On Subtitle Translation Of Empresses In The Palace From Functionalist Perspective

Based on functionalist translation theory, this thesis makes a study on subtitle translation of the Chinese court play Empresses in the Palace. The case is taken from the American translated version of the six episodes from the original version. By taking corpus analysis as the research method, the research tries to provide both the approaches to translation theory and applicable guidelines for its translation. The subtitle is analysed in terms of poem, idioms, and royal culture, among which special attention is given to some subtitle widely discussed by netizens from both home and abroad. Although Chinese audience is not very satisfied with the translation, the foreign audience speaks highly of the translation on official website of America. Therefore, the analysis of the subtitle translation of the episodes can shed light on public acceptance of translated Chinese films broadcasting abroad.The research findings include:Firstly, the foreign audience is satisfied with the translation in general, whilst the same is not true for the Chinese audience. However, both audience has reach common consensus and given positive assessment on part of the translation, for example, the translation of RiZi. Moreover, there is some translation which has arisen suspicion from the Chinese audience, i.e. whether some translated terms would be accepted by foreign audience, for instance, the translation of YiZhangHong. However, it has proved that the suspicion is unnecessary.Secondly, the translation fails to show a clear clue of character relations in this play. The foreign audience misunderstands the relations among the figures in spite of their satisfaction with the translation.Thirdly, the most criticizing part of the translation is title translation. Chinese audience is not satisfied with the title translation due to its failure in taking cultural and historical factors into consideration. The foreign audience could only figure out the rank of their status in this play but they can't recognize the real status of characters in history.Fourthly, the Chinese elements that exist in the poem, idioms and rites are almost translated word-for-word. As a result, the cultural meaning is lost and the connection between poem and characters is weakened. As we all know, Chinese audience is interested in these episodes not only for its reflection of luxurious and complicated life in palace but also for the poem read or spoke by the heroine Zhen Huan.The significance of the research lies in:first, this research focuses on the comments by both Chinese audience and foreign audience in order to make an analysis of translation based on a comprehensive linguistic corpus. Second, it gives the reason why the evaluation is so different from both parties. What is more, it also discovers the divergence in taste and preference between the two audiences and tries to break culture bottleneck in translation. This research is of both theoretical and practical significance for the corpus-based analysis and guidelines it makes for subtitle translation of Chinese films and TV series. Its findings can be applied to promote subtitle translation and its international publicity.