纽约时报 | 2006-8-9
这一年半来，他一下班就把自己关在房间里，开始消灭那些大部头的美国连续剧，比如“Lost”、“C.S.I.”还有“律政俏主妇”。
一年半了，丁承泰的朋友们一直很奇怪，这个人刚毕业就好像失踪了一样。
23岁的丁先生是一家银行的网络技术专家。他听到这些时呵呵一笑。这一年半来，他一下班就把自己关在房间里，开始消灭那些大部头的美国连续剧，比如“Lost”、“C.S.I.”还有“律政俏主妇”。
不过，他可不是普通粉丝。这些电视剧都没有在中国电视台上映过。他连夜为这些连续剧编译字幕，发布到网上。通过BT这样的技术，越来越多的中国观众能够免费下载观看到这些节目。
全国有许多这样的字幕制作组。最令人称道的是，这些工作都是自愿并免费的。丁先生所在的小组叫“风软”，他们，和其它小组，为了同样的目标激烈地竞争着：让美国的流行文化尽可能同步在中国免费传播，同时还要避开中国的审查官和美国的版权律师。
“我们最终的计划是每周制作40集，这样就能覆盖Fox, ABC, CBS 和NBC出品的所有连续剧了。”丁先生充满希望地谈着这个幻想中的目标。
“这就是说，只要一有美剧播出，我们就立刻把它翻译出来。我们是中国最快的制作组，我们希望成为世界最好的美剧字幕组。”
从个人来说，这些人都是美国流行文化的爱好者，所以愿意花大把的时间做这件事。很多人，包括丁先生说，他们就是通过强迫自己看大量的美国电视和电影来学英语的。
还有些人说，他们从电视剧里学到了许多知识，从流行时尚到生化医学。
“从电视里你能看到日常生活的方方面面，从政治、历史到文化艺术。”丁先生说，“这就是美剧的独特之处。当我第一次看《老友记》时，我发现里面随处可见美国历史的相关知识，也显示了美国的高速发展。这比课本上的有趣多了。”
在一个电视剧下载论坛上，有个名叫“李子花丛”的网友这样说道：
“当我看了一段时间连续剧之后，我感到里面的有些角色开始影响到我。这种感觉很难形容，我觉得我从他们身上学到了一种生活方式。他们善于把复杂的问题简单化，我想这可能和美国文化有关系。
把美国民谚翻译成中文有其特别的难处。《性爱都市》有一集里面，“我想你们两个将会很适合”（I thought you two would hit it off）被翻成“想你们两个会来电”。《越狱》里面的名句“准备的作用是有限的”（Preparation can only take you so far）则被改成了“谋事在人，成事在天”。
尽管故事的背景完全在美国，经过了这样的翻译，或多或少会带上一点中国特色。
中国已经拥有一亿两千三百万网民，并且还在快速增加中。他们当中的大部分都安装了宽带。同时，中国的电视节目十分无趣。国有的中央电视台尽管有16个频道，却几乎全都播放着无止境的历史剧，无聊的肥皂剧和盲目抄袭的游戏节目。
通过电子邮件，我们采访了一位美剧粉丝，他不愿意透露姓名，只愿意让我们称他为 ”Happyidea”。他这样评价中国的电视节目：“我们的演员并不糟糕。问题出在导演、编剧、灯光舞美和化妆那些人身上。每个方面都差了那么一点点，加在一起就变成了垃圾。
长期以来中国的媒体都受到严格的审查——不仅在政治上，同时也包括性、暴力和其它在美国娱乐节目中常见的元素。这也使得观众想要换换口味，去下载美国电视剧看。每年能够在中国的电视台和电影院上映的美国电视剧和电影也都有严格的数量限制。
中国的作家在创作的时候，也被严格要求限制性描写，对暴力描写的限制则要相对宽松些。
网上下载的美剧暂时还没有受到限制，因为，至少目前为止，观看的还是很小一部分人，主要是在校或刚毕业的大学生，和城市白领。他们有能力用自己的电脑，通过稍稍复杂的办法下载到这些东西。
字幕制作组之间的竞争非常激烈，他们也都为自己的作品感到骄傲。原始的英语字母通常是在美国的合作伙伴们用电脑从节目中扒下来，再通过网络传到中国。
官方对媒体市场和内容的管制一直以来都促使了盗版的流传。近年来，大街小巷随处都能看到新出炉的盗版美剧DVD。不过，在美国的施压下，中国加大了对盗版碟片的打击力度，再加上网上下载的盛行，盗版DVD已经变成过时的东西。
字母制作组的成员们都意识到，他们的作品在其它国家可能被认为是侵权。不过根据中国法律，这些作品很可能被认为是学术研究。因为他们既不收费，也不以赢利为目的。
（Donews周详 编译）
Love of U.S. TV spurs Chinese thefts
By Howard W. French The New York Times
Published: August 8, 2006
SHANGHAI For the past year and a half, said Ding Chengtai, a recent university graduate, his friends have wondered why he seems to have disappeared.
