Identity Construction of AVT Professionals in the Age of Non-Professionalism: A Self-Reflective Case Study of CCTV-4 Program Subtitling

Wenhao YAO

University of Bristol

Abstract In the digital age, with the proliferation of non-professional audio-visual translation (AVT) and overwhelming academic attention being paid to such a phenomenon, it is crucial to examine in-depth the identity of AVT professionals in this context, in order to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the professionalism of such practitioners. As Self is the agency through which individuals experience themselves in relations to others (Elliot, 2001, p. 26), a professional translator’s Self is constructed in the process of translating, where Self-Other ethical relations are maintained through exchange between the individual translator and other agents/participants involved. Based on a self-reflective case study of the subtitling of Central China TV-Channel 4 (CCTV-4) programs, this paper explores how these agent Others are represented deontologically in such professional AVT profiles as a result of exchange for the construction of professional identity, mainly through critical discourse analysis (CDA) of selected translation transcripts, with reference to self-reflection, Chinese socio-cultural contexts, and other relevant supporting materials. This research concludes with a proposal of five principles for AVT professionals in pursuit of construction and maintenance of professionalism.

Keywords: Audiovisual translation, identity, professionalism, subtitling

1. Introduction

In this digital age, technology and globalization have greatly improved the efficiency of and increased the need for communication and information exchange, and thus have led to the boom in non-professional translation. These non-professional translators are receiving increasing attention in recent years and their practice becoming a distinctive phenomenon that has attracted substantial scholarly attention (e.g. Antonini, Cirillo, Rossato, & Torresi, 2017; Pérez-González & Susam-Saraeva, 2012). In audiovisual translation (AVT), such focused attention is being given to fansubbing (fan-subtitling) communities (e.g. Massidda, 2015; Orrego-Carmona, 2015). As Díaz-Cintas (2018, p. 133) points out, with a substantial body of scholarly work written on fansubbing, fansubs (fan-subtitles) are the ‘most traditional’ and bestknown type of subtitles found in cyberspace. In the Chinese context, the popular practice of fansubbers has already weakened the position of their professional counterparts, who are rendered asinvisibleagents in the online community in this digital age (Wang & Zhang, 2017, p. 312). In this light, the nonprofessionalism in AVT in this age has ‘overshadowed’ the professionalism—the identity of professional AVT practitioners. Against such a backdrop, it is significant to examine in-depth the identity of AVT professionals, for a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the professionalism of the practitioners in this trade. Especially in the Chinese context, where AVT is still an area that lacks attention and recognition in the research field of Translation Studies (Liu, Fan, & Wang, 2011, p. 106; Lu, 2013, pp. 71-72; Wang, 2017, p. 84), few pieces of research into AVT have examined the subject of professional practitioners themselves. In this paper, I venture to take a step towards a further understanding of the professionalism of AVT from a practitioner’s point of view, by exploring the mechanism of identity construction of AVT professionals.

2. Construction of self in professional translation

TheOxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionarygives a brief yet concrete definition of professional: a. a person who does a job that needs special training and a high level of education; b. a person who does a sport or other activity as a paid job rather than as a hobby. From these explanations of the concept of professional, it can be learned that firstly, a professional is especially involved in a certain field of work, with qualification required and recognized; secondly, a professional is performing professionally in exchange for compensation from Others involved in a work setting. A professional translator can be briefly defined as ‘a person who makes translation... ‘the source of his or her livelihood by engaging in and being worthy of the high standards of the profession’ (Snyder, 1994, p. 14). Even if the amateur practitioners sometimes work with a set code of conduct (Díaz-Cintas, 2006, p. 45), some requirements are not likely to be accepted widely and traditionally as ‘ethical’ or ‘moral.’ For example, in theA New Ethical Code for Digital Fansubbing(Animesuki, 2003), there is a rule stipulating that ‘perfection should not be considered a goal.’ Compared with amateurs ‘working for fun’ (self-amusement and entertainment), normally free of outside intervention, those translators ‘working for money’ construct and secure their professional identity or professionalism in a different system.

Identities, in general, are very much influenced by the professions practised (Runcieman, 2018, p. 5). Professional identity construction is the process of building professional Self. George Herbert Mead regards Self as the agency through which individuals experience themselves in relation to others (Elliot, 2001, p. 26). A Self has to be established on the basis of a negotiation and reconciliation process between the individual and his or her community, through a dialogue with the Others involved (Xie, 2005, pp. 12-13). As Pym (2012, p. 14) mentions, ‘...regardless of form, translation is exchanged for something, one way or another.’ Professional translating is exactly a process where the professional exchanges the decided translation with the agent Others in professional settings for the establishment, maintenance and promotion of professionalism. A case-by-case examination of the interaction between translator Self and agent Others in a particular professional setting helps cast light on the construction of Self in such professional translating practice.

