Reconfiguring a Chinese superhero through the dubbed versions of Monkey King: Hero is Back (2015)

Abstract

The paper aims to investigate how a Chinese heroic legend was reconfigured for Western viewers through the English-dubbed versions of a case-study film, Monkey King: Hero is Back (2015). The ultimate goal of the study is to shed new light on how dubbing practice may better cater to Western target audiences. Based on two macrolevel translation theories, three translation models, and the two microlevel translation strategies, this paper discusses the most commonly used film translation strategies for English dubbing in the case-study film and their implications for the effectiveness of translation. The findings suggest that driven by the target-audience orientation, English-dubbing strategies often use standard language constrained by linguistic and cultural disparities as opposed to dynamic, adaptive Chinese dubbing.