Han Zhao

A Comparative Analysis of Subtitling Strategies: Culture Specific Items in the Series Friends Han Zhao

This book is based on the analysis of thirty episodes of the American television series Friends with the focus on the CSIs(Culture Specific Items) and how these differences have been handled by Chinese translators who produced the subtitles for the English-Chinese translation. The main objective of the book has been to analyse different translation choices which are currently used by the translator in questions, dealing with CSIs where cultural differences between Mainland China and the US arise. The research discovered the repetition of CSIs in a strategy which underperformed, failing to help the Chinese audience to comprehend the cultural connotations associated with the CSIs. The book has provided some recommendations as to how the subtitle translation of such CSIs might be handled in such a way that the audience will have a better understanding of the same.