Specifically, the moment a professional translator agrees to embark on a translation project, or more specifically, to make a certain decision on production of a certain translation profile, the translator agrees to enter a particular professional community with the pre-presence of other participants. These participants other than the translator Self are those who will influence the presentation of translation, thus making themselves doers or agents. Through translating, a process where the exchange between translator Self and participants Others takes place, the translator relates Self to Others and Others to Others. Through fair ‘transactions,’ the interpersonal ethical relations between Self and Others are established and maintained, as the exchange is the nature of interpersonal (ethical) relations (Wang, 2009, p. 21) and equal exchange is considered moral (Wang & Wang, 2014, p. 233). Professional Self is then recognized by participant Others and thus constructed and maintained. In this light, an investigation into the ethical relations in a certain professional translation setting and their influence on a professional translator’s decision-making helps identify the professionalSelf.

Chesterman (2001) gives a comprehensive map of various aspects of ethical considerations in translating, especially professional translating. The four basic models of translation ethics he reviews and summarizes are, namely, ethics of representation, ethics of communication, ethics of service, and norm-based ethics. The inferred human agentOthersinvolved in professional translating are the author, the reader, the client, and the peers. As discussed, in professional settings, translators have to work to meet certain expectation of these agents, via producing a translation with corresponding value to pay off the ‘ethical debt’ to agent Others so as to maintain the interpersonal relations with these Others for constructing and securing the professional identity. Besides, as can be gleaned from Chesterman’s proposed ethics of commitment, a professional translator also works to follow the translator’s own professional pursuit, ideology, beliefs concerning translation, or an ‘oath.’ In other words, the translator himself or herself also functions as an agent Other, whose gatekeeping role is also shown in the model of causality (Chesterman, 2002). George Herbert Mead distinguishes ‘Me’ and ‘I,’ as he regards ‘Me’ as the ‘socialized self’ and ‘I’ as the ‘unsocialized self,’ an assortment of personal desires, needs and dispositions (Elliot, 2001, p. 27). Translator Self is socialized and socializing, like ‘Me,’ while the ‘I’ of a translator serves as anOtherto interact with Self, participating in translating by posing the translator’s personal ambition as an ethical liability for the Self to shoulder and fulfil.

Since ethics is derived from and targets directly interpersonal/social (human) interaction and relations (Wang, 2009, pp. 101-102), studying the interaction between human agent Others and translator Self is a more straightforward and feasible way. A modified model of translator ethics based on Chesterman’s research is presented below, with the ‘I’ borrowed here to refer to ‘translator Other’ in the community. According to this model, a translator, especially when translating in a certain professional setting (a case-by-case professional community), produces a translation with corresponding value to exchange (implied by the double-headed arrows) with the agent Others in the interconnected community or network (implied by the arrows and loop) of interpersonal relations, for constructing professional identity and securing professionalism. In this model, with the pre-presence of the agent Others, translator Self is in the centre of this interrelated network, as the direct decision maker in translating, debtor to the agents involved, and interactive trader of translation. This is a model of translator ethics, viewing socially professional translating as ‘trans-relating’from a translator’s perspective. This model can be used to examine the interaction/transaction between translator Self and agent Others in a certain professional setting and thus the process and principle of construction of professional Selfin an all-around way.

Figure 1. A modified model of translator ethics

3. Case study: Subtitling CCTV-4 programs

Based on the model proposed, to explore the identity construction of professional AV translators, this paper conducts a case study of CCTV-4 program subtitling. As Babbie (2013, p. 338) points out, the chief purpose of a case study may be descriptive, seeking an idiographic understanding of the particular case under examination, while the explanatory insights yielded by the in-depth study of a particular case can form the basis for the development of more-general, nomothetic theories.

CCTV is short for Central China Television, the predominant state television broadcaster in the People’s Republic of China, with Channel 4 serving as the only international Chinese-language-based channel for promoting Chinese culture to the outside world. CCTV-4 was launched on October 1st, 1992 as a comprehensive channel offering a variety of Chinese-language-based programs, TV series, news, etc. Currently, it has three editions, CCTV-4 Asia, CCTV-4 Europe, and CCTV-4 America to broadcast daily programs across multiple continents, covering a majority of countries. Its target audiences are mainly Chinese people residing overseas and the compatriots from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan (as written on its official website: http://tv.cctv.com/cctv4asia/). Its diverse and well-welcomed programs includes ‘Homeland, Dreamland’ [远方的家], ‘Chinese Showbiz’ [中国文艺], ‘Chinese World’ [华人世界], ‘Happy Chinese’ [快乐汉语], ‘Journey of Civilization’ [文明之旅], ‘Memory Across the Strait’ [天涯共此时], ‘Exploring’ [探索发现], and ‘City on City’ [城市一对一]. While informing and entertaining the audience, its main aim is to strengthen the identification of the overseas Chinese with China and enhance understanding and acceptance of Chinese culture among the global audience (Li, 2007, p. 5; Qiao, 2007, p. 21).

The Chinese programs shown on CCTV-4 are normally presented with Chinese subtitles and also their corresponding English translations. As a professional practitioner performing such translation whose main responsibility is to translate the Chinese subtitle scripts into English for the programs, I have been working in this field for over seven years, translating over 300 episodes of various CCTV-4 programs as introduced above. It is from my first-hand professional experience in this field that I have gained my motivation and resources to reflect on this topic and conduct this study.

