned and discussed, and most of them are highly relevant to the limitations posed by subtitling software.

Henrik Gottlieb
In addition to Ivarsson, Gottlieb is another eminent scholar in the media translation field.He has published several essays or books in recent years, including Subtitling in 2001.In that essay, he summarises ten kinds of subtitling strategy to deal with a range of problems, including language and culture-specific ones.Take "dislocation", for example, (Gottlieb, 2001(Gottlieb, , pp.1010)).Translators may adopt this method to offer different translations or expressions when tackling "music or visualized language-specific terms" (Gottlieb, 2001(Gottlieb, , pp. 1010)).
In recent years, more and more scholars or researchers have extended their research field to include media translation and introduced us to their findings.However, the strategies they propose are mainly Europe-centered and their applicability to Asian films is open to question.

Background information
Li An [Ang Lee], a prominent Chinese film director in the global film industry, has received several international prizes since 1991.One of his films, Wo Hu Cang Long [Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon], won four Oscars in 2000, and was a milestone in both his film career and the history of Chinese film.Wo Hu Cang Long [Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon] is a martial-arts film and the "interpreter" (here the subtitle translator), Zhang Zheng Zheng is the sole translator according to the credits list.
Before looking at the different strategies, we put six subtitle versions of the film Wo Hu Cang Long [Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon] together for an initial comparison and found the English subtitles in the American or the British versions were almost the same as those in the Chinese ones, apart from some misspellings, different "subtitle breaks" (Ivarsson & Carroll, 1998, pp.90-91) or a few differences in punctuation marks at the end of dialogues.The number of these differences is about 150-that is one sixth of the total figure of titles.Therefore, we turned our attention to the Mandarin Chinese dialogues and their English translations in the Chinese DVD and Hong Kong VCD versions for further examination.

Strategies in the Chinese DVD version
First, expanded expressions for Chinese cuisine: for a culture-specific team such as we find in Chinese cuisine, it is always hard to find a completely corresponding term in the target language.To solve this kind of problem, film subtitle translators may use another familiar expression to convey a similar meaning.Take excerpt one, for example: "Hua Diao Zheng Gui Yu" is a traditional Chinese dish and its ingredients mainly include Hua Diao Jiu [a kind of wine, Shao Xing Jiu], and Gui Yu [mandarin fish].It has been translated as "steamed whole cod" in the film, not "steamed Mandarin fish with Hua Diao Jiu", to avoid confusing the audience, and to keep the idea of Chinese.The method is similar to the strategy of "expansion" that Gottlieb introduces in his article, Subtitling (2001Subtitling ( , pp. 1010)).
Excerpt 1 Dialogue: Hua Diao Zheng Gui Yu, Gan Zha Tou Hao Li Ji [Literal translation: steamed Mandarin fish with Hua Diao Jiu, dry deep-fried pork chop] Subtitle: steamed whole cod/bite-size meatballs… Secondly, omission or paraphrase of certain texts: as Ivarsson notes (1992), film subtitle translators may "omit something that is not regarded as strictly necessary for an understanding of the dialogue or of paraphrasing" (pp.91).In addition, "sometimes paraphrases are unavoidable when it is impossible to actually skip anything that is said" (pp.92).Translators usually employ a selection of these two methods to make translated subtitles short enough for the space available when encountering long-winded dialogues.Take excerpt two for example.The translator omitted the text "Ta Men Yi Dao Jing Cheng Jiu Ti Wo Ding Cia Zhe Men Qin Shi" and paraphrased the rest as "my parents are arranging everything" to represent the parental domination in children's marriage in ancient Chinese society.A similar application of this strategy can also be found in the remaining part of excerpt two.My marrying one will be good//for my father's career.
Thirdly, condensation of bundles of texts: some protagonists, as Ivarsson has pointed out, may "say in a few seconds two or three times as many words as there is room for in the two (at best, three) subtitle lines below the picture" (1992, pp.92).In that case, an over-lengthy dialogue may necessitate condensation by the translator in order to get rid of any redundant information.The protagonist in excerpt three, for example, offers information on the lost sword, Qing Ming Jian [Green Destiny], in his reply to the boss, Bei Le Ye [Sir Te], and the first and third lines of the subtitles are not really necessary.Therefore, the translator kept the second subtitle line and left out the rest.This method corresponds to Gottlieb's idea of "condensation" (2001, pp.1010).

Excerpt 3
Dialogue: Qing Ming Jian Shi Me Zhao Hui Lai Ke Shi Wo Gan Du//Zei Ren Yu Yu Da Ren Jia You Gua Gou Cha Ta Ge Di Er Diao [Literal translation: I didn't get the Green Destiny Sword back, But I bet the thief is related to Yu's family.

