Exploring the intersection of translation and music : an analysis of how foreign songs reach Chinese audiences
The thesis looks into the practice of song translation, which occupies a peripheral position in translation studies (TS) despite its commonplace occurrence and significant impact on the global spread of songs. Foreign songs enjoy enormous appeal in China, where different methods have been adopted to translate them with the aim of enhancing listenersâ full reception. In particular, the practice of writing Chinese lyrics anew and setting them to the foreign tunes regardless of the semantic relationship between the source text (ST) and the target text (TT) has proliferated over the past decades. Some translated songs capture the gist of the original lyrics omitting minor details whereas some sever their relations with the original. This blurs the boundaries between translation, adaptation and rewriting lyrics. Another noticeable phenomenon is the emergence of self-organising communities, whose involvement in translating song lyrics and circulating subtitled music videos (MVs) cannot be overlooked in todayâs digital landscape. Song translation can be understood as a field with its own ârules of the gameâ and exchange of different forms of capital following a Bourdieusian perspective. Adopting a case study
Xie, Lingli
song translation ; meaning ; amateur translation ; Bourdieu
Exploring the intersection of translation and music : an analysis of how foreign songs reach Chinese audiences. The thesis looks into the practice of song translation, which occupies a peripheral position in translation studies (TS) despite its commonplace occurrence and significant impact on the global spread of songs. Foreign songs enjoy enormous appeal in China, where different methods have been adopted to translate them with the aim of enhancing listenersâ full reception. In particular, the practice of writing Chinese lyrics anew and setting them to the foreign tunes regardless of the semantic relationship between the source text (ST) and the target text (TT) has proliferated over the past decades. Some translated songs capture the gist of the original lyrics omitting minor details whereas some sever their relations with the original. This blurs the boundaries between translation, adaptation and rewriting lyrics. Another noticeable phenomenon is the emergence of self-organising communities, whose involvement in translating song lyrics and circulating subtitled music videos (MVs) cannot be overlooked in todayâs digital landscape. Song translation can be understood as a field with its own ârules of the gameâ and exchange of different forms of capital following a Bourdieusian perspective. Adopting a case study
exploring intersection translation music analysis foreign song reach chinese audience look practice song translation occupy peripheral position translation_study despite commonplace occurrence significant_impact global spread song foreign song enjoy enormous appeal china different_method adopt translate aim enhance listener full reception particular practice write chinese lyric anew set foreign tune regardless semantic relationship source_text target_text proliferate translated song capture original lyric omit minor detail whereas sever relation original blur boundary translation adaptation rewrite lyric another noticeable phenomenon emergence self community whose involvement translate song lyric circulate music video overlook today digital landscape song translation understood field rule game exchange different_form capital follow bourdieusian perspective adopting case_study