The synchronized bilingual subtitles of CCTV-4 programs, featuring a high level of strict professional translation standards, and involving a unique approach towards decision-making, play a significant role in the international circulation of such Chinese programs and the communication of Chinese culture. Studying the subtitling of CCTV-4 programs as a type of mainstream professional AVT practice in China is thus a constructive attempt to help understand the construction of the identity of professional AVT translators in the age of non-professionalism.

As discussed before, the identity construction of a professional translator is a result of exchange between translator Self and agent Others in a certain translation community where the translator Self represents the ‘value’ corresponding to the ethical ‘debt’ to the agent Others in the production of translation, in order to establish, maintain, and promote the professional identity. Therefore, in this study of professional identity construction in the case of CCTV-4 program subtitling, I will explore how the agent Others involved are representeddeontologicallyby professional translators in such professional AVT profiles as a result of the exchange. This paper aims to answer two questions:

1) What are the ethical ‘debts’ a professional translator has to pay off?

2) How can a translator perform to pay off the ethical debts for the construction of professional identity?

The main method adopted is critical discourse analysis (CDA) of selected translated subtitle transcripts of CCTV-4 programs. To examine the ethical ‘debts’ perceived by a professional translator Self in struggling to maintain the interpersonal ethical relations with the five participant Others (as shown in the proposed modified model of translator ethics), power relations involved are to be studied, and CDA is to help ‘account for the relationship between discourse and social power’ (van Dijk, 2008, p. 65). The interpretative and explanatory analysis of the translation scripts with a critical attitude is to uncover the struggle of the translator as a decision maker in the power relations. The analysis is made more valid by referring to self-reflection, Chinese social and cultural contexts, and other relevant supporting materials.

3.1 Translator self and author as other

The author is normally considered the most important participant Other for a translator Self to interact with for the purpose of identity construction. Without the author (creator of the ST), there would be no need for a translator, and thus no identity of the translator. Therefore, it is of crucial importance that a professional translator maintains his or her interpersonal relationships with the author so as to maintain his or her identity. Almost all the practice-based translation theorists (e.g. Dryden, Tytler, Nida, etc.) have mentioned many times the concept of ‘faithfulness’, which, in a narrow sense, refers to faithfulness to the author. In fact, since ST exists before TT, a translator Self is ‘in debt to’ the author (Other) and thus naturally feels obliged to exchange ‘equal’ (or ‘faithful’) translation for the maintenance of such an ethical relation.

Besides the ‘naturalness’ of such a ‘debt,’ in a professional AVT setting, the significance of the author is likely to be more pronounced than in an amateur AVT setting. This is often decided by the special nature of such AVT source texts. Take CCTV-4 program subtitling as an example. Since CCTV-4 serves as the official broadcasting channel of China, the ‘author’ of the CCTV-4 programs boasts greater power, with richer economic capital (state-funded, with more economic resources) and symbolic capital (as mainstream national media, with higher prestige and influence) (Bourdieu, 2001), thus naturally perceived by the translator Self as a dominant agent Other. In addition, the dominance of the author as perceived by translators is further strengthened by the use ofbilingual subtitlesin the CCTV-4 programs, with the translated subtitles eventually shown on the screen in pairs (in comparison) along with the corresponding ST in two parallel lines, which highlights the presence of the author of the ST. As a result, such professional practitioners normally feel more obliged to be ‘faithful’ to the ST, and tend to choose a ‘safer’ approach in following the ST strictly and closely under such conditions, so as to avoid possible failure to the author for the purpose of securing their professional identity.

For example, in the subtitling process of the ‘Homeland, Dreamland’ program, one of the most popular CCTV-4 programs about Chinese custom and culture, it is even explicitly stated in a contact email serving as an obligatory operation guidance for the translators that ‘Given that the translation is correct, a translator should try his or her best to make sure that the TT’s sentence structure is similar to that of the ST, use less liberal translation, and avoid using skills such as addition and deletion that can commonly be seen in translating.’ Besides, in many other contact emails, the translation project managers as contact persons also repeatedly reminded the translator of the importance of ‘no omission unless absolutely necessary,’ which further illustrates the significance of the author and the necessity of full representation of the author in the translation of subtitles in this case.

AVT involves multi-modal consideration; therefore, a full representation of the author entails being ‘faithful’ to the ST as well as to the accompanying audio and visual elements. To ensure that the translated subtitles ‘flow’ in concordance with the accompanying audio and visual elements when the video is played, translators normally just need to ensure that the TT closely follows the ST, since the ST itself normally is in harmony with the audio and visual elements involved. Especially in the case of bilingual subtitling (with the ST shown on the screen in pairs with corresponding TT) adopted by the CCTV-4 programs, this is a very effective way to help all textual, audio and visual elements constitute a concordant whole. An example of such a practice can be seen below in Example 1 (slashes to show the pauses/beats of speech), with the TT following the ST closely, not just in terms of meaning (semantically), but also in formal structure (rhythmically) and rhetorical effect (aesthetically). Following the ST closely does not simply mean literal translation. In fact, literal translation (featuring ‘semantic concordance,’ with the literal meaning fully delivered) is just one technique adopted here. More importantly, as the ST is AV-based, ‘formal/rhythmic concordance’ (seen from the same ‘direction’ and ‘velocity’ of textual development in the ST and the TT, with the structure and beats of narration preserved) should be achieved to ensure the full delivery of the media-based ST. Attention should also be paid to the realization of ‘aesthetic concordance’ (seen from the rendering of ‘富 fu’ and ‘路 lu’ into ‘rich’ and ‘road,’ with the rhyming feature in the ST paralleled in the TT through alliteration).

