Abstract: With the blooming cultural exchange between china and the rest of the world, a growing number of Chinese movies are heading to appear on the international stage. The translation of the movie titles has a vital role to play in attracting the western audience and striving for the box-office returns. The Chinese to English movie title translation has formed its own characteristics which are worthy of researching and investigation.

Key words: characteristics; title translation; English and Chinese movie titles

中图分类号：K31 ..  文献标识码：A

1. Introduction

Mr. Wen Yiduo (a famed Chinese poet and scholar), while talking about the poetical meter, expresses: the greater resolution a writer has, the better he can dance delightedly with fetters around the feet. Those who can not dance will blame the fetters when dancing. Movie title translation can be compared to dancing with fetters around the feet. The title plays a vital role in introducing a movie to the audience as the first impression counts. A properly translated movie title should be concise, condensed and most importantly, audience-friendly. It requires that the translation should grip the attention of the audience at their first sight and stimulate their association with the plot, reveal the theme or offer some clue. Therefore, it is never an easy job to “dance” gracefully with these “fetters” around the feet. The English translation of Chinese movie title deserves a profound knowledge of both cultural backgrounds and flexible translating skills. However, Chinese to English title translation has its own characteristics.

This paper will present the features of Chinese to English movie title translations with abundant examples, and then analyses the current situation of it. The last part of this paper comes to the conclusion.

2. Characteristics of Chinese to English movie title translation

2.1 Simple and direct

The title translation of a Chinese movie is usually simple and direct. In most cases, it reveals the theme of the movie with a concise but informative title. Audience could get the main idea of a Chinese movie merely by the English title. For example, 《三枪拍案惊奇》 is translated into A simple noodle story . The original name creates a sense of suspense in order to arouse the audience’s interest while the English version tells directly the theme of the movie. This situation is quite different with the original Chinese title.

The Chinese culture background has bred a unique culture of movie title. A deep cultural foundation is reflected in the Chinese movie titles. Firstly, in terms of the choice of words, Chinese movie titles tend to use flowery language which could bring a sense of beauty. Secondly, it usually employs a lot of rhetorical devices like antithesis. For example, 《非诚勿扰》( If you are the one). In order to achieve the beauty of balance, Chinese movie titles prefer "Four - character Structure", like 《十月围城 》( Bodyguards and Assassins) and 《花样年华》 ( In the Mood of Love). The most striking feature is that the Chinese movie titles are reserved. Audience would not catch an idea of the plot or content of a movie directly by judging the title.  

2.2 seeking cultural equivalence

In the process of translating Chinese movie titles into English, the translators have been making effort to achieve the cultural equivalence. Nida says:" Translation consists in the reproduction in the receptor language of the message of the source language in such a way that the original receptors of the source language understand the original message."(刘宓庆，2003：41) Chinese movie titles are commonly rich in cultural implications. A successful title translation which bridges the Chinese and English cultural can make a great contribution in introducing the Chinese movie to the foreign audience. However, based on a profound culture, Chinese movie titles usually employ idioms or literary quotations which are not easy to find a perfect equivalence in English culture. Take 《满城尽带黄金甲》(Curse of the golden flower)for an example. The plot concerns the volatile balance of power between the King and the Queen and his three sons, which entails betrayal, deceit and passion, pitting the King against Queen and father against sons. The Chinese title of the movie is taken from the last line of a Tang dynasty poem attributed to the rebel leader Huang Chao, "On the Chrysanthemum, after failing the Imperial Examination" (不第后赋菊) or simply "Chrysanthemum":

“ When autumn comes on Double Ninth Festival, / my flower [the chrysanthemum] will bloom and all others perish. / When the sky-reaching fragrance [of the chrysanthemum] permeates Chang'an, / the whole city will be clothed in golden armour.[3] ”

“ （Original Chinese text: 待到秋来九月八，我花开后百花杀。冲天香阵透长安，满城尽带黄金甲。） ”

In this movie, the golden flower—chrysanthemum stand for the queen and her song’s army. “Curse of the golden flower” matches perfectly with the original Chinese title: golden flower is the queen’s favorite and represents the queen and her rebel troops; curse means something causes misery or death or an evil spell which reveals the betrayal and deceit in this movie.

