AD in China at the crossroads: a set of guidelines for localising AD scripts from Spanish into Chinese

ABSTRACTIn light of the growing demand for audio description (AD) in China, both in quantitative and qualitative terms, coupled with the persistent shortage of qualified AD scriptwriters, this article advocates for AD translation from Spanish to Chinese, a type of indirect translation, as an alternative approach to addressing this issue, potentially benefiting from localisation techniques (Jankowska et al., 2017; Remael & Vercauteren, 2010). This article presents the development of a set of guidelines for localising AD scripts from Spanish into Chinese, resulting from triangulating a corpus study comparing Chinese and Spanish ADs, interviews with Chinese AD providers, a reception study with end-users, and participant observation through a field study. Additionally, it discusses three controversial elements related to AD scriptwriting, along with four norms that guide the script writers' decision-making process, which must be considered when localising AD scripts in Chinese. It concludes with a summary of the localisation guidelines.KEYWORDS: AD translationAD guidelineslocalisationindirect translationtriangulation AcknowledgementsThis article is part of the RAD project (PGC2018-096566-B-I00) funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades. Yuchen Liu is also a beneficiary of the scholarship FI co-funded by the Generalitat de Catalunya and the European Social Fund. We would like to thank all the participants in this study, the Department of Translation and Interpreting and East Asian Studies of the Autonomous University of Barcelona for its financial support and Roland Pearson for proofreading the first draft of this paper.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 The terminology used to describe translations of translations varies significantly. In this article, we have chosen to use the term indirect translation because it seems to be a comprehensive overarching term to encompass various hyponyms, such as compilative and second-hand translation (Rosa et al., Citation2017).2 The exact time for each study is not indicated in Table 1 because it has been a long way from their design and analysis to publication, resulting in lots of time overlapping. This study has been conducted within the context of a doctoral research aiming to test the feasibility of translating AD from Spanish into Chinese that has been extended over time.3 The whole study design was approved by our university’s Ethics Committee on 1 April 2020 (Reference Number: 5125) and March 1, 2021 (Reference Number: 5458).4 http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjsj/ndsj/shehui/2006/html/fu3.htm (consulted 6 February 2023)5 https://web.archive.org/web/20071209093707/http:/news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-12/12/content_3908887.htm (consulted 8 February 2023).6 https://www.ohchr.org/en/what-are-human-rights (consulted 8 February 2023).Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades [grant number PGC2018-096566-B-I00].Notes on contributorsYuchen LiuYuchen Liu is a PhD student in Translation and Intercultural Studies at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and a member of the research group GELEA2LT (2021SGR00722). She holds a B.A. in Spanish Philology from Jilin University (2018) and an M.A. in Translatology and Intercultural Studies from the UAB (2019). Her research interests include audiovisual translation and media accessibility. E-mail: yuchen.liu@uab.catHelena Casas-TostHelena Casas-Tost is a senior lecturer in the Department of Translation, Interpreting and East Asian Studies at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, where she teaches Chinese language and translation from Chinese. She is a member of the research groups TXICC and GELEA2LT. Her research interests include media accessibility, audiovisual translation, Chinese-Spanish translation, and teaching Chinese as a foreign language. For more details, visit: https://portalrecerca.uab.cat/en/persons/helena-casas-tost-7. E-mail: Helena.Casas@uab.catSara Rovira-EstevaSara Rovira-Esteva is a senior lecturer in the Department of Translation, Interpreting and East Asian Studies of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain), where she teaches Chinese language and linguistics and translation from Chinese. Her research topics include media accessibility, bibliometrics, Chinese-Spanish/Catalan translation, and teaching Chinese as a foreign language. She has published numerous books and articles in these areas. She is the main research of the research groups TXICC and GELEA2LT. For more details, visit: https://webs.uab.cat/sara-rovira/en/. E-mail: Sara.Rovira@uab.cat