Example 1

拉米雷斯议员/告诉我们/

Congressperson Ramirez/tells us that/

中国的/一句俗语/“要想富/先修路”/

a saying/in China,/‘Build road/to become rich,’/

在菲律宾/同样适用/

can also be applied well/in the Philippines./

(an excerpt from an episode of CCTV-4‘Homeland, Dreamland’program)

Due to the difference in the form of the Chinese and English languages, it is often not very easy for a translator to closely follow the ST directly. For example, in the following example, the ST would normally be rendered in the case of general literary translation (in line with the Chinese ST’s logic) into English as ‘the significance of these 13 human tooth fossils to Hainan Island is that...’ However, if so, the TT would fail to follow the development of the ST and the accompanying audio and visual elements and thus fail the author. As a result, somegrammatical adjustmentsare made to ensure a ‘shadow-like’ representation of the ST, so that the translator pays off the perceived ethical ‘debt’ and maintains the ethical relation with the author for securing their professional identity.

Example 2

这13枚人牙化石

These 13 human tooth fossils

对于海南岛的意义就是

are significant to Hainan Island in that

在现存的考古资料发现

the existing archaeological materials show that

他们是海南岛最早的人类族群

they are the earliest human ethnic group there.

(an excerpt from an episode of CCTV-4‘Across China’program)

3.2 Translator self and reader as other

Since readers are both receivers (or end users) and critics, marking one end of communication, it is necessary for a professional translator to maintain and promote his or her ethical relation with readers so as to maintain and promote his or her professional identity. Readers may not be directly involved in translating, yet because they are the final receivers of translation, their criticism may make a professional at risk of losing his identity (professionalism). Therefore, being ‘considerate’ to readers (audience in the context of AVT) is an ethical liability a professional must shoulder.

In the professional AVT context, particularly in the case of bilingual subtitling (with source and target languages in pairs in two parallel lines), some audiences capable of understanding or even speaking the two languages may be constantly judging the translation while watching the programs, and their judgement does matter. Criticism from the audience threatens the construction of the translator’s professional identity, and disapproval from the audience can deconstruct the established professionalism of a translator. Taking the example of the program ‘Homeland, Dreamland’ again, it is clearly written multiple times in the contact emails from the project managers that some audiences abroad often wrote emails to the client (program administration), pointing out the errors or even mistakes in certain episodes, which led to a warning from the client. As a result, the project managers constantly remind the translator of the importance of conveying the message ‘sufficiently’ to the audience, and warn that otherwise, translators involved would face severe penalty (monetary) due to their failure caused by ‘insufficiency’ in performance.

Sufficient delivery of the message to the audience is the ethical ‘cost’ a professional has to pay in exchange for the recognition of the audience as participant in a bid to secure their professional identity. To achieve sufficiency in performance, a professional translator has to ensure that the audiences in the target culture appreciate the translation as much as those in the source culture appreciate the source text in the audio-visual-textual context. The key to message delivery is a deep understanding of the ST in the context, and the sense (real logic/intention to form meaning) of the ST. As well-known Chinese AVT practitioners and scholars Ma (2011, p. 237) and Han and Dong (2017, p. 60) point out, in professional AVT practice, an in-depth reading of the ST to find out the ‘true sense’ is most important to guarantee the quality/sufficiency of translation and effectiveness of communication.

Below is an excerpt of the lyrics of a song, which demonstrate how translators struggle to achieve such sufficiency in a professional setting. The resounding and magnificent accompanying music and singing performance on the screen remind the audience that this is a typical song about the Inner Mongolian people, their poetic life and their lofty beliefs. In such a context, rendering the message of the ST precisely requires an in-depth reading. Take the character ‘家 jia’ (the underlined word in the ST) as a focused example. Normally, this character is rendered in Chinese as ‘home;’ for example, ‘回家 hui jia’ means ‘go (back) home.’ In this song, this character is translated differently in two places into ‘hometown’ and ‘family’ respectively based on a deep probing of its senses in the context. The first ‘家jia’ follows the ‘sky, lake and prairie,’ and thus refers to the ‘physical’ home, the beautiful scenery and living environment, namely, the ‘hometown.’ The second ‘家 jia,’ on the other hand, follows the ‘steeds, sheep and wife,’ and thus refers to the ‘affectionate’ home, the ‘family’ (as steeds and sheep are also viewed as family members in the eyes of Mongolian people with a nomadic tradition). In the last two lines, the two ‘家jia’ characters, also repeated at different pitches in the singing, just correspond to the ‘hometown’ and ‘family’ mentioned before.