   Another example is 《大腕》 whose English version is Big Shot's Funeral. “Big shot” means a person who has an important or powerful position in a group or organization (definition from http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define). It is the cultural equivalence of 《大腕》. However, it is not always easy to find exact English cultural word or phrase which matches the Chinese title. Therefore, it demands the translator a wide knowledge of both cultures to find a proper English version.

2.3 Diversification of translation methods

In Chinese to English movie title translation, diversified translation methods have been employed according to different situations: literal translation; free translation; transliteration and pinyin.

2.3.1 Literal translation

A literal translation, also know as word-to-word translation, follows closely the form of the source language. It is frequently used in translating movie titles. For instance, 《赤壁》 (Red Cliff), 《色，戒》 (Lust Caution),  《長江7號》 (CJ 7), 《如果·爱》（Perhaps, love）, 《手机》 （Cell phone）and so on. These English versions listed above are successful translations. They are close to the meaning and form to the original Chinese titles; some even bring the same sense of feeling to the audience. Take《色，戒》 (Lust, Caution) for an example, the English version mirrors the original title not only in the form but also in the mood. The movie depicts a group of Chinese university students who plot to assassinate a high-ranking special agent and recruiter of the puppet government using an attractive young woman to lure him into a trap. Lust and Caution are equivalence of “色” and “戒” in Chinese, the seemingly word-for-word translation expresses the original meaning masterly.

Nevertheless, literal translation is limited in Chinese to English movie title translations due to the cultural background and the various rhetoric devices the Chinese titles. For example, it is impossible to translate 《非诚勿扰》 word to word. Free translation is used here in stead of literal translation—If you are the one.  

2.3.2 Free translation

   When literal translation fail to provide with an appropriate and attractive English title for the Chinese movie, free translation is usually used. There are several basic principals in free translation, which is the title should reveal the theme of the movie or offer some clue to the audience and be attractive. For allusive Chinese movie titles like 《十月围城》(Bodyguards and Assassins), even the Chinese audience would not be able to catch an idea about the plot simply by judging the title. The plot of the movie is as follows: In 1905, Sun Yat-sen intends to come to Hong Kongto discuss his plans for revolution with fellow Tongmenghui members to overthrow the corrupt and crumbling Qing Dynasty. Empress Dowager Cixi sends a group of assassins to kill Sun. Revolutionary Chen arrives in Hong Kong a few days before Sun's arrival, to meet Li, a businessman who provides financial aid for the revolutionaries. As Sun's arrival day draws near, trouble begins brewing in Hong Kong as Chen Shaobai's acquaintances are murdered and Chen himself is kidnapped by the assassins during a raid. Li rallies a group of men, including rickshaw pullers, hawkers and a beggar, to serve as bodyguards for Sun when he arrives. Li's son is chosen to act as a decoy for Sun to divert the assassins away while Sun attends the meeting and leaves Hong Kong safely. According to the plot, the English title Bodyguards and Assassins successfully revealed the theme and arouse the interest of the audience. Other examples are like《非诚勿扰》 (If you are the one) which tells a story about a man finding for his “Miss right” through a serious of blind dates; 《女人不坏》（All about women）which tells a series of interwoven stories as it focuses on the lives of three women and their romantic relationships with the men that they encounter; 《梅兰芳》 (Forever Enthralled) which follows the life of Mei Lanfang, one of China's premiere opera performers. And “forever”, “Enthralled” reflects that Mei Lanfang command deep reverence among the Chinese people, this title conveys Chinese people’s respect to this great artist.

