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On Loss and Distortion of Cultural Image in Film Title Translation Abstract Based on the main concepts of the cultural image and research methods of the reception theory, this thesis is devoted to the analysis of the initiative role of the audience, and the basic instruction on the aesthetic standards of the film title translation, the paper suggests that the translator must take the aesthetic activity of the audience into account and select the proper translation measure which could well represent the cultural image of the original work. Besides, the paper clarifies the role and status of the translator and points out constrains of the reception theory. The final conclusion is that the correct cultural attitude of the translator is to promote for the purpose of exploring the proper strategies of film title translation. In addition, a lot of examples are cited here for the analysis and comparison of different translation approaches to the loss and distortion of cultural image, including literal translation, free translation, with the purpose of serving as a reference in practical translation.

Key words: Film title, Culture image, Reception theory

1.

Introduction As an audiovisual art, film is one of the most influential mass media, it follows and reflects people’s life. It is more direct and sensitive than any other forms of art to keep pace with times. Over the past decades, with the increase in culture exchanges, the western movies have gradually entered the Chinese market and held an important position in Chinese people’s recreational life, it is different in the way that combines the modern technology of film shooting and making with all kinds of art forms. Also it is special because film is an art form in the category of popular culture, or mass culture.

A good attractive title may draw people’s attention and finally guide them into cinemas. The film titles which contains profound moral play a very important role. The title is the brand trademark of the movie and condenses the pith of the story. The titles are always in the eye-catching position of the box office, so the importance and effect of film translation should not be ignored. However, nations differ from each other in terms of living habits and cultural traditions. The words which represent the unique thinking manner of a nation are called cultural-loaded words. They are also termed as cultural image which we have experienced from time to time in reading a story. As Marjorie Boulton says, “image is the soul of story,” thus it is reasonable to claim that cultural image is the soul of film title translation. In translating film title, the translator is not only expected to transform the word meanings from one language into another, but also to transcode the cultural image indicated in the source language. Since the translator assumes the same cultural background with his native audience, more often than not is the case that images abound in his work without explicit explanations. However, the communication between the translator and his audiences can still be achieved in spite of the absence of cultural explanations, or in other words, comments on cultural image default information. The faithful preservation of the word meaning is of course the basic translation requirement without question, but how to deal with the infinite loss and distortion of cultural image is a question worth discussion and careful consideration. So far, scholars have been generally divided into two groups over this issue. One group holds that cultural image is in a subordinate status in spite of the fact that it helps to make clear the real meaning of the film, so that it is reasonable for the translator to concentrate on the intention of the film, leaving the loss and distortion of cultural image aside. However, this view is also criticized for its inadequate study of cultural image because it tends to isolate image from culture without realizing that image is also one of the components of the original work. The other group proposes that translation is more than the simple rephrasing of original words and should entail the transference of culture as well. Translators should take the full responsibility of representing the concealed cultural information of the image to audiences of the translated text by honestly presenting the word meaning and

the cultural connotation at the same time. Here, the present writer favors the latter opinion. To preserve the essence in translating the film title, the key lies in how to well preserve the cultural image permeating in film title. In order to best crystallize the soul of film title translation, the hidden cultural information must be unveiled to the public. By means of analyzing the initiative role and the expectation horizon of the reader from the perspective of the reception theory, traditional film title translation aesthetic standards, this thesis is devoted to discussing the appropriate language competence and cultural attitude that a translator should possess. A lot of examples are cited here for the analysis and comparison of different translation approaches to the loss and distortion of cultural image, which can serve as a reference to assist the translator in forming his or her own cultural perspective and translation style. 2. History of Film Title Translation and Current Problems

“Originally, films were invented at the end of the 19th century by American famous inventor Thomas Alva Edison. At the beginning it was just used to record some important activities or events. At the beginning of the 20th century, movies soon began to emerge as an industry.” “After World War I, motion-picture production became a major American Industry. In post-World War II, many distinctive and original directors have emerged all over the world. Translation of foreign film has its history of over fifty years in China. Since the founding of PRC, a lot of films from India, former Soviet Union and some other socialist countries were imported and translated to fit the need of the masses.” Most of these films are about revolutionary war. Some become very famous for their translation and dubbing until now. In recent years, after the open-up and the policy of importing American films in film industry of our country, a large number of films from Hollywood and many other Western countries pour into our Chinese film market. These films are diverse in numerous aspects. They are classified as Western films, Science Fiction films, Romance films, Musical films and many other types. The first thing our film workers and translators should consider is how to translate the film title appropriately to reach audience and finally realize box-office value.

3. Loss and Distortion of Cultural Image

Film title translation is a greatly difficult problem in literary translation. Of the movie manufacture, the cultural image has the prominent superiority. National life or some consubstantiality, some kind of life style energetic essence thorough excavation; therefore, in the cultural significance, it is a communication bridge for national, times and community's mutual understanding.

A translator often tends to omit explanations of some cultural information which is self-evident to all of his intended audiences under the presupposition that they share the common cultural background with him, also with the misunderstanding of the cultural information and the influence of commercial profits, loss and distortion of culture image arises naturally, which is particularly obvious in recent film title translation. 4. Implications of the Reception Theory As discussed above, whether the film title can be appreciated by target audience involves many aspects of human life, such as, politics, economy, history, all of which are included in macroscopic context. So to attract the target audience is to adapt their context. In this chapter, the author introduces the definition and content of reception and makes a study of film title translation on this base.

