Bingchun Meng, Underdetermined
Globalization: Media Consumption via P2P Networks, 6 International Journal
of Communication 467 (2012), available at http://ijoc.org.
From the abstract: “This study analyzes the Chinese online
volunteer community of Zimuzu—Internet-based groups that translate foreign
media content into Chinese subtitles—to explore the cultural significance of
creative media consumption via P2P networks.”
There’s a bunch of great stuff in here, including the differences Meng
identifies between fansubbing and Zimuzu.
Because Chinese “formal media channels are heavily regulated but
copyright enforcement is rather lax, P2P file sharing opens up a third
communication space between the market and the state.” But it’s not independent of market or state
(as fansubs aren’t either, but in perhaps less salient ways), and so Meng
doesn’t characterize Zimuzu participants as fans. The process can be as fast as 6 hours from US broadcast. Zimuzu members on the US East Coast send the recorded closed caption along, allowing direct translation from a text file instead of requiring members to rely on the audio. Five or six members get 100-120 lines each, and copy editors then put together the different pieces to create a consistent, audience-friendly subtitle file. Talk about just-in-time production!
The commerciality/noncommerciality divide is salient and
contested in these groups as well:
Zimuzu members have different
views about involvement with commercial
activities. Some consider advertising and online retailing on their group
forums to be reasonable, as it brings in income needed to sustain Zimuzu
production and pay for server capacity to store digital content. “As long as we
are doing volunteer work, we can still call ourselves Zimuzu rather than a
translation company. We believe in sharing, we are running some advertisements
just so we can keep sharing our subtitles,” said LL, a long-term member of the
YYeTS group (personal communication, April 28, 2009). Some other groups, such
as TFL and YDY, are steadfastly against any form of collaboration with
commercial companies. A senior member of YDY said they were fortunate enough to
enjoy the ongoing sponsorship of a few founding members who either rented
servers or obtained idle server space for free through their personal
connections. Almost all of the YDY members interviewed were proud of being able
to “stay clean” from involvement in for-profit activities.
Zimuzu are more responsive to audience demands than official
networks. They will even publish lists
of upcoming shows and prioritize the ones that are in demand. Given the speed of the initial translation,
sometimes members will go back and compile a “collector’s edition” of popular
shows, revising the subtitles based on feedback. Translation is perhaps always political, but
very obviously so here; Desperate
Housewives was so heavily edited in the official version, including censorship
of gay characters, that it was a flop, whereas it was a very popular show among
file-sharers. And there are various ways to
translate for a Chinese audience:
. . . Although the Zimuzu community
perceives the state media as the common “other” from which it wants to distance
itself, translation styles within the community differ. There is a lot of time
devoted to discussing whether it is more important to be accurate or
colloquial, whether to stay faithful to the original text or adapt it for
China’s context. The choice of translation style is not just a technical issue;
it is related to inserting an individual voice when communicating to an
imagined audience. For example, several
participants referred to deliberate changes made to original scripts and explanations
added to subtitles in deference to the Chinese audience.
In some cases, Western cultural
references are replaced with Chinese ones. In the show White Collar, a character says, “You could pick them up for a few
dollars on eBay”, and in the Chinese version produced by YYeTS, “eBay” becomes
“Taobao,” the most popular online shopping site in China. The expression “I
swear to God” is often translated “I
swear to Chairman Mao” as an expression of sincerity and honesty used during
Maoist China. The names of foreign celebrities are often
replaced by contemporary Chinese counterparts.... [I]n
one episode of Criminal Minds, when a
homeless person cursed someone for writing in blood on a wall near a street
corner that he called “home,” a translator from 1000FR added to the original
script: “Son of a bitch . . . who wrote that on my wall?” a comment in parentheses (“You should be
grateful it’s not the word ‘demolish’”). This parenthetical line doubtless
struck a chord with Chinese audiences due to its reference to a huge social
problem brought about by urbanization. It is common in Chinese cities to see
red signs bearing the word demolish
on old buildings or temporary housing built by urban poor or migrant workers.
The municipal government orders these demolitions to allow it to seize the area
for profitable commercial developments. There have been quite a few high-profile confrontations with
residents refusing to leave their homes, leading to bloodshed and even
death.
But this isn’t an unconstrained translation environment; it depends on
the authorities’ continued lack of interest in enforcing foreign copyrights,
which will most likely be continued if it appears apolitical/bread and
circuses:
To avoid provoking the
censors, Zimuzu exert a degree of self-censorship. Sexually explicit content
and dialogue are often replaced, and the groups try to stay within the
boundaries of what they perceive to be political correctness by emphasizing the
apolitical entertainment nature of the content they translate.… [R]esistance is not equivalent to
subversion.
Thus, Meng concludes, Zimuzu promotes consumerism in a way
that doesn’t threaten the state or “construct new political subjects” in the
way that some theorists suggest is possible.
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