7.6 Data Analysis on Questionnaire
The type of expression refers to current popular Internet expressions,such as vernacular phrases and Internet memes,which might be attractive to a younger audience since the Internet is a main tool of communication in their daily life.Moreover,the use of these kinds of expression is also representative of the current era,meaning that popular Internet language has a value and a resonance in this era.According to the results of the data analysis of the corpus,on average,over 30% of translated subtitles in the 15 released films were translated by using popular expressions.I will test the efficiency of using popular language in E-C subtitling in the next section which concerns the data analysis of the questionnaire,in order to obtain stronger evidence to validate my hypothesis.
In this section,in order to obtain more concrete,empirical data from the real-life viewers of the 15 selected films,I designed a questionnaire and invited 100 young adult participants,aged between 21 and 24,and considered as a key audience group for Englishlanguage animation films in China.The survey of this cross-section of the films’ viewers helped the researcher to collect more detailed and concrete data for her research.
The questionnaire is designed in three parts: the first part features 15 pairs of English and Chinese subtitles from a sample film.The ones concerning the use of popular expressions with some translation strategies have been collected and will be discussed in this section,the purpose being to identify the function and effectiveness of the use of popular expressions in translated subtitles,as well as to discuss the relevant strategies.
For Question 1,the original subtitle in the film was
“Outrage in Egypt tonight as it was discovered that the Great Pyramid of Giza had been stolen.”
The official subtitling on the Sheshou website,based in China,is
“今晚埃及爆出特大新闻——吉萨金字塔被人偷了。” （Back translation： Tonight，Egypt announced huge news — someone has stolen the Great Pyramid of Giza）.
Observations： I indicated where this translation had used the particular strategies of transfer and localization： transfer，as a strategy，is used in E-C translation when equivalence needs to be made，for example，between “the Great Pyramid of Giza has been stolen” and “吉萨金字塔被人偷了”； and localization is used in the translation of “outrage” into “爆出特大新闻”.54 out of 97 （56%） respondents chose this option，while 41 out of 97 （42% preferred Option B，“今晚的埃及愤怒了——有人偷了吉萨金字塔” （Back translation： Outrage in Egypt tonight — someone stolen the Great Pyramid of Giza），which is essentially a simple direct translation.
Moreover,one respondent wrote down his own translations to this piece of subtitle as follows:
“今晚的埃及怒炸了——竟然有人偷了吉萨金字塔！”（Uses localization）
Observations： This respondent underlined the word “怒炸” to translate the original pattern of “outrage”，also marking it as an instance of “localization” in his/her own translation strategy.I compared this translation with the official translation of “爆出” and considered the respondent’s answer to have been more in line with the vision of subtitles containing evocative contemporary idiomatic language that has been outlined in this book than the official one.This is because “怒炸” is more typical language amongst young people in China，since the first character “怒” describes the same degree of anger as “outrage” and the second character “炸” vividly describes the rapid dissemination of news to the whole of Egypt.Therefore，the use of popular expression in this translation is successful.The strategy of localization works well in this specific subtitle translation.
Then,in Question 3,there is also a popular expression that appeared in a respondent’s translation.The original subtitle is
“leaving everyone to wonder if the world’s villains are responsible for this heinous crime.”
While the released translation is
“大家都在猜测是哪个世界级的大坏蛋做了如此十恶不赦的坏事。” （Paraphrase，localization）.
One respondent,however,gave his translation as
“所有人都在猜测是哪个殿堂级恶棍会对此滔天大罪负责？” （“Everyone is guessing who the worst person is who will take the responsibility for this horrible crime.”）
Observations： I have underlined the two parts of this respondent’s translation.The first underlined pattern is highlighted by using the modern expression “殿堂级” （the direct meaning is the “royal palace class”，which has been popular in Chinese since 2010，especially amongst young people； it means the highest level） to replace the original translation，“世界级”.Compared to these two expressions，the first one is the modern expression，which has more of a humorous appeal for young people； however，the second is more common in Chinese oral language.In order to attract more young people to watch this kind of movie — young people being one of the film’s primary target audiences and the section of society from which the film will generate most box office takings — the recommendation should be “the more the better”.Another Chinese idiom in this respondent’s translation is “滔天大罪”，which replaces the original translated idiom of “十恶不赦”； in the view of the researcher，these two phrases are similar when expressing the meaning of “extremely bad”.The following was used in the released translation A），followed by the suggested alternative B）：
A） “大家都在猜测是哪个世界级的大坏蛋做了如此十恶不赦的坏事。”（Back translation： Everyone is guessing who will be the world’s villains to do such heinous bad thing）（Paraphrase，localization）
B） “让所有人都想不到究竟是这世界上的哪个坏蛋要对这可恶的罪行负责？”（Back translation： No one can think out who is the villain in the world should pay responsibility to this hateful crime？）
67 out of 97 （69%） respondents chose A，while 29 people chose B； one other provided his/her own translation in box C.The official subtitling in option A uses two strategies： “the world’s” is explained by using the local expression of “世界级的” and the word “heinous” is paraphrased as a Chinese idiom，“十恶不赦”.However，option B uses a rhetorical question to emphasize people’s comments on this theft.