4.1 Applications of Conceptions of the Reception Theory in Translation In the reception theory, literary works are defined quite differently from the traditional literary theories, which tend to equal a literary work with a literary text. According to the reception theory, a literary text is not an object that stands by itself, but a multi-faceted paradigm to be completed. Different readers may give different interpretations in different periods toward the same literary text. The realizations of a literary work can only be achieved when the blanks are filled and the meaning indeterminacy is defined through the reader’s perception and experience. Therefore, the concept of a literary work in the reception theory consists of two aspects: first, the indeterminate literary text; second, the concretization of indeterminacy in the reading

process. The combination of these two aspects makes an integrated literary work. As a popular art, film is tinged with a film of commercialization. When the film enters into target market, the first impression for audience is film title. Understanding film content is very important, according to the reception theory, it emphasis too much on the audience, and ignored the cultural communication. The reception theory used in translation, which is word-for–word translation, aims to produce a translation that retains the content and form of the original film title. In the actual process of film title translation, this method proves simple when the original title reflects almost exactly the content of the story. Therefore, the target name applied literal translation retains the obviously trace of foreign culture. There are many typical literal translation examples. For instance, Cold Mountain into 冷山, The God Father into教夫, The Kill Bill into 杀死比尔, Schindler’s List into 辛德勒名单,The Titanic into 泰坦尼克号, The Lion King into 狮子王, The Spider Man into蜘蛛侠etc. Handled in this way, the target name keeps the surface structure of the original name to a large extent and arouse the audiences’ imagination towards the film at first time. Nevertheless, when literal translation is applied in film title translation, the translator needs to pay careful attention to the wording of the translated name because the target language has different layers in terms of quality.

The existence of the loss and distortion of cultural image in film title translation indicates that translation is a cultural communication activity rather than a pure language transformation. The translator is supposed to be not only bilingually competent but also biculturally competent. If he is unable to identify the cultural-default information of the original text, his translation is bound to create the “vacuum of sense”. As a result, his intended audiences would be at a loss and fail to understand the translation coherently. As for a movie title, it is best left untranslated until the translator goes to the movie and fully understands the story. Only with a comprehensive understanding of the story, can he make a right and the best choice among many possible versions. But in many cases, the translator, probably without going to the movie before translating the title, has to come up with a version simply from the original English title and a synopsis of the movie. For instances:

Sample 1) Rain Man 雨人/手足情未了

The widely-used version is 雨人, which makes no sense to the Chinese audience, for in Chinese there is no such thing as 雨人.The movie is so named because one of our heroes in the movie, the older brother Raymond Babbitt, an autistic, always fails to pronounce his own name Raymond right, but makes a sound of Rain Man. His younger brother wants to abandon him but finally he realizes that they are brothers and they should love each other. The version手足情未了is more suitable to the story. Sample 2) Bad Company坏蛋公司∕最差搭档

The translation sounds not bad, but it is completely irrelevant to the story. It is about a man who has to “play” his twin brother, an agent having died in his unfinished mission. He makes a lot of troubles to his (his dead brother’s) partner but finally he finishes the mission and plays his twin brother perfectly. Another version 最差搭档or临时特工may be better for the story. The word “company” in the title means partner. 5. An Analysis and Comparison of Possible Approaches

Loss and distortion of cultural image is a common phenomenon in translation. Although no systematically theoretical research has been made on it so far, it is the practical barrier in literary translation. The followings are the approaches which are usually applied as resolutions of the problem. With the comparison of advantages and disadvantages of each method, the sections below are intended to propose some translation suggestions for translators as reference. 6.

Conclusion A successful film translation is dependent, to a large extent, on the presupposition and approval of the knowledge and experience of ones. Translation is a process of double communication: on the one hand, the translator communicates with the author as a audience, and his knowledge and experience of the target culture is supposed to achieve or approximate to the maximum extent the proficiency of the author’s ideal audience; on the other hand, the translator plays the role of writer and

communicates with his target audiences, and his presupposition of his target audiences’ knowledge and experience will directly determine his final choice of translation approach in practical communication. The tacit agreement established between the author and the audiences of the original text on the basis of cultural context, will become the communication barrier between the author, the translator and the audiences of the translated text depends on the translator’s competence in the above two aspects.

To sum up, to deal with the loss and distortion of cultural image in film title translation, the application of translation approach is not invariable, and there are no fixed rules for us to follow. In this thesis, analysis and discussion has been conducted from the perspectives of the reception theory, cultural communication and audiences’ expectation of aesthetic standards of film title, with the conclusion that: the translator is expected to adopt flexible method in the film title translation on the basis of faithful preservation and transmission of the cultural image; in other words, cultural communication should be granted supremacy and priority.

However, the principle of flexibility in selecting proper translation approach does not mean that we can do the translation work at our own will without any theoretical guidance. In fact, the translator has to work out the best translation strategy for the disposal of the loss and distortion of cultural image in film title translation by taking reception theory, and many other translation skills such as transliteration, literal translation free translation into consideration.

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