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Abstract
The dissertation is based on the analysis of thirty episodes of the American television
series Friends with the focus on the CSIs (Culture Specific Items) and how these
differences have been handled by Chinese translators who produced the subtitles for the
English-Chinese translation. The analysis was based on the assumption that Mainland
China‟s culture is different from the US culture so people in these two countries may
have problems in understanding CSIs if they are translated literally and if the subtitle
translation is not adapted to the target audience. Such adaptation is normally known as
localisation. The cultural differences that are ingrained in CSIs might have to be
handled with caution in the production of subtitles. The main objective of the
dissertation has been to analyse different translation choices which are currently used by
the translators in questions, dealing with CSIs where cultural differences between
mainland China and the US arise. The research discovered that repetition of CSIs is a
strategy which underperformed, failing to help the Chinese audience to comprehend the
cultural connotations associated with the CSIs. The paper has provided some
recommendations as to how the subtitle translation of such CSIs might be handled in
such a way that the audience will have a better understanding of the same.
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