For Question 6,the subtitle was: “I know how you must be feeling.I,too,have encountered great disappointment but,in my eyes,you will always be one of the greats.” The translated alternatives were as follows:
A）“我理解你，因为我也一样，正承受着巨大的挫败感。但你在我眼里，永远都是最伟大的。”（Localization）
(Back translation: I understand you,because I have the same feeling as you,I am now bearing a deep sense of frustration.But,in my eyes,you are the greatest person for ever.)
B）“我知道你的感受。因为我也一样，正感受巨大的失落，但你在我眼里，永远是伟人之一。”
(Back translation: I know your feeling.Because I got the same,bearing the biggest disappointment,but you,in my eyes,is always one of the greatest people.)
Observations： 51 out of 97 respondents chose A，with the other 46 respondents choosing B.The data show a nearly equal distribution between these two options.However，from the point view of the researcher，the translation of the sentence pattern，“I know how you must be feeling” to “我理解你” （I know/understand you），is technically briefer than “我知道你的感受” （I know what you’re feeling）.Moreover，the word “挫败感” （sense of frustration） is more vivid and stronger than the word “失落” （disappointed）.Although there are no major differences between these two options，the first version，from a professional perspective，is slightly more effective than the second one when judging from the perspectives of length and strength of utterance.On the one hand Option A is more concise and takes up less space，and then，on the other，in consideration of the tone of voice，“挫败感” sounds stronger than “失落” in modern Chinese.The choice of “挫败感” can more vividly express the speaker’s upset state of mind when making this statement.
Another pair of subtitles in Question 7 obtained two kinds of translation with the use of popular expressions.The original subtitle is
“They’re saying he makes all other villains look lame.”
The released translation is
“他们说他让其他坏蛋变得很菜。” （Localization）（“They said he makes other bad guys look rookie.”）
Observations： In this translation，the last two characters is a Chinese expression.This is a popular expression means “very inexperienced”.Moreover，one respondent created another translation with the use of a different popular expression： “他们说他简直是坏蛋中的战斗机。” （“People said he is totally the worst guy in the world”）.The underlined part of “坏蛋中的战斗机” is the popular expression.In its literary translation，this may not make sense by English-speaking people： “the jetfighter of the villains”.But in Chinese，young people always describe someone who is the best in an area by using “jetfighter” to metaphor.
Then，the alternative translations were： “A）他们说他让其他坏蛋变得很菜。（Localization）（Back translation： They said he made other villains became inexperienced）； and B）他们说他使得其他坏蛋看上去很蹩脚。” （back translation： They said he made other villains look foolish）.72 out of 97 （74%） chose A，in which the word “lame” is translated into a modern Chinese vernacular expression，“菜”，whereas option B used a common equivalent expression in Chinese.“菜”，as a popular expression，comes from the original word “菜鸟”，which in English means “green hand or rookie”.This word means someone who is inexperienced at dealing with something，someone whose inexperience even makes experienced people laugh.When “菜” evolved from this word as its shorter expression，the meaning of this one single character did not change much，but the expression of using “菜” sounds funnier and vocally stronger than when using “菜鸟” or “蹩脚”.Therefore，these data result also shows that the majority of participants prefer translations using popular vernacular expressions to literal ones.The reason could be that “菜” has a more real，contemporary impact and that respondents feel that this kind of expression will make the expression more fun； another factor is that “菜” is also shorter than “蹩脚” visually.As regards the data from a subsequent part of the questionnaire，when the participants answered the question of “In the last four years of your life at university，how often have you been to the cinema to see animation films？”，there were 78% participants who are in the age range from 21-24 who chose watching animation films as their main means of entertainment.Moreover，in the previously mentioned talk with Wang，she obtained a research result that confirmed that the majority of the audience of English-language animation films （with Chinese translated subtitles but English original dubbing） in China are young people in the age from 15 to 30.This information indicates that a large proportion of young adults are the audiences of English-language animation films in China，and the language that they prefer should be the priority consideration in the translation work of a subtitler.Therefore，I recommend the use of popular language in this kind of situation.Question 9 concerned a longer subtitle than the other questions：
“People are calling it the crime of the century and stuff like that.But am I upset? No,I am not! A little.But we have had a pretty good year ourselves,and you guys are all right in my book.”
