Features And Problems Of Crowdsourcing Subtitle Translations On Network Platforms

The increasing demand on translation and the rapid development of the Internet have given birth to crowdsourcing translation.In recent years,some Chinese television dramas translated by crowdsourcing volunteers on network platforms,such as Rakuten Viki,have become extremely popular among English-speaking audiences.After reviewing the previous researches on the characteristics of crowdsourcing translators and translator communities,this paper discusses the features and problems of crowdsourcing-translated subtitles with an aim to dig out the reasons why those Chinese TV dramas have gone viral.Taking the English subtitles of Nirvana in Fire 2 at viki.com as an example,the paper focuses on three features of crowdsourcing-translated subtitles: 1.adding translators' personal feelings,2.being audienceoriented,and 3.continuously being revised according to immediate feedback.Such kind of subtitles not only help audience easily understand plots and the feelings of characters in the drama,but also have constant interaction with the audience.However,translators involved in crowdsourcing translation vary in their translation competence,and there is a general lack of professional management in such translation communities,which result in all sorts of problems including mistranslation,grammar and spelling mistakes,inappropriate segmentation,and inconsistency.Such problems will inevitably undermine audiences' enjoyment during watching.Based on the analysis above,this paper provides suggestion on fixing the problems and proposes that the Chinese government can cooperate with civic platforms to translate and release TV dramas with a view to finding a new way for Chinese culture to “go global”.