A Report on the C-E Subtitle Translation of the Documentary The Local Records of China: Dangtu Anhui (Excerpts)

Abstract

With absorbing introduction and exquisite images, the documentary The Local Records of China: Dangtu Anhui fully shows the cultural heritage of Dangtu County. Moreover, its subtitles, with strong cultural flavor, are beautiful, smooth and concise, so that the translator chose it as translation materials. This report, guided by André Lefevere's Manipulation Theory, combined with specific cases, explores how the translator can rewrite the original text to the greatest extent under the manipulation of ideology, patronage and poetics, and find the translation techniques suitable for subtitles translation in humanities documentaries. In the report, under the manipulation of ideology and patronage, transliteration and annotation can effectively deal with proper nouns and culture-loaded words. While under the manipulation of poetics, the translator analyzes from the perspective of lexical level and syntactic level, literal translation, substitution, voice shifting and information restructuring play a very important role in the process of translation. Through this translation practice, the translator believes that Manipulation Theory plays a strong guiding role in the translation of documentary’s subtitles. Hopefully, the effort of this translation practice could shed light on the C-E translation and study of humanistic documentary subtitles, and make a modest contribution to the promotion of Chinese history and culture.