2.3.3 Transliteration

When neither literal translation nor free translation can fully express the meaning of a Chinese movie title or convey the unique characteristic of it, transliteration would be employed. Like 《功夫》 （Kungfu） and 《叶问》 （Ip Man）. Kungfu sounds the Chinese movie title 《功夫》 and has been well accepted by the world because of the wide-spread Chinese culture. Thus, the foreign audience would not be confused about the English version. In Cantonese, 《叶问》 is pronounced as ip man. Anyway, pinyin is not a commonly used translation method in shifting the Chinese movie title into English.

2.3.4 Pinyin

Pinyin is currently the most commonly used Romanization system for Standard Mandarin. It is the "phonetics" or "spelling sound" of Chinese language and has been accepted by the world. When names or places appear in the movie title, pinyin is usually adopted to translate them. Like 《花木兰》 (Mulan), which is based on the Chinese legend of Hua Mulan, a brave and filial girl who served in the army in her father’s name and later saved the whole country by defeating the cruel enemy. Another example is 《秋菊打官司》, translated as The story of Qiu ju. “Qiu ju” is the phonetics of “秋菊”, the name of the heroin. Although Chinese phonetic system pinyin has been increasingly accepted by the world, it is still easily to confuse the audience. For instance, if 《三枪》(short for 《三枪拍案惊奇》) is translated into San Qiang, nobody would get any clue of the theme of this movie.

3. Current situation

3.1 Lack of cultural equivalence

Sometimes it is quite difficult to find a cultural equivalence in English for the Chinese movie title, like 《打，打你个大西瓜》 (See through). This is an anti-war themed animated film. The film has deep meanings, yet is not lacking a sense of humor. The story is about two dominant forces (countries) in order to compete for land started a world war. Two flight fighters from both sides engaged in a dogfight in the air. By accident two flight fighter pilots both landed on a deserted island after their planes both were crashed. Once were sworn enemies, two men now became best friends on this island. The animated film expressed disgust of the war in a very humorous way. The title “打，打你个西瓜”（directly translated as “Hit, Hit the big watermelon”) is a colloquial expression which shows disgust toward war with a sense of humor. The definition for “see through” (from the http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp) is that “if you see through someone who is trying to deceive you, or if you see through someone's behavior, you realize what they are really like and what they are trying to do”. It dose not match the original Chinese title exactly, because it is really hard to find the cultural equivalence. For this reason, many Chinese movie titles were not properly translated like 《花样年华》 (In the mood of love), 《卧虎藏龙》 (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon). “Dragon” represents devil and monster in English culture while conveys good luck and symbolizes the authority in Chinese culture. What’s more, it is hard to find a culture equivalence for “dragon” which is acceptable for both Chinese and foreign audience. In this way, the foreign audience might misunderstand the movie.

3.2 Lost of the original beauty

As has mentioned before, the Chinese movie title has its own characteristics, namely the use of flowery language which could bring a sense of beauty like 《十月围城》; employing a lot of rhetorical devices like antithesis to make the title sounds harmoniously and musically like 《非诚勿扰》; being reserved like 《霸王别姬》（Farewell My Concubine）. Most of the English version are quite simple and direct which fail to keep the original taste. It is quite a pity in losing the unique flavor of a Chinese movie title. This situation also takes effect on the broadcast of the Chinese movie. In the long term this problem deserves a careful investigation and painstaking effort from the translator to promote the developing and broadcasting of Chinese movies.

4. Conclusion

The title of a film serves as a window which shoulders the responsibility of attracting visitor to enjoy a colorful “mini world”. The translation of a Chinese movie title also counts in introducing it to the foreign audience. A successful translation could grip the attention of the audience and help the movie open the foreign market. It also plays an important role in presenting the colorful Chinese culture to the world. However, it is not an easy job to offer a perfect translation due to a lot of reasons like the culture difference. Chinese to English movie title translation has a various futures while the current situation is not prosperous. There is still a long way to go to perfect it.