The alternatives were:
A）“人人都说这是世纪大案什么的。我会为这个紧张吗？不会！其实有那么一丁点，但我们今年也干得不错。你们的名字全都记在功劳簿上了。” （Localization）(https://www.daowen.com)
(Back translation: Everyone says this is something like the world’s biggest crime.Will I feel nervous about it? No! In fact,I feel a little bit nervous,but we did well this year.All your names will be added to the list.)
B）“人们都叫它本世纪的罪恶之类的。但我会沮丧吗？不，我不会！有一点。但我们自己今年也挺好的，你们的名字我都记在本子上了。”
(Back translation: People called it the century’s crime something.But will I feel upset? No,I won’t! Well,a little bit.But we did well this year; your names are on my list.)
Observations: According to the data,94 out of 97 (97%) respondents chose A,while only three chose B; no one offered their own alternative translation.When comparing these two versions,I consider the first one to be based more on oral language than the second one.However,the second one belongs to word-for-word translation.In consideration of the subtitle length,these two versions have a slight difference: the first one has 60 characters while the second one has 58 characters.The data results for this question indicate that the respondents prefer colloquial language to written language.However,I would now ideally revise the translation of this subtitle in a combined way:
“大家都说这是世纪大案什么的。但是我会不会有些沮丧？不！我不沮丧。其实还是有点儿。但我们今年自己做的还是不错的，你们的名字我都记下了。”
(Back translation: People said this is something like the world’s biggest crime.But do I feel upset? No,I do not.Actually,a little bit.But we did very well ourselves this year,and all your names are noted down.)
In this version，the main words “大家” （people）； “沮丧” （upset）； “有点儿” （a little）； “我们自己” （We...ourselves） as faithful to the original expressions by using word-for-word translations.Moreover，the strategy of localization is used in the translation of “世纪大案” （the crime of this century），which makes Chinese audiences appreciate the scale of the crime according to their own habitual daily language.
Question 10 concerned the subtitling for “That’s how I roll”,and the two alternative versions:
A）“这就是我的风格。”（Globalization）
(Back translation: This is my style.)
B）“这就是我的偷法。”
(Back translation: This is my way of stealing.)
Observations： 45 out of 97 （46%） respondents chose A，while 52 （54%） chose B.The results of the data in this question are considered a normal distribution，because nearly half of the respondents preferred the translation that used modern Chinese，while the other half preferred the character’s words to carry a more concrete meaning.In the film，Gru is a thief，so his “way of rolling” reflects “the way of stealing”.In my view，the first version might potentially have attracted more young people because it uses their form of popular language.However，the data results show that there is a slightly bigger proportion of participants who chose the more concrete translation，rather than the popular language，regarding this question.To explain this phenomenon，it might be suggested that direct and straight forward expressions，particularly those that emphasize something transgressive such as the identity of the main character — a thief — in a candid and even provocative way，can make a strong impact on viewers.In this question，although option A used a specific translation strategy and “风格” （style） belongs to popular language，Option B “偷法” （the way of stealing） is clearer in explaining the original meaning and highlights Gru’s villainous nature.Option B is more concrete with regard to this specific subtitle； therefore，the data result is considered as reasonable and understandable.
Question 11 considered the subtitling for “We stole the Statue of Liberty,the small one from Las Vegas”,as well as the two alternative options:
A）“我们还偷走了自由女神像，虽然是拉斯维加斯那个迷你版的。”（Transcription，globalization）
(Back translation: We stole the Statue of Liberty,although this is the mini one from Las Vegas.)
B）“我们还偷了自由女神像，从拉斯维加斯偷来的小的。” （Back translation： We also stole the Statue of Liberty，which is the small one from Las Vegas.）
Observations： All of the respondents chose A when answering this question，which emphasizes the effectiveness of the two translation strategies used.The use of “迷你版” belongs to the modern Chinese expression； this word is originally from the English word “mini” to describe something that is tiny in size.One feature of modern Chinese is，like other modern languages （e.g.，Japanese，Korean），there are more and more loan words from English.There are more examples like sofa，guitar.