Ding, a 23-year-old Internet technology expert for a large Chinese bank, chuckled at the thought. He keeps himself in virtual seclusion during his off hours, consumed with American television programs like “Lost,” “C.S.I.” and “Close to Home.”
He is no ordinary fan, though: none of the shows he watches can be seen on Chinese television. Instead, he spends night after night translating subtitles for current sitcoms and dramas for a mushrooming audience of Chinese viewers who download them from the Internet free through services like BitTorrent.
What is most remarkable about the effort, which involves dozens of translators working in teams all over China, is that it is entirely voluntary. Ding’s group, which goes by the name Fengruan, is locked in fierce competition with a handful of similar outfits that share the same ambition: making American popular culture available in near-real time free to Chinese audiences, dodging Chinese censors and American copyright lawyers.
“We’ve set a goal of producing 40 TV shows a week, which basically means all of the shows produced by Fox, ABC, CBS and NBC,” said Ding, fairly bubbling over the project. “What this means is that when the Americans broadcast shows, we will translate them. Our speed surpasses all the other groups in China, and our goal is to be the best American transcription service in the world.”
Locked as he is in a sometimes nasty competition with local rivals, Ding seemed blind to the fact that his group may have already attained its proclaimed goal. Although there are clubs in other countries that watch American television programs with translated subtitles online, the systematic effort of groups like Fengruan to reproduce American prime-time entertainment free of charge and in its entirety for a booming audience of Chinese fans is unique.
To a person, the translators say they are willing to devote long hours to this effort out of a love for American popular culture. Many, including Ding, say they learned English by obsessively watching American movies and television programs. And others say they pick up useful knowledge about everything from changing fashion and mores to medical science.
“It provides cultural background relating to every aspect of our lives: politics, history and human culture,” Ding said. “These are the things that make American TV special. When I first started watching ‘Friends,’ I found the show was full of information about American history, and showed how America had rapidly developed. It’s more interesting than textbooks or other ways of learning.”
On an Internet forum about the downloaded television shows, a poster who used the name Plum Blossom put it another way. “After watching these shows for some time, I felt the attitudes of some of the characters were beginning to influence me,” the poster wrote. “It’s hard to describe, but I think I learned a way of life from some of them. They are good at simplifying complex problems, which I think has something to do with American culture.”
Rendering the slang of American culture into Chinese is a special challenge. In an episode of “Sex and the City,” the line “I thought you two would hit it off” became “I thought you two would generate electricity together.” From “Prison Break,” the warning “Preparation can only take you so far” turned into: “People can only try to do things. It’s God’s will that ensures success.”
Whatever the programs say about American culture, translation efforts like these have received a boost from conditions particular to China. This country combines a fast-growing population of more than 123 million Internet users, most with access to broadband service, with a stultifying television culture. The state-owned national network, CCTV, has 16 broadcast channels, but they vary little in their mixture of endless historical dramas, tepid soap operas and copycat game shows.
In an e-mail interview, a fan of American television shows who goes by the name of Happyidea and who declined to give his real name, gave this assessment of the Chinese programming: “Our own actors are not bad. Those responsible for making Chinese TV shows pathetic are the directors, screenwriters, editors and the people doing the lighting, music, special effects and makeup. There are bits of poor quality in every aspect, and it adds up to total trash.”
