Translation in the Dubbed Films in “Seventeen Years” (1949-1966) from an Occidentalism Approach: Two Case Studies of Great Expectations and Salt of the Earth

Abstract

This paper focuses on dubbed films in the “Seventeen Years” (1949-1966) after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, during which period China imported and translated 18 films from the United Kingdom and the United States to construct unreal, hallucinating images of the Western world. Two case studies, namely Great Expectations and Salt of the Earth, are examined and the study finds that translation played a significant role in changing the plot, lines and narratives. Simultaneously, translation helped maintain the humanistic values and literary content in the films. Occidentalism is used as the framework to explore the role of translation and media production in molding the products of multicultural literature in different cultures. The study of the film industry in the “Seventeen Years”, especially the dubbed and subtitled films, requires a rethinking of the contents and functions. Dubbed and subtitled films from the West followed the Occidentalist discourse, like those imported from the Soviet bloc, and helped promote China’s cultural leadership and supported its social and political practices, but at the same time the translation helped retain the aesthetic and humanistic aspects of the original films and served as counter-Occidentalist discourse. The findings reveal that Occidentalist discourse in translation functions to strengthen the state ideology and translation also functions as counter-Occidentalist through retaining humanism and artistic features of the films.