Question 13 involved a discussion about the subtitle for “He’s styling.” The two alternatives differed in the sentence pattern rather than in the use of different words.In the first one,
A）“看他多有型！” （Transcription）
(Back translation: Look how stylish he is!);
we can see that the sentence is an exclamatory one; while the second one is not:
B）“他在摆造型。”
(Back translation: He is making a pose.)
Observations: 80 out of 97 (82%) respondents chose A,while 17 out of 97 (18%) chose B.Given that the participants are proficient in English and are students of translation and interpreting,it is significant that they were attracted to the first subtitle.The first subtitle is more faithful to the original subtitle,as well as expressing the same affirmative sense as the original.In Chinese,the first subtitle possesses an unambiguously positive connotation,and is a kind of popular expression to show admire to somebody; whereas the second one in some situations may be understood as having a negative sense; that is to say,the other meaning of the second Chinese subtitle could be,“He is showing off [something]” or “He is arrogant”.
In the second part of the questionnaire,there are two questions out of five are related to the use of popular expression in subtitle translation between English and Chinese.The fourth question is concerned with the use of a specific form of expression and communication in Chinese:
“Do you like translations that make use of modern Chinese expressions,such as spoken vernacular and language made popular on the Internet?”
Observations: The results of the data were similar to those for the third question about the traditional expressions.This is understandable,because modern Chinese expressions ought to attract younger audiences.Indeed,82% (80 out of 97) agreed with this idea,while the other 17% respondents agreed to some extent.
The last question in Part 2 is:
“Do you think the use of traditional and modern types of Chinese expressions requires subtitlers to be aware of cultural difference?”
Observations: This question was a development of Questions 3 and 4.Since most Chinese expressions are culturally loaded,it was expected that the respondents would answer positively; the overwhelmingly emphatic nature of the response,however,with 100% of respondents agreeing,was significant.Hence,the data results in Part 2 of the questionnaire reconfirm that the young audiences to whom animation films are primarily aimed believe that the deployment of established translation strategies such as globalization,localization,condensation and transfer in subtitling are effective and also necessary.They mostly accept the use of traditional expressions as well as the popular expressions in the current data.
Section 3 in the questionnaire was an open-ended question:
“In your opinion,what have been the main problems and weaknesses that have emerged in the subtitles of recently released animation films?”
Observations: As occurred with the analysis of the use of traditional expression in the last chapter,the following elements: cultural barriers,the different ways of thinking,proper nouns,the story lines and translation quality are all relevant to the use of popular expressions.
Firstly，in order to eliminate the cultural barriers in the translated subtitles，the use of popular expression and traditional expression are helpful to enable the audience to comprehend the films.The subtitlers，for this reason，are required to have a high level of source language and cultural knowledge.Thus，they could identify equivalence in the target language or they have the ability to create a replacement expression in the target language.For example，the expressions may be from similar fables.Secondly，the different way of thinking between the source culture and the target culture.This is a specific cultural difference point which will lead to cultural barriers.The subtitlers need to find an acceptable way in the target culture to express the original meanings.For example，in English，the normal expression for a commercial discount is “something is now 30% off”； when translated into Chinese，it is better for the subtitlers to describe this in a reverse way “某商品现在打七折” （something is now reduced to 70% of its original price）.Thirdly，“proper nouns” and “the story of the film” are all cultural barriers to some extent，and as such there is a degree of convergence connecting these elements； there is also a clear connection with the response to the final question of Section 2，in which the respondents unanimously reaffirmed that for younger film audiences and consumers，it is important for subtitlers to be aware of cultural differences in the subtitling work that they do.Lastly，the last type of identified problem concerned the “translation quality” of subtitles.This is not a general concept； it refers to the quality and accuracy of linguistic terms.Combined with the data analysis of the first section，it can be argued that 46% of respondents were seeking more awareness and precision on the part of subtitlers when using linguistic expressions.
Generally speaking,the responses to the open question in Part 3 in the questionnaire indicate that problems arise from a film spectator’s perspective when films are subtitled without adequate time,resources,linguistic expertise and cultural knowledge being dedicated to the project in question.As regards the above discussion and identification of the main keywords which appeared in the respondents’ answers,most of the keywords are directly or indirectly related to cultural differences.Therefore,the researcher found that one solution to eliminate the cultural barriers in the translation of subtitles,E-C translation in particular,is the use of some Chinese typical expressions as traditional expressions (e.g.,idioms,archaisms) and popular expressions (e.g.,popular language in networks,new words),which can be helpful to subtitlers.