A longstanding practice of strict censorship that affects all Chinese media, and covers not only politics, but sexuality, violence and other subjects that form the grist of American entertainment, also drives audiences toward alternatives like downloadable television shows. And there are sharp limits on the number of American programs and Hollywood movies that can be broadcast or screened in theaters here.
China imported only 16 American films last year, out of a total of 20 foreign movies. American programs are similarly scarce on Chinese television. “CCTV-8 aired ‘Desperate Housewives’ and we made a point of watching it,” said Jin Bo, 25, an English teacher and member of the YDY translation group, a leading rival to Fengruan. “I thought, Oh my God, the dubbing, the translation, why is it all so bad? It lost what made the original show wonderful, and the ratings were extremely low.”
As examples of what went wrong with the CCTV-8 broadcast, Jin said: “They would start the show at 10 p.m. and run three episodes back to back. Moreover, to adapt the program to fit the so-called situation of our country, words were eliminated or had their meanings altered. For example, the scene where Andrew reveals his homosexuality was cut.”
The rival TV translation groups, by contrast, take great pride in their work, basing their translations on closed-caption transcripts in English that, along with the programs themselves, are typically captured on computers by collaborators in the United States and sent to China via the Internet.
Strict hierarchies exist in each of the translation groups, with translators being promoted not simply for speed, which is vital, but judged on their faithfulness to the original material as well.
Official efforts to control both the market for and content of popular culture have long had the effect of encouraging piracy here. Cheap DVD copies of newly released American movies have been sold on street corners throughout China for years. Recent attempts to crack down on these sales, at the insistence of the United States, have coincided with the boom in television and movie downloading, which could eventually make DVD piracy obsolete.
Representatives of American television networks said they were counting on new Chinese legislation to stop the downloading and translation of their programming.
“We are aware that because of their popularity several Fox programs are particular targets of theft and unauthorized broadcast in territories around the world,” Teri Everett, a Fox spokeswoman, said by e-mail. “We work diligently, hand in hand with the Motion Picture Association of America to deal with these situations. It’s an ongoing effort, and one that will be greatly aided in China once the Chinese Internet regulations are finalized, which will clarify a number of issues relating to the enforcement of content providers’ right on the Internet.”
Duan Yuping, an official with the National Copyright Administration, said China was following “international efforts” in regard to BitTorrent and other downloading services.
They are not “yet included in the regulations,” he said, “because this is an area where technologies change very fast. So far we don’t have a related law, and we haven’t received any complaints by American companies.”
Members of the translation groups are aware that their efforts might violate copyright laws in other countries, but most view it as a mere technicality because they charge nothing for their efforts and make no profits, adhering to Chinese law.
“Essentially what we are doing is a violation, but since China hasn’t proposed a law to regulate this yet, we’re still doing it,” Ding said. “Maybe in the future, the state will make such a law. If they do, our forum won’t be able to survive.”
SHANGHAI For the past year and a half, said Ding Chengtai, a recent university graduate, his friends have wondered why he seems to have disappeared.
Ding, a 23-year-old Internet technology expert for a large Chinese bank, chuckled at the thought. He keeps himself in virtual seclusion during his off hours, consumed with American television programs like “Lost,” “C.S.I.” and “Close to Home.”
He is no ordinary fan, though: none of the shows he watches can be seen on Chinese television. Instead, he spends night after night translating subtitles for current sitcoms and dramas for a mushrooming audience of Chinese viewers who download them from the Internet free through services like BitTorrent.
What is most remarkable about the effort, which involves dozens of translators working in teams all over China, is that it is entirely voluntary. Ding’s group, which goes by the name Fengruan, is locked in fierce competition with a handful of similar outfits that share the same ambition: making American popular culture available in near-real time free to Chinese audiences, dodging Chinese censors and American copyright lawyers.
“We’ve set a goal of producing 40 TV shows a week, which basically means all of the shows produced by Fox, ABC, CBS and NBC,” said Ding, fairly bubbling over the project. “What this means is that when the Americans broadcast shows, we will translate them. Our speed surpasses all the other groups in China, and our goal is to be the best American transcription service in the world.”