Let's check it out]
Subtitle: I'm sure the thief//is in the Yu household.
Fourthly, the application of ellipsis, which according to Ivarsson (1992) can, "safely leave out the words whose main purpose is to keep the conversation ticking over, tautologies and repetitions."(pp.93).Take excerpt four for example.The translator abridged the text "Ji Ran Shi Zhe Yang [in this case]" and retained the main meaning of the dialogue in his English translations.
Excerpt 4 [Literal translator: Li Mu Bai let him go to Wudang Mountain] Subtitle: He sent him//to Wudan Mountain.

Translations in other English versions
Now, let us turn to the different translations of Mandarin Chinese dialogue and Hong Kong versions.After comparing the English translations of these two versions, we found more than 100 differences and these could be initially divided into three categories.
The first category is the lack of a complete translation in the Hong Kong English version: take excerpt eleven for example.It is not clear what sort of objectives have been mentioned when reading the Hong Kong English translation only.The audience, therefore, may get confused or possibly misunderstand the whole film plot.(Hong Kong version) The second category is the different interpretation of the same dialogue: take excerpt twelve for example.The weapon "Shuang Dao"is translated as "machete" in the Chinese English version and as "saber" in the Hong Kong English version.These two translations do not represent the same weapon and the Chinese one, machete, is the better one from the perspective of shape and function.Overall, similar cases in Mandarin Chinese English version are more accurate.The third category is the difference in the layout of the different versions, which is attributable to the differences between the technical limitations in the VCD and DVD versions.As a consequence, translators may have different choices of layout, and that has resulted in a different order of word groups even though the whole sentence meaning is still the same.An example can be found in excerpt thirteen.

Culture-bound problems
Finally, we have found some loose interpretation of certain cultural terms.Take excerpt fourteen, for example.The term "You Shi" meant the period of the day from five to seven pm in ancient Chinese society and it is translated as "midnight" in the English translation.Another example is "Zhen Ren" in excerpt fifteen.This is a term used mostly in the Taoist religion and translated as "Taoist priest".The term monk is used mostly in the Buddhist religion.

Discussion and conclusion
Subtitling, a translation process from oral language into written text, is different from literary translation.When it comes to technical limitations, as Luyken and his colleagues have mentioned "its tasks are particularly restrained by time and space which are imposed by the nature of television and film production" (1991, pp.42); we may agree that the translation process from oral into written text does create some difficulties, such as the goal of achieving maximum legibility or being terse to avoid crowding translated subtitles out of the screen.Film subtitle translators need to bear these limitations in mind to avoid breaching them.However, subtitlers also need to take account of other factors in relation to language and culture, in order to present or transfer information to their target audiences.We may, therefore, conclude that technology, when it comes to subtitle translation, does not greatly change the essence of translation, but enriches it.In film subtitle translation, not only linguistic or cultural factors must be taken into consideration, as with literature, but also different technical limitations.
Zheng Hun Shi You Wo Die Niang Jue Ding Ta Men Yi Dao Jing Chen//Jiu Ti Wo Ding Xia Zhe Men Qin Shi Niang Shuo Lu Tai Lao Ye Shi Chao Nei De Da Guan//You Shi San Dai Han Lin Ru Guo Neng Gen Lu Jia Lian Yin//Dui Die Zai Bei Jing Da You Hao Chu[Literal translation: Anyway, my marriage is determined by my parents.They arranged the marriage once they arrived in the capital.Mum said, Sir Lu is an eminent official at the Court and three generations of them are all in the Hanlin Academy.It would be beneficial to Dad in Beijing, were I to marry a Lu] Subtitle: My parents//are arranging everyting.The Gous are a very powerful family.
Jiao Jiu Liu, Wang Lai Ren Deng [Literal translation: people from all walks of life and different ranks.]Subtitle: Here, you'll find all sorts of characters.(Mandarin version) Here, you'll find all sorts.
Shi Shuang Dao, Jian Fa Wo Lüe Tong Yi Er [Literal translation: I use double blades and more or less understand swordsmanship.]Subtitle: Yes, I am.But I prefer the machete.(Mandarin version) Yes, I am.But I prefer the saber.(HongKong version) Dao Yuan Zhen Ren Nian Chu//Cong Wu Dang Shan Lu Guo Zhe Li [Literal translation: Early this year, Taoist priest Dao Yuan passed here en route from Wu Dang Mountain] Subtitle: Monk Zheng Said//you were at Wudan Mountain.
Excerpt 14Dialogue: Jin Wan You Shi//Huang Tu Gang Shang, Yi Jue Sheng Si! [Literal translation: Let's settle it once for all, this evening on the Yellow Hill!] Subtitle: "We'll settle this at midnight//on Yellow Hill."