A Study Of Subtitling Translation And Dubbing Translation Of Kung Fu Panda From The Perspective Of Gadamer’s Philosophical Hermeneutics

Hermeneutics, closely related to translation, is a kind of theory studying languages’ understanding and interpretation. It originated in the early nineteenth century, and developed from traditional hermeneutics to Philosophical Hermeneutics. Hans-Georg Gadamer is one of the most significant representatives of Philosophical Hermeneutics, his concepts of "the historicity of understanding", "fusion of horizon" as well as "effective history" challenge the traditional translation theories, and provide some new perspectives for translation study.Kung Fu Panda is one of the best known and best loved foreign animated films produced by the Dream Works Animation. It is a product of cultural exchange between China and west countries, and is rich in Chinese cultural elements. Since entering the Chinese film market, both its subtitling versions and dubbing versions have been popular among many Chinese audiences.From the perspective of Hermeneutics, this thesis makes a comparative study of two Chinese versions of Kung Fu Panda, which are respectively translated by Ragbear Subtitle Group and Shanghai Foreign Film Dubbing Studio. The two versions are very different, for one is produced by amateur translation team, and other is made by a professional team and their translation strategies and language styles are also different.Based on Gadamer’s three principles of historicity of understanding, fusion of horizon and effective history, this thesis makes a comparative study of the two Chinese versions, analyzing some translation phenomena and the differences of the two versions as well as studying the factors which result in those differences. After the analyses, the author has the following findings:Firstly, the principle of historicity of understanding can explain the phenomenon of misunderstanding and misinterpretation, which reasonably exists both in the subtitling translation and dubbing translation. Secondly, audiovisual works are influenced by various factors, such as cultural factors, translators’social backgrounds as well as their personal experiences. Different "fusion of horizons" and different constraints in translation as well as different needs of audiences lead to different strategies applied by the translators, which results in different language styles in their translations and can be found more remarkably in subtitling translation with foreignization as its major strategy.. Therefore, in order to provide high quality translation for audiovisual works, translators should enhance their bilingual ability and enrich their cultural knowledge. Moreover, in translation, translators should take both the audiences’ needs and economic benefits into consideration, in an endeavor to attract more people to watch the films.