Abstract

With the rapid development of economy and science, the intercultural exchange between China and western countries has become increasingly frequent in recent years. As an emerging medium, film is increasingly popular these days. Kung Fu Panda as an American action comedy with the theme of Chinese Kung Fu has gained great box office success and has also won the Oscar Academy Award in 2009.

    Not only has this film presented Chinese Kung Fu to the world, but it has also perfectly integrated the conventions and culture between east and west. There’s no doubt that it is of great value to the promotion of intercultural exchange. The author starts from a brief introduction to animation industry and subtitling and then goes on with an analysis of the cultural differences reflected in this film such as Kung Fu, Tai Chi Diagram, American Dream and individual heroism. There are also some analyses about some specific strategies applied in the translation of this film as well. This essay focus on some principles and strategies that are frequently applied in the translation of subtitles and some cultural differences reflected in Kung Fu Panda as well which serves as a reference for works of this type to come in the future.

 Key words: Kung Fu Panda; animation films; translation of subtitles; translation strategies

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1.-Introduction-1

2. Subtitle Translation of Animated Films and the Development of Animation in China-3

2.1General introduction to subtitling-3

2.1.1 Definition of subtitling-3

2.1.2Characteristics of subtitling-4

2.1.3 Constraints of Animated Subtitling-4

2.1.4Classification of subtitling-5

2.1.5 Function of subtitling-5

2.2-The development of animation in China-5

3.-A general introduction to Kung Fu Panda and cultural differences reflected in Kung Fu Panda-6

3.1Main Characters and Plot-6

3.2-Traditional Chinese elements and cultural differences reflected in Kung Fu Panda- 7

3.2.1Kung Fu-7

3.2.2Dragon-7

3.2.3-Tai Chi Diagram-8

3.3-American elements reflected in Kung Fu Panda-8

3.3.1-Individual Herorism-8

3.3.2-American Dream-8

4. Successful examples and strategies used in the translation of Kung Fu Panda -9

4.1 The translation of title-9

4.2 The translation of character names in Kung Fu Panda-9

4.3The use of network catchphrase in the translation of Kung Fu Panda-10

4.4 Frequent use of colloquialism in the Chinese version of Kung Fu Panda-11

4.5 Specific strategies used in translation of Kung Fu Panda-12

4.5.1Omission-12

4.5.2 Addition-12

5. Conclusion-13

5.1 Major findings of this thesis-13

5.2 Limitations of this thesis-13

6 Conclusion

References