Example 3

蓝蓝的天空Blue sky,

清清的湖水clear lake

绿绿的草原and green prairie.

这是我的家This is my hometown.

奔驰的骏马Galloping steeds,

洁白的羊群white sheep

还有你姑娘and my fair lady.

这是我的家This is my family.

我爱你我的家I love you my hometown,

我的家我的天堂my family, my heaven.

(an excerpt from an episode of CCTV-4‘Chinese Showbiz’program)

Even if the sense of the ST has been conveyed, due to the differences between the Chinese and English languages, cultures, and audience’s backgrounds, it is sometimes difficult to deliver the message sufficiently by simply following the form of the ST. In such a case, creative manipulation at the minimum cost of altering the form is needed, otherwise the readers would be failed completely. Since paying off the ethical ‘debts’ to author and reader often leads the translator to two different orientations, as implied from Schleiermacher’s description of two different translation methods—moving reader to author or vice versa (Venuti, 2008, p. 15), a professional has to strike a balance, to maximize the ‘earning’ for securing their professional identity.

The following example concerns a conversation in a sketch performed during the 2013 CCTV New Year’s Gala and later included in an episode of the CCTV-4 ‘Chinese Showbiz’ program. This humorous conversation over the phone is between a boss of two male frauds and an undercover policewoman who pretends to be an old and silly cleaning lady working for the two frauds. When the boss calls to ask the ‘cleaning lady’ what the two men are doing, the two male frauds, having just been fooled by the ‘cleaning lady,’ are hugging sadly to comfort each other on the other side. The way the two men are hugging looks rather intimate. Then, she makes a joke of them with an ambiguous word ‘对象 dui xiang,’ which in Chinese can refer to either two people in love or to a certain target. If the three lines were rendered literally as ‘Well, what are they doing now/ They are loving each other/ They are looking for a target to defraud’ as in a normal case, the message (especially, the joke included) would not be delivered sufficiently to the readers, and the translator would fail the readers and disintegrate their seemingly-established professionalism. For the securing of professional identity, with a deep probing of the sense in the ST (for example, ‘hugging’ is related to ‘making out;’ ‘looking for someone to defraud’ is about ‘making others run out of money’), a manipulated translation is produced at the minimum cost of altering the form.

Example. 4

(BOSS) 对了 他们两个在干吗呢

Well, what are the two doing now?

(UNDERCOVER POLICEWOMAN) 他们 搞对象呢

They’re making out.

(UNDERCOVER POLICEWOMAN) 他们在找上当的对象呢

They’re making others run out of money.

(an excerpt from an episode of CCTV-4‘Chinese Showbiz’program)

3.3 Translator self and client as other

One of the most outstanding features of professional translators is that they work to serve clients (translating for money), while non-professional translators normally serve themselves (translating for fun). Clients sponsor professional translation projects. They offer symbolic and economic capital to professionals as the main conditions in exchange for translations. Besides, since such an offer is made or promised before the translating starts, the client as a participant Other, like a buyer paying first before transaction/exchange, is significant to the decision making of a professional in that the translator’s moral Self naturally feels in debt to the client in the same way he or she feels in debt to the author as discussed before. Maintaining ethical relations with the client is crucial for a professional to maintain his or her professionalism, and the most significant consideration of a professional translator in paying off the ethical ‘debt’ to the client is the client’s ideological concerns.

Technically, in AVT, audio and visual elements and translation (language elements) function in a system of rhythmic (form), semantic (meaning), and aesthetic (effect) concordance as discussed above. However, AVT involves more than mere linguistic consideration, particularly because of the complexity of media in communication. Still, take the CCTV-4 program subtitling as an example. Such TV programs, as a carrier of AV information, work quite differently in that they serve mainly as the tongue of the government, the publicity tool of cultural and ideological progress, thus making ‘ideological concordance’ another consideration in the subtitling of such TV programs.

In the subtitling of CCTV-4’s ‘Homeland, Dreamland’ program, it is also explicitly mentioned in the contact email as operational guidance that ‘the translators shall prioritize and safeguard the national interest in translating,’ which is highlighted at the very beginning and termed as ‘the most important requirement of the program.’ In fact, this mission has been carried out in the subtitling of all other CCTV-4 programs as long as such concerns have existed. For example, in the following excerpt, the word ‘real’ in ‘real revolutionists’ is used not just for semantic, rhythmic, and aesthetic effect in this couplet, but also intentionally carries a tone of praise for certain great Chinese revolutionists in those days of darkness and hardship, which is in concordance with the ideology of the client. In fact, when I translated this couplet, at first I found it hard to render the rhythm of the text contained in the horizontal scroll, since the fourcharacter line ‘革命者来 ge ming zhe lai’ (four-character expressions normally considered rhythmic in Chinese, sounding well-organized and forceful) was simple in content. Then, my effort to achieve ideological concordance helped me come up with the word ‘real’ to achieve the expected aesthetic/rhetorical effect (with ‘real’ and ‘revolutionist’ alliterating) as well.

Example 5

最引人注目的

The most attractive

是彩门上的一副对联

was a couplet on the decorated gateway,

“升官发财请往他处，

‘Here is not for those seeking after status and silver.