Locked as he is in a sometimes nasty competition with local rivals, Ding seemed blind to the fact that his group may have already attained its proclaimed goal. Although there are clubs in other countries that watch American television programs with translated subtitles online, the systematic effort of groups like Fengruan to reproduce American prime-time entertainment free of charge and in its entirety for a booming audience of Chinese fans is unique.
To a person, the translators say they are willing to devote long hours to this effort out of a love for American popular culture. Many, including Ding, say they learned English by obsessively watching American movies and television programs. And others say they pick up useful knowledge about everything from changing fashion and mores to medical science.
“It provides cultural background relating to every aspect of our lives: politics, history and human culture,” Ding said. “These are the things that make American TV special. When I first started watching ‘Friends,’ I found the show was full of information about American history, and showed how America had rapidly developed. It’s more interesting than textbooks or other ways of learning.”
On an Internet forum about the downloaded television shows, a poster who used the name Plum Blossom put it another way. “After watching these shows for some time, I felt the attitudes of some of the characters were beginning to influence me,” the poster wrote. “It’s hard to describe, but I think I learned a way of life from some of them. They are good at simplifying complex problems, which I think has something to do with American culture.”
Rendering the slang of American culture into Chinese is a special challenge. In an episode of “Sex and the City,” the line “I thought you two would hit it off” became “I thought you two would generate electricity together.” From “Prison Break,” the warning “Preparation can only take you so far” turned into: “People can only try to do things. It’s God’s will that ensures success.”
Whatever the programs say about American culture, translation efforts like these have received a boost from conditions particular to China. This country combines a fast-growing population of more than 123 million Internet users, most with access to broadband service, with a stultifying television culture. The state-owned national network, CCTV, has 16 broadcast channels, but they vary little in their mixture of endless historical dramas, tepid soap operas and copycat game shows.
In an e-mail interview, a fan of American television shows who goes by the name of Happyidea and who declined to give his real name, gave this assessment of the Chinese programming: “Our own actors are not bad. Those responsible for making Chinese TV shows pathetic are the directors, screenwriters, editors and the people doing the lighting, music, special effects and makeup. There are bits of poor quality in every aspect, and it adds up to total trash.”
A longstanding practice of strict censorship that affects all Chinese media, and covers not only politics, but sexuality, violence and other subjects that form the grist of American entertainment, also drives audiences toward alternatives like downloadable television shows. And there are sharp limits on the number of American programs and Hollywood movies that can be broadcast or screened in theaters here.
China imported only 16 American films last year, out of a total of 20 foreign movies. American programs are similarly scarce on Chinese television. “CCTV-8 aired ‘Desperate Housewives’ and we made a point of watching it,” said Jin Bo, 25, an English teacher and member of the YDY translation group, a leading rival to Fengruan. “I thought, Oh my God, the dubbing, the translation, why is it all so bad? It lost what made the original show wonderful, and the ratings were extremely low.”
As examples of what went wrong with the CCTV-8 broadcast, Jin said: “They would start the show at 10 p.m. and run three episodes back to back. Moreover, to adapt the program to fit the so-called situation of our country, words were eliminated or had their meanings altered. For example, the scene where Andrew reveals his homosexuality was cut.”
The rival TV translation groups, by contrast, take great pride in their work, basing their translations on closed-caption transcripts in English that, along with the programs themselves, are typically captured on computers by collaborators in the United States and sent to China via the Internet.
Strict hierarchies exist in each of the translation groups, with translators being promoted not simply for speed, which is vital, but judged on their faithfulness to the original material as well.
Official efforts to control both the market for and content of popular culture have long had the effect of encouraging piracy here. Cheap DVD copies of newly released American movies have been sold on street corners throughout China for years. Recent attempts to crack down on these sales, at the insistence of the United States, have coincided with the boom in television and movie downloading, which could eventually make DVD piracy obsolete.
Representatives of American television networks said they were counting on new Chinese legislation to stop the downloading and translation of their programming.
“We are aware that because of their popularity several Fox programs are particular targets of theft and unauthorized broadcast in territories around the world,” Teri Everett, a Fox spokeswoman, said by e-mail. “We work diligently, hand in hand with the Motion Picture Association of America to deal with these situations. It’s an ongoing effort, and one that will be greatly aided in China once the Chinese Internet regulations are finalized, which will clarify a number of issues relating to the enforcement of content providers’ right on the Internet.”
