Countering political enchantments in digital China: With reference to the fan-remix Meeting Sheldon

Despite growing scholarly interest in fan audiovisual translation, how fan translators exploit fictional content for online protests of real-world issues has not been thoroughly explored in the literature. This article examines the fan-driven metamorphosis of the US sitcom The Big Bang Theory in the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inTranslation studies Vol. 16; no. 1; pp. 17 - 32
Main Author Wang, Dingkun
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Routledge 02.01.2023
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Audiovisual translation
Digital China
fan activism
Fans (Aficionados)
Fiction
imaginary futures
Mandarin
political enchantment
remix
Subtitles & subtitling
TBBT
Television programs
Translational fandom
Translators
China
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Summary:Despite growing scholarly interest in fan audiovisual translation, how fan translators exploit fictional content for online protests of real-world issues has not been thoroughly explored in the literature. This article examines the fan-driven metamorphosis of the US sitcom The Big Bang Theory in the Chinese online space, focusing on the fan-remix "Meeting Sheldon", produced by the China-based fandubbing group Y Show Club amidst online protests against the original show's official ban in China. Y Show Club paired audiovisual clips from the original series with newly dubbed tracks and subtitles in Mandarin and English. In doing so, they combined new content and the original sitcom characters at the intersection between fiction and reality to reimagine the present and future within the state apparatus of political enchantments.
ISSN:1478-1700
1751-2921
DOI:10.1080/14781700.2022.2067221