A Study on the Subtitle Translation of Farewell My Concubine from the Perspective of Relevance Translation Theory

Abstract

The subtitle translation of film and television works has been an important topic in the field of translation research because of its great market demand and its significance in cultural communication. The subtitle translation strategy of Farewell My Concubine, a world-renowned Chinese movie, has been studied by scholars in China, but no one has yet explored the contextual effects, information relevance and audience information processing efforts of its subtitle translation in relation to Relevance Translation Theory. A translation achieves optimal relevance when it enables the viewer to discover the meaning intended by the lines without effort and the meaning conveyed is worth the effort of the audience to achieve the appropriate effect. Based on the English translations of film clips by the MTI students in the Class of 2022 of the School of Foreign Languages at Hubei University of Technology, this paper analyses how different English translation strategies affect information transmission, contextual presuppositions, readers' reactions, and the artistic effect of the film in the light of Relevance Translation Theory. Finally, the paper summarizes the students' translation problems and draws lessons from this practice, aiming to contribute to the progress of subtitle translation in China, especially for cultural and artistic films.