Duan Yuping, an official with the National Copyright Administration, said China was following “international efforts” in regard to BitTorrent and other downloading services.
They are not “yet included in the regulations,” he said, “because this is an area where technologies change very fast. So far we don’t have a related law, and we haven’t received any complaints by American companies.”
Members of the translation groups are aware that their efforts might violate copyright laws in other countries, but most view it as a mere technicality because they charge nothing for their efforts and make no profits, adhering to Chinese law.
“Essentially what we are doing is a violation, but since China hasn’t proposed a law to regulate this yet, we’re still doing it,” Ding said. “Maybe in the future, the state will make such a law. If they do, our forum won’t be able to survive.”
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/08/08/news/china.php
《纽约时报》：网络缓解中国人的美剧渴望（8月9日）
译者：Campus
首发：美剧迷：http://www.meijumi.com
译者按：英文原文发表于今天（2006年8月9日）的《纽约时报》，转载请加注作者译者和出处连接，请勿修改标题或原文。
文章谈到了网络使中国人更快捷方便地观看美剧，有助于语言文化交流，但这种网络制作和传播也对中国的审查制度和美国的版权保护提出双重拷问。
PS：估计是上次《新民晚报》和《星期日新闻晨报》报道了美剧字幕组后（两篇报道见本文后的相关文章），纽约时报驻上海记者采写了这篇。
－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－
上图是周六上海的一帮朋友一起看字幕版的《Friends》。Qilai Shen 为 纽约时报 摄。
Chinese Tech Buffs Slake Thirst for U.S. TV Shows
作者：HOWARD W. FRENCH 翻译：Campus 时间： August 9, 2006
上海－8月8日，过去1年半，大学毕业不久的丁承泰常被朋友们觉得好像失踪了一样。
小丁23岁，一家国有银行的网管，谈笑风生。他下班后就会脱离现实，沉浸在类似《Lost》、《C.S.I》和《Close to Home》这样的美剧中。
尽管他不是一个普通的美剧迷，这些美剧却都是中国电视上看不到的。而且，他每晚都翻译美剧字幕，而越来越多的观众也都是通过类似BT的软件免费下载这些美剧。
中国有很多人制作翻译美剧，这过程有什么值得关注的，这些人都是完全志愿的吗？小丁所在的制作组叫风软，目前也在和其他几家美剧制作组激烈竞争中，不过他们目标是一致的：让美国流行文化产品对中国观众免费发放，规避中国的审查制度和美国的版权保护。
“我们目标是一周出40集，基本上包括了FOX、ABC、CBS和NBC的热门剧集”，小丁有点自豪地说。
“意味着美国刚播完，我们就翻译。我们的速度是国内最快的，我们的目标是成为最好的美剧翻译组。”
翻译者都是凭着对美剧的热情投入到翻译工作中的。很多人，包括小丁，通过观看美国影视节目也学习了英语。
也有一些人说他们学到了更多，从流行趋势到医学知识。
“美剧提供的文化背景包含了生活的每个方面：政治、历史和人们的生活，”小丁说，“这些让美剧很独特。当我第一次看《Friends》，我发现其中有很多美国历史知识，而且显示了美国的快速发展。这比课本或其他方式有趣多了。”
在一个美剧论坛，一名叫Plum Blossom的网友谈到：“看了一段时间美剧，我发现角色的性格也开始影响我了。很难描述，不过我觉得从他们身上发现另一种生活方式。他们擅长使生活简单化，我觉得这是我需要从美国文化中学习的。”
