Translating Kung Fu Panda's kung fu-related elements: cultural representation in dubbing and subtitling

Abstract

Regarding dubbing and subtitling choices as comparable cultural solutions, this article examines different translation strategies, employed by both professional audiovisual translators and amateur subtitlers of five Chinese versions for Kung Fu Panda (i.e. three licensed versions dubbed respectively in Cantonese, Standard Mandarin, and Taiwan Mandarin; two fan/amateur subtitled versions), for rendering kung fu-related elements. The findings presented in this article show that both professional audiovisual translators and amateur subtitlers have a strong preference for interventional strategies (i.e. adaptation, rephrasing, replacement). Their cultural decisions are motivated by contextual considerations (e.g. film genre, audience expectations, matching words and images, coherence and understanding) rather than being restricted by constraints such as synchronization and space restriction, which highlights audiovisual translators' active role in cultural representation.