Production and reception of Disney's Mulan through its Chinese subtitles

What is it about?

This paper examines Disney’s Mulan and its Chinese subtitles in view of shedding light on film production and translation as a globalized practice. A small-scale survey is also presented as an indicator of the reception of the film in China, which shows that personal factors such as gender, education level, command of English and chief place of residence influence not only the preference for a particular mode of screen translation but also the reception of the meanings conveyed by that mode, which inevitably determines the overall reaction to the film. Based on a brief analysis of the Chinese subtitles, the author argues that subtitling strategies are not necessarily source-oriented and viewers’ reception of subtitles is shaped by a variety of social variables.

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