美国俚语的翻译挺有挑战性，在《欲望都市》的某集中，台词“I thought you two would hit it off”被翻译成了“I thought you two would generate electricity together” 。（译者按：中文翻译为“我觉得你俩能来电”，其实翻译挺地道，看来老外也不了解中国俚语，:)）
《越狱》中，警告的话 “Preparation can only take you so far”，被翻译为“People can only try to do things. It’s God’s will that ensures success.”（译者按：中文翻译为“谋事在人，成事在天。”，英文原意是“准备工作只能到此了”）
节目中的美国文化，类似的翻译工作都在特殊的中国有很大的欢迎度。
中国有1.23亿网民，大部分是宽带用户，而国内电视文化还比较温吞水。国家电视台CCTV有16个电视台，但都是类似的历史剧、温和的肥皂剧和同样的游戏秀。
一个名叫Happyidea的美剧迷在email采访中这样评价中国节目：“我们的演员还凑合，但电视剧的导演、编剧、剪辑以及灯光、音乐、特效和化妆，他们每个方面都很差，加在一起就是垃圾了。”
长期严格的审查制影响所有的中国媒体，不仅是政治因素，还有性、暴力和以及一些宣扬美国式娱乐的萌芽。这都让观众更倾向去网上任意选择下载电视节目。中国媒体很少有美国节目，而好莱坞电影则能播放和在影院上映。
中国有关部门对电视的审查一向严格，主要是在性和暴力方面。
下载美剧的确没有了这些限制，至少影响了少部分人。这些人主要是在校大学生、毕业不久的大学生和城市白领，他们一般都在自己电脑上观看片子。
允许下载可能也是对那些习惯国外文化和对审查制不满的观众的一点安慰。
中国去年引进20部外国电影，16部是美国的。而美国电视节目在中国电视中几乎可以忽略不计。
“CCTV8播放《绝望的主妇》（Desperate Housewives）时我们有这种感觉“，金波（译者按：他就是“少数派”，《24小时》第1、2季听译），25岁，英语老师，也是伊甸园论坛（风软的竞争对手）的会员。“我想，天哪，这对白，这翻译，怎么能这么糟呢？丧失了原剧的精华，收视率也很低。”
金波说：“他们晚上10点播，而且连播3集。而且因为所谓国情，删改对白或词意。比如，Andrew的同性恋的戏就被删了。”
与此对比的是，字幕翻译组忠实于原汁原味的翻译，他们的字幕尽可能贴近原意，而片源是由美国的合作者从电脑下载通过网络传到中国。
每个翻译组都等级严密，翻译者被提升不仅仅是因为速度，虽然这很重要，但忠于原文更重要。
官方想控制流行文化产品，但其内容又刺激了盗版。几年来中国的大街小巷都可以看到美国新上映电影的便宜DVD。最近因为美国的压力而打击盗版，以及网络影视下载的繁荣，都让DVD盗版在慢慢萎缩。
美国电视协会的代表们说，他们指望新的中国法规能叫停翻译和下载他们的节目。
“我们意识到是因为它们受欢迎，有几个FOX的节目都是盗版和网络非法传播的目标”，Teri Everett，Fox发言人通过email说。
“目前还在努力中，只要中国互联网的法规一出台，很多内容提供商权利的相关实施事宜就自然明了。”
翻译组的成员也意识到它们的努力可能触犯了版权保护，但是大部分人还是根据中国法规，纯技术性地看待这个问题，因为他们没有靠这个赚钱和盈利。
原文地址：http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/09/world/asia/09china.html
注：8月8日的《国际先驱论坛报》（《International Herald Tribune》）上“Love of U.S. TV spurs Chinese thefts”《美剧热刺激中国盗版》的文章，同一作者，与本文略有不同。网址：http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/08/08/news/china.php
主要增加的几段内容（分别文中不同处）：
看起来他们和本地对手间的竞争有时会很激烈，但是小丁可能忽视了他们其实已经达到了他们的目标。虽然有不少国家也有翻译字幕的美剧在网上，不过像风软这么有组织的免费翻译美剧的制作组，以及随之而来急速发展的美剧迷，是独一无二的。
“我们一直努力工作，和MPAA（美国电影协会）携手处理这些事宜。”FOX发言人说。
段玉平，一位中国版权管理局官员，说中国会跟随“国际上的努力”来处理BT和其他下载服务。
他们目前“还没有包含到法规中”，她说，“因为这个领域技术变化太快，目前我们还没有相关法律，我们也没有收到任何美国公司的投诉。”
字幕翻译者小丁说，“本质上我们做的的确违法，但是既然中国还没有法规规范它，我们就继续做。可能未来某一天，国家会制定这样一部法律，如果他们制定了，那我们的论坛就不能再服务了。”
