With the ever-growing popularity of smart devices, comes all the content viewing demand. In this article, we take a look at how Chinese subtitles are significant for consumers as well as companies functioning in the field of online programming.

The larger narrative of China’s movie industry is one about introducing new technology, such as VCRs, and what have you talked about. Traditional television channels have been unable to cope with it, creating content that is now being translated by outside sources such as Chinese subtitling services – which has become a global trend.In recent years, there has been a shift in how Chinese audiences view the industry due to online streaming services like QQ TV and Sohu Video – a move not coincidently strong-armed by subtitles. Local governments started investing in these companies due to the fact that they need audience engagement and numbers more than ever before.

What is a Chinese subtitling service?

A Chinese subtitling service is a tool available to make sense of difficult content. It takes Japanese anime, Korean dramas, and even English-language voiceovers and gives them an intelligible script based on the nuances in the original audio. One distinguishing feature of Chinese subtitling is that not only are they designed to be accessible to a broader audience in China but also the rest of the world.

Why does it matter where I subtitle my shows?

Subtitling is a form of translation, and the internet allows for a worldwide audience to enjoy the subtitled content. Online video series help maintain cultural awareness and foster understanding through multiple languages. Subtitles can let people know what’s happening in the scene that viewers are not clearly hearing from the soundtrack.

How can a translation tool be used today?

Language barriers aren’t much of a problem in the world today, but it would still be impossible to create subtitles for every language. However, many organizations are now utilizing subtitles as powerful signals for distributing their website programming across global markets by engaging local businesses and users in customized marketing campaigns optimized for each targeted region. What makes Chinese subtitles so powerful? There are three key factors: the semiotic implications (e.g. those who speak Mandarin may think that a character’s facial expressions, gestures, and positions of their body convey more information than they actually do), repetition (the display of specific letters in a text has multiple meanings), and “social commentary.”

The impact of translations on the market

Spanish-speaking nations have more than 3 times more telenovelas and only about 1 times more movies produced. The growth in popularity of Chinese and Japanese translations has not just been fueled by technology-friendly countries, but by social influence like YouTube videos from leading influencers who have popular their own series.

Why is this market important to businesses?

The market for Chinese subtitles, partially driven by online entertainment, is quickly growing because of interest in Asian culture around the world. The relationship between Chinese subtitles, a global language translated and distributed digitally through the internet, and its Chinese counterpart is that they both require significant bandwidth to send with limited time frames to receive. Because of the relationship between Chinese subtitles and its effect on sales, businesses should keep track of this trend to identify ways to sell their products in China.

Conclusion

In this case study, we saw that a cognitive linguist was able to use the linguistic and social mechanisms of programming in the language of Chinese subtitles with various television series. So what? The implication of this study is that the market for content creators is no longer confined to traditional media channels like television, being distributed among many forms.

Taylor Gilbert is the admin and freelance writer at How About Tech since 2020. He primarily writes Tech articles, How-to guides and Entertainment as well.