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Diary
♡ Under Aurora's Starlight ♡
Musings on donghua, beyond updates.
Musings on donghua, beyond updates.
One of the greatest challenges for anyone wanting to get into donghua is definitely the lack of proper subs. It was certainly worse a couple years ago, but the problem still persists both on lesser known titles and because the usual fan-subbers can only translate so much. It can be really frustrating for someone used to well subbed series - anime popularity :') - to try to understand either machine-translated subtitles or translations that completely miss cultural nuances. So they might not even want to give a try after the first episode - unfortunately it tends to be the case, when language bias is not an issue.
Conversely, there are fewer fan subbing groups, probably due to the increasing availability of official translations which, in many cases, hire these groups (most of the times for novels). While I appreciate official efforts to broaden their audience, these networks sometimes lack the passion and attention to detail that fan translators have. Translation notes are a must-have for more complex plots, as in the case of Jian Lai. So far, only Bilibili has shown a special care for overseas viewers.
Speaking of Jian Lai (it won't be the last time you read me writing it XD), it is densely packed with traditional motifs and high-level literary references. If not for the caring dedication of its "official" fan translator, one could only rely on very crappy mtl subs and not understand nearly 1% of the dialogues. Plus, some of these more elaborate shows don't even make an appearance on the international versions of the chinese networks simply because there would be no point - if subs have no quality, it's a waste of time for everyone; a shame, because many of these would attract new viewers for sure.
Same happens with humor, although it's a more sensitive subject since some contextual jokes are intimately related with the daily culture; t/n would only hint at a joke for international viewers to be aware of.
Either way, the more fan subbers out there, the greater will be donghua visibility and enjoyment. Just as it happened with anime, donghua is in its early international stages, and it's up for the small community which comes accross it to make it easier for newcomers! Maybe a collaboration with some language students or enthusiasts? Who knows! If anyone reading this is interested, feel free to reach out!