贪生畏死勿入斯门”，

Here is not for those daunted by death and doom.’

横批为“革命者来”。

The horizontal scroll read ‘Here is for real revolutionists.’

(an excerpt from an episode of CCTV-4‘Exploring’program)

Another example is shown below. The words ‘南沙’ [Nansha Islands], ‘中沙’ [Zhongsha Islands], and ‘西沙’ [Xisha Islands] in the Chinese ST have been translated into English as ‘Spratly Islands’, ‘Macclesfield Bank’, and ‘Paracel Islands’ respectively, according to online resources (e.g. on Wikipedia English website). It might seem quite natural to follow these established native English expressions, but use of these Westernized English terms could imply a threat to China’s national territorial security as they carry implication of Western colonization of these territories. As a result, following such established English translations would lead to the translator’s failure to uphold their ethical relations with the client and thus endanger the professionalism of the translator. With reference to the translations on the website of the Xinhua News Agency (the officially-run press agency of the People’s Republic of China), the Chinese ‘pinyin’ versions are selected here for the sake of achieving ideological concordance and maintaining professionalism.

Example 6

（2012年）6月21号

On June 21, 2012,

国务院已经批准了撤销南沙

the State Council approved of dismissing

中沙和西沙群岛办事处

the offices in Nansha Islands, Zhongsha Islands and Xisha Islands

建立地级三沙市

and establishing Sansha as a prefecture-level city.

(an excerpt from an episode of CCTV-4‘Across China’program)

3.4 The translator and peers as others

To translators, peers represent norms, as their practices constitute a favoured mode of behaviour within the heterogeneous group of translators who constitute a large (professional) community. Norms are equipped with binding force (Toury, 1995, p. 54) to influence translators’ decision making. Like readers, peers exert an ethical burden on a translator in the form of potential criticism against a translator’s professional identity and even rejection of the translator’s ‘membership’ in the large professional community. To be recognized by peers as one member of the professional community, and to gain and maintain his or her professional identity, a professional translator tends to follow the ‘safe’ path of his or her ‘predecessors’ in a bid to maintain their ethical relations with peers, as the translator is expected by other ‘members’ to maintain a sort of consistency in the large professional community.

Take the subtitling of the CCTV-4 “Homeland, Dreamland” program as an example. As each series of this program normally consists of tens of or even over 100 episodes, normally different translators are assigned to translate different episodes. To ensure the consistency of the translation styles and features, there are a series of ‘set’ expressions summarized for translators to follow. For instance, it is ruled that in translating ‘摄制组 she zhi zu’ (literally meaning ‘camera crew’), the translators can only use ‘film crew,’ not ‘movie crew,’ ‘crew,’ or ‘camera crew,’ etc.; and to translate ‘记者 ji zhe’ (literally and precisely meaning ‘outdoor journalist’), the translators can only use ‘our reporter,’ instead of expressions such as ‘journalist’ or ‘reporter’. This is done for the sake of maintaining consistency in translating different episodes of the same series and among the different translators as a whole professional community serving the program. Gradually, these simple words have almost become ‘terms’, with a binding force to which translators feel obliged to respond. Below are two excerpts of subtitling from two episodes of the ‘Homeland, Dreamland’ program produced in 2013 and 2017 respectively to show such consistency.

Example 7

我们《远方的家》《百山百川行》摄制组

Our film crew of ‘Mountains and Rivers’ of ‘Homeland, Dreamland’

前往珠江源头第一大湖 抚仙湖

is heading for the Fuxian Lake, the largest lake near the headwaters of the Pearl River.

(an excerpt from an episode of CCTV-4‘Homeland, Dreamland’program in 2013)

Example 8

《远方的家》《一带一路》摄制组

Our film crew of ‘Belt and Road’ of ‘Homeland, Dreamland’

继续在比利时布鲁塞尔的行程

continues our journey in Brussels of Belgium.

(an excerpt from an episode of CCTV-4‘Homeland, Dreamland’program in 2017)

However, since a translator in practice is also a contributor to the norms. The ethical ‘debt’ to peers will change with the change in the power relations between the translator and the peers. For example, when a professional translator is more experienced (equipped with more knowledge, experience or cultural capital and thus more powerful), he or she may start to judge and even challenge the ‘peers’. Instead of following the ‘norms’, a translator may venture to make improvement on his or her predecessor’s version, or even translate creatively when there is simply no existing version to refer to or follow, thus contributing to the evolution of norms.

The following example is from a Chinese crosstalk included in an episode of CCTV-4 ‘Chinese Showbiz.’ In the preliminarily-edited video sent from the PM to the translator, I noticed that this part of crosstalk had been selected, translated, and played before in another episode of the program, as the crosstalk together with its previous version of translated subtitles was shown in a picture-in-picture mode in this new episode. The previous version read line by line ‘As a young man weighing more than 120 jin/ including flesh and bones,/ I was just enough to be the lunch for the tiger.’ It seemed obligatory and even energy-saving to follow directly this version done by predecessors/peers, but with a careful examination there was still some room to make improvement. First, it was very easy for a translator to convert ‘jin’ (Chinese unit of weight, with two jin equaling one kilogram) into ‘kilogram,’ making it more readable. Second, the given version failed to follow closely the structure/logic of the ST, in that the cross-talker did not refer to himself directly (namely, the ‘I’ in the line ‘I was just enough to be the lunch for the tiger’), but made a general description to let the audience associate this man with himself, and also it seemed more logical and precise to say ‘120 jin/60kg of flesh and blood’ than ‘120 jin, including flesh and blood.’ In the end, I re-rendered the translation of this part for this new episode, trying to make it fit better the audiovisual-textual context.

