Translation and distribution of Chinese films in France: A personal account*

Abstract

In France, the diffusion of Chinese cinema was for a very long time limited to elite cultural circles. After the May 1968 Students Movement, a large number of students signed up to learn Chinese at University Paris 7. Chinese films were screened there weekly to help these students get a better understanding of China. After China adopted its ‘Reform and Opening’ policy, several important French film festivals began to screen Chinese films. The French public began to understand the importance of Chinese cinema, but the commercial distribution of Chinese Cinema only started in the mid-1980s, after films from the Fifth Generation attracted the interest of critics and the public. French audiences remain interested in Chinese films today, especially in films by auteurs. In France, almost all important commercial films from foreign countries are dubbed. For art and auteur films, however, are screened in their original versions with subtitles. All the foreign films, even when they are dubbed, have a subtitled version, preferably produced in France and it is the same on television. This work should be done by specialists whose mother tongue is French. The way the subtitles are added to Chinese films is crucial as few French people understand the Chinese language.