Daily News
Seminar: Translating 'The Handmaid’s Tale' into Chinese on SBS - Wednesday 14 November
From: lindsay liu
Valid from: Wednesday 17 October 2018 to Wednesday 14 November 2018
In July 2017, SBS exclusively premiered the critically-acclaimed The Handmaid’s Tale in Australia. This intriguing dystopian drama series attracted a record number of viewers.
To enable even more viewers to enjoy the series, SBS decided to subtitle it in Chinese. This is the first time that SBS has subtitled an acquired English-language program in LOTE. The project was carried out in a unique partnership with Western Sydney University, which offers a comprehensive course in audio-visual translation. Dr Jing Han, the author of the initiative who led the project, will speak about the cultural and linguistic challenges encountered in subtitling this highly nuanced and complex drama into Chinese, challenges that are particularly revealed in the series’ range of language characteristics, including colloquial and crude expressions.
The fact that Chinese communities in Australia are very diverse (because some Chinese-speaking people come from mainland China, while others come from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Fuji, etc) also poses a special challenge to the translation. Dr Han also subtitled the second season of The Handmaid’s Tale, which premiered on SBS in April 2018.
By the way, do you know what the most difficult English word to be translated into Chinese is? Dr Han will reveal the answer at the seminar.
Date: Wednesday 14 November
Time: 2.00 - 3.00pm
Venue: EA.G.03, Australia-China Institute for Arts and Culture, Parramatta South
For more information and to RSVP: https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/aciac/handmaids_tale