Example 9

大小伙子一百二十多斤

A young man made of over 60 kg of

连骨头带肉

bones and flesh

正好老虎一顿中午饭啊

was exactly what the tiger needed for lunch.

(an excerpt of an episode of CCTV-4‘Chinese Showbiz’program)

In the following example, the Chinese phrase ‘瞎掰’ is normally translated as ‘talk nonsense’ in the Chinese-English dictionary (serving as an established norm for translators in general to follow, including the AV translators in the large professional community), but such a version is obviously not in line with the accompanying audio-visual information (on the screen is a delicate wooden pillow capable of being transformed into a stool or pillow-like thing). Then, a new version is created based on the specific audiovisual-textual context.

Example 10

它叫鲁班枕

It is called ‘Luban Pillow,’

又叫 瞎掰

also called ‘trick stool.’

(an excerpt of an episode of CCTV-4‘Exploring’program)

3.5 The translator self and the translator as other

The Translator is also a powerful participant in translating/decision making in that the translator’s own ideology, knowledge, or beliefs can act as a filter manipulating the translation process, during which the translator is always having ‘intimate’ conversation with himself or herself, a dialogue between translator Self (the decision-maker) and translator as an Other (representing personal translation belief). To construct a complete Self, a translator has to be recognized by the translator himself or herself in the form of manipulating the translation based on the translator’s own beliefs, which also serves as a form of exchange for maintaining the Self-Other ethical relationship. Otherwise, a translator may feel ‘depressed’ that he or she (as Self) has ‘failed’ himself or herself (as Other) if the translation is against his or her beliefs (Chang, 2012; also based on my personal practical experience); and such potential ‘depression’ constitutes the ethical burden in this relationship. Therefore, if a translator is a professional (Self), his or her belief must feature professionalism; in other words, a professional translator Self entails a professional translator Other. As discussed, the identity of the professional Other is a manipulator in translating. Cross-culturally, the professional Other is a mediator between cultures in translating and negotiating with different parties involved. As Pym (2012, p. 134) points out, ‘cooperation is the ultimate goal of the negotiations, dialogue and involvement.’ It is ‘the degree of cooperation facilitated’ that marks the functional value of a (professional) translation. In this light, a professional Other should be a cross-cultural mediator who strives to facilitate cooperation. This is the true spirit of professionalism in translation. In constructing the professional Self, in maintaining the ethical relation with the translator Other, the translator Self thus serves accordingly as a manipulator and a cross-cultural mediator who strives to facilitate cooperation.

Etymologically, the word ‘translate’ (‘trans-’ meaning ‘across’; ‘-late’ meaning ‘to carry’) implies ‘a transportation of meaning, a physical displacement’ (Bermann & Wood, 2005, p. 5). The translator deals with differences. Going beyond differences requires compromise. Simply foreignized or domesticated translations (Venuti, 2008, p. 15) are cross-culturally biased in that only one party involved is likely to be favoured and thus not in favour of reaching a compromise. A middle way seems more constructive in this age of globalization. Especially, ‘middle way’ is a preferred philosophy (belief) to guide translation between Chinese and English, two greatly different languages (Cai, 2011, p. 4). For example, in introducing outward Chinese culture, Chinese professional translators often strike a balance between domestication and foreignization, aiming to ensure successful delivery of the message and demonstrate their ‘confidence in Chinese culture’ (which is also currently a popular ideological movement in China) in the translated English. In the case of CCTV-4 program subtitling, often seen on the screen are subtitles as shown in the two examples below, with a balance between domestication and foreignization achieved.

In the Example 11, ‘水巷口 shui xiang kou’ could be translated literally and meaningfully as ‘water lane entrance’ in the first line, and if so, the ‘water lane entrance’ would naturally resonate with ‘Venice water town’ in the third line and there would be no need to add notes in the second and fourth lines, either. However, this would potentially erase the ‘foreignness’ of this Chinese scenic spot, and as such a domesticating translation would be unable to remind the audience that this is a Chinese spot named in Chinese (‘水巷口 SHUI xiang kou’ [water lane entrance]), a Chinese culture-loaded word which is related to a western spot with a similar translated Chinese name (‘威尼斯水城 wei ni si SHUI cheng’ [Venice water town]). Then, as shown in Example 11, by adding the notes ‘shui’ (Chinese pinyin) after ‘water’ in the second line and ‘water lane entrance’ after ‘Shuixiangkou’ (Chinese pinyin) in the fourth line, the connection between the two spots are established through both English and Chinese. This can be a middle way to ensure the message is clearly expressed in English translation with the ‘foreignness’ of original Chinese culture preserved. The translator thus achieves a cooperative mediation between two languages/cultures involved in the subtitling.

