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Vandamme are men or women.
My suggested HPTE would be:
“男主角就要和一个有胡须的女人亲热了” which can be translated back as: “The
main actor is gonna be making out with a moustache woman.” To achieve this HPTE,
the strategy of absolute universalisation was used. In whatever culture in the world, a
man would not go out with a moustachioed woman and it is not usual to see a woman
with a moustache. Using “a moustache woman” as an alternative to Gabe Kaplan (a
man who is famous for his moustache) can help the Chinese audience understand the
joke and also links in with previous lines.
6.2.3 References to American institutions
The term „institutions‟ has been used loosely to include personalities (e.g. Dick van
Dycke), shops (e.g. Sunglass Hut) or food (e.g. well-known American ice cream
flavours). What follows will be a selection of scenes containing such references and an
discussion of the translation strategies followed by the translators.
The first scene discussed here contains a reference to the American institution of
softball, as well as a reference to Bugs Bunny, a well-known cartoon character. In
Season 1, Episode 3, Scene 4, Ross, Rachel, Chandler and Joey have just finished a
softball game with Allan, Monica‟s boyfriend. Monica asked them for their opinion
about Allan. Apparently, they all think highly of Allan. Ross says: “He was unbelievable.
He was like that that that Bugs Bunny cartoon where Bugs is playing all the positions,
right, but instead of Bugs it was first base-Alan, second base-Alan, third base-…. The
Chinese subtitle reads: “他就象兔宝宝卡通里的兔宝宝守每个位置,虽然我们没有兔
宝宝,但是我们有一垒手亚伦,二垒手亚伦,三垒手亚伦…” Here, the translator used
repetition as the translation strategy. There are two CSIs, Bugs Bunny and softball,
however neither of them is familiar to Chinese viewers. The subtitle is not effective,
since Chinese viewers are likely to have no idea about the cartoon character. American
viewers will associate Bugs Bunny with someone who is active, dynamic and all-round,
but Chinese viewers do not have such an association. Neither will they understand
softball, including the distance between first base, second base and third base and
whether it is important or not for a person to be on different bases.
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