UnlistedSubtitling Translation Strategies in the Musical Film Les Misérables: London Met Research Conference

London Met Staff and Students Research Conference 2023, London, UK

Conference Theme: Small Steps Matter - Research Towards a Better World

Paper Presentation Title: Subtitling Translation Strategies from English to Traditional Chinese: A Case Study of the Musical Film Les Misérables (2012 and 2013)

Presenter: Gene Hsu

During the presentation, Gene Hsu shared her research in subtiting translation strategies used in the musical film "Les Misérables" and gave examples to showcase the influences that language and cultural differences have on subtitling from English into Traditional Chinese.

Besides, Gene quoted the Qing Dynasty Mr. KUNG Tzu-Chen's "古史鉤沉二" (Literal translation: Ancient History of the Sinking II), the original sentence is "滅人之國，必先去其史" (Literal translation: To destroy a country, one must first eradicate its history). Gene was inspired by this and said that "To destroy a culture and its history, one must first eradicate its words and characters". She firmly believes that language plays a pivotal role in moral integrity of humankind and the history of human civilization. Thus, Gene often emphasizes the significance of the Traditional Chinese characters in Chinese culture and history, and elaborates its fundamental difference from the Simplified Chinese.