A similar situation and solution can be found in the Example 12. ‘拉菲克 la fei ke’ in Chinese is in fact a transliteration of ‘rafiki’ in Swahili, meaning ‘friend’ in English. It is later explained by the crosstalkers in this video that this word was often used by people in Africa to refer to the Chinese helping them build the TAZARA Railway. In this light, this transliterated Chinese term seems awkward yet in fact carries the special friendship between China and Africa and a unique cultural implication. Besides, in the video, the word ‘拉菲克 la fei ke’ is used by the cross-talkers in the video as a bizarre Chinese term to confuse the audience and arouse their curiosity for a humorous effect. Therefore, the Chinese features and cultural implications behind this term are expected to be preserved in the English translation. A middle way to preserve such ‘foreignness’ can be achieved by preserving the Chinese pinyin ‘La Fei Ke’ in both first and second lines while adding a note to refer to its original word ‘rafiki’ in the first line followed by an English explanation (‘friend’) in the second line. In such a case, a cooperative mediation is achieved among three languages/cultures involved.

Example 11

水巷口就是这条街的名字

‘Shuixiangkou’ is the name of this street.

因为它原来是有水的

Because it used to have water (shui).

这个地方是有一点威尼斯水城一样

This place is kind of like the Venice water town.

所以水巷口 你看

So it’s called Shuixiangkou (water lane entrance). Look.

(an excerpt from an episode of CCTV-4‘Homeland, Dreamland’program)

Example 12

拉菲克什么意思

What does ‘La Fei Ke’ (Rafiki) mean?

拉菲克是朋友

‘La Fei Ke’ means friend.

(an excerpt from an episode of CCTV-4‘Chinese Showbiz’program)

4. Concluding remarks

Through an in-depth case study of subtitle translation of CCTV-4 programs, this paper has discussed from the perspective of translatorial ethics what and how ethical ‘debts’ are paid off by professional translators in such a context in a bid to be who they are. This paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of these ‘invisible’ professional translators in China and of the professionalism in AVT in this age of nonprofessionalism. While more and more attention is being given to increasingly popular non-professional practice in AVT, more in-depth research into professional practice in this trade is also needed to reveal more of the specialism and complexity involved in the practice of translation in such a demanding field; and through further comparison and contrast between professional and non-professional practice in AVT, more inclusive and comprehensive theories about AVT and translation in general can be generated.

The following five principles for conducting professional AVT in pursuit of construction and maintenance of professionalism are summarized based on the discussion above and on my personal practical experience, serving as a reference for relevant researchers and practitioners.

The principle of Shadow-like Translation. The form does matter in AVT where textual, audio, and visual elements function as a concordant whole. An effective way to achieve such ‘multi-modal concordance’ or ‘formal concordance’ is a ‘shadow-like’ representation of the ST, with the TT closely following the ST in terms of rhythm. ‘Semantic concordance’ and ‘aesthetic concordance’ between ST and TT are also to be realized accordingly for the full representation of the author.

The principle of Effective Translation. An in-depth reading of the ST to understand the sense or intention behind the superficial meaning is necessary for a sufficient delivery of the message to inform and entertain the end users effectively. If necessary, creative manipulation at the minimum cost of altering the form may be adopted in specific cases.

The principle of Loyal Translation. A professional is to be loyal to the client. Especially, the client’s ideological concerns should be taken seriously; and the client’s interests safeguarded through achieving ‘ideological concordance’ between ST and TT.

The principle of Normal Translation. Normally, a translator is supposed to contribute to the consistency in the large professional community while maintaining the ‘membership’ in this community by following proper norms. However, a professional should also be alerted and dare to break the encirclement of old norms if need be, for the translator, like other peers, is also a contributor to the norms after all.

The principle of Inclusive Translation. A professional translator is an unbiased global thinker and cross-cultural mediator to facilitate cooperation between different cultures, seeking common ground while reserving difference.

These principles respectively target the ethical relations between the translator Self and author, reader (audience), client, peers, and the translator as agent Others in professional AVT settings. These principles can be helpful for professional translators to keep in mind the complete composition of ethical liabilities/responsibilities of a professional and in guiding them towards professionalism. These ethical liabilities or ‘debts’ are like shackles, confining yet meanwhile defining professionalism. When carried out in practice, these principles may overlap or contradict inspecificcases, but professionals will manage to struggle and survive with a translation produced that maximizes the degree of maintenance of the Self-Other relations, based on thespecificpower relations perceived that determine the urgency or priority of the ethical ‘debts’ to different Others.

Specific details of construction of professional identity, therefore, may vary on a case-by-case basis and are worth further exploring in the future through more case studies of specific types of professional AVT between different languages and in different social-cultural contexts, for developing a more comprehensive and internationally-accepted understanding of the topic. The struggle towards professionalism, however, is always powered by such a core virtue as Chesterman (2001) points out in proposing his Hieronymic Oath:striving for excellence and perfection, the